One of, if not the, best Burke trade in all likelihood, but a lot of that comes down to swapping out Beauchemin for Gardiner alone.
Still, Lupul was a fantastic player when healthy, among our best, most well rounded forwards from 2011-2014, but then he started to decline, the injuries taking their toll, and 2014-2016 Lupul was a shell of his former self.
I specifically enjoyed his 2011-12 season, when he started alongside Kessel, and they were tearing up the league early in the season. Then he came back from injury in 2012-13 when Kadri was just on an absolute heater, playing the best hockey of his young career, and they partnered up heading into the playoffs and were fantastic together.
It is a shame he wasn't healthier and more dependable. Although in the long-run, maybe it was for the best that he wasn't lifting the team out of the basement and into mediocrity in the 2014-15 & 2015-16 seasons, otherwise we may never have got Marner & Matthews.