I remember Beech very well. In 1999 THN did a draft preview and we all know how that draft turned out, not very well. But the idea was that there could be some top end talent if it all worked out but there weren't a lot of safe picks. No one knew how the Sedins would react once they were (assumed) split. Patrick Stefan had concussion problems and was a risk and Pavel Brendl was completely one-dimensional. Tim Connolly if I remember had concussion issues in his draft year. So this left Beech as a sure-fire "safe" pick. In other words, you probably thought you were going to draft a guy who would play 1000 NHL games. There was an article entitled: "Beech, the safe pick."
Even before he started his NHL career he was cut in 2001 from the WJC team. It was a surprise and Canada was idiotic then too in cutting players. They interviewed Beech asking if he was bitter about it and he seemed to be. But that was the thing, Beech was not expected to be cut. So the truth was yes there was this idea that he would be a pretty good NHLer.
Now, should he be the key player in a trade for a 5-time Art Ross winner? Heck no. But even in trying to make sense of that everyone knew Jagr wanted out so the advantage in bargaining was on the other team's side. Secondly, Beech was considered a good prospect and even Lupaschuk was thought to be a good defense prospect. Still a bad trade, but it also helps that we know what we know now.
Lastly, that 2004 Pens team was horrible and somehow Beech couldn't crack it. That team allowed 303 goals, the worst in the NHL and their top scorer was Dick Tarnstrom, a power play specialist of a defenseman who had 52 points but was -37. That team was littered with guys who were thought to be sure fire good NHL players especially from where they were drafted. Milan Kraft, Ramzi Abid and then lightning fast players who literally brought nothing else to the table other than the fact they could skate, such as Rico Fata and Konstantin Koltsov. Ric Jackman was one of their defensemen, 5th overall in the woeful 1996 draft. How Beech couldn't crack that roster says a lot about how far he had fallen by then.