The die was cast ~15 months ago, when Armstrong pushed Pietrangelo off on an extension citing uncertainty and then did the trade-and-sign for Faulk, sight unseen, extended Schenn shortly after, then extended Scandella in the middle of the halt in play when there was gobs of uncertainty. Everything else has been window dressing to try and pretty up that choice.
We're hoping Parayko is going to fully step into Pietrangelo's spot. I don't think that's a given.
We've got no clue who's going to step into Parayko's spot. It won't be Mikkola. It sure as hell won't be Krug.
Parayko is not going to fill both his spot and Pietrangelo's spot. Parayko + Krug aren't filling that either.
We have nothing in the system that remotely replaces Pietrangelo, short-term or long-term. We've seen how this worked in the past.
You can think back to times in the past where we've had an upper-tier defenseman and we've lost them and tried to replace with someone who was merely "supposed to be fairly good." It didn't work then, I don't know why people think it's going to work now.
But this also sends a clear, unambiguous message from Armstrong to every other player on this team and every player around the league thinking of coming to this team: every one of you are expendable, no matter what you've done here or what you've done elsewhere. You will be here on the terms I and only I choose or you can leave like Pietrangelo did. There will be no special favors, there will be no special considerations, because none of you are special and I'll replace any one of you when I decide, how I decide.
I don't see how we're better now. I don't see how we're better going forward. I can see a flurry of moves that ships out yet more future pieces from an already-depleted prospect system to try and salvage something in the present, and I can see at least two someones hit the end of their contract and say you know what, I saw what you did with Pietrangelo - I'm not playing that game and they walk for elsewhere and leave us holding the bag.
This should have been done around July 1 and Pietrangelo should be finishing out the rest of his career here. He's not. I don't think he's going to be the one that pays the price for that.