Sure displace your Selke winning center to make room for a whiney prospect. Makes complete sense. How would the Selke winner feel about that? Maybe the veteran feels "he worth more than that".
Unlike most here, I fully expected Hodgson to get moved. He wasn't going to sit on the third line until Henrik or Kes retired. Nor would he displace either any time soon. He was a moveable asset.
Ballard didn't get the ice time because he wasn't playing well. Didn't I already say that? Edler is better offensively and Hamhuis is better defensively. Where does that put Ballard? Third pair with third pair ice time. He resorted to Rome because at least he played a safe simple game and was effective. When Ballard played well his ice time went up. When he played poorly his ice time went down. Doesn't that seem the least bit sensible?
It doesn't matter what Grabner does after the fact. It matters what the situation was at the time he was moved. Our ENTIRE top six coming off a career year. Grabner never showing up to camp in game shape. Grabner being waiver eligible. Those are the FACTS of the situation. Add it up and Grabner had little chance of making the team but had enough potential he wouldn't clear waivers. Something is better than nothing. Which is what we would have had if we hadn't traded him. What does Florida have out of the deal? A draft pick with one whole NHL game under his belt. We have a d-man that's currently playing well. So who won the trade at this point? I could give a rats tush if Grabner ever scores 50 goals. It wasn;t going to happen here because he wouldn't have made the team and wouldn't have cleared waivers. Again, something is better than what Florida currently has out of the deal. How did Grabner work out for Florida? He showed up in poor shape (yet again), didn't impress (yet again), didn't clear waivers (as expected), and was claimed by a team even more desperate for forwards. Like that wouldn't have happened here on a contender whose top six veterans were coming off a career year. That was the situation. That's why he was moved.
What people? Your school chums? Linden has his property development business, his fitness center business, still does public speaking, his charity involvement, and is quite happy not having the team travel schedule. Yet, he still makes appearances at games. What on earth makes you think he's unhappy? It seems to me you're simply unhappy with his choices and would prefer to make crap up that face reality.
Sure , falling to one of the best goalies in the league while our top two goal scorers were injured is just rediculous. Even the mighty free spending pre-cap Red Wings had first round exits. Keep hitting that panic button kid, this season is still young and we're still missing two of our second line players. Yet we're still leading our division. That just sucks.