To be clear, I don't really have a negative opinion of Despres. 23 year old D, 70 games in or whatever, picked at 30, he's at a perfectly reasonable place. Some things to like, some things to not like. Not everybody's Larry Robinson in year 3. In fact, nobody is.
He's not our second best defenseman, or whatever, but he's fine, in my opinion, for his experience and what he's being asked to do.
Trading him seems like an overreaction to flaws that are somewhat common in players his age, to me. And it's placing an awful lot of faith in Brian Dumoulin. I like Dumoulin, but maybe it would be smarter to get to know the new boyfriend a bit better before you file the divorce papers, so to speak.
It'll be interesting to see if we're right about this. I strongly believe SD just went from an ok situation for him personally to a very bad one.