He was horrible for them in 9 games, after being quite the solid bottom-6er for 7 years, on one of the best teams in the NHL, prior to those small number of games.
I said he was terrible for them (as in Ottawa) and he was. He was scratched for a number (4) of games on arguably the worst team in the NHL. He had no little-no value to Ottawa, similar to how Dzingel had little to no value to the Canes.
You would sort of understand why I would say that certain contenders, including Carolina, were still interested in him as a 4C even if they were low-balling Ottawa due to those stretch of games.
Logic would dictate that given where Ottawa is right now, if there were other suitors that would have offered a better deal (picks/prospects or even late picks / so-so prospects) vs. a guy that is a UFA at season's end, Ottawa would have gladly taken it. Instead, they took on more salary in the deal for a guy that is a UFA at season's end.
It seems pretty straightforward to me. Ottawa wanted to move away from Paquette, Canes wanted to move away from Dzingel, and they didn't have any better offers so they took it.
I had also heard rumors about New Jersey and San Jose calling about Dzingel before the trade, but both deals on the table either had Carolina retaining salary or getting completely useless dreck in return in positions that weren't close to a need, and certainly not centers. Ottawa's deal was the best one by far, especially because Paquette was a guy that Carolina actually was interested in, for the reasons that I mentioned above.
Right, like I said, it was pretty much the Canes only deal so they took it. Bad deals/retaining salary aren't really viable deals in this environment for where the Canes are.
Don't get me wrong, I like the deal and think it makes sense because Dzingel wasn't going to be used and Paquette will be.