To be fair, this was the worst team in the league trading a guy who was about to leave as a UFA, an asset that was worth nothing to them other than whatever they could get back in a trade. Judging Ottawa by comparing the return with Stone doesn't make sense, because keeping Stone was not a reasonable option for them. The only way to judge it is whether they should have been able to get a better return.

We'll probably never know what offers they got from other teams, but I think we can assume that when negotiating with Vegas, they specifically targeted Brannstrom. I remember he was a pretty highly rated prospect at the time. He was drafted 15th overall in 2017, and by February 2019 his stock had not fallen. If anything it may have risen. They probably could have convinced Vegas to give them their 2019 1st-round pick instead, which was 17th overall, so you can certainly argue that they should have done that (Vegas took Peyton Krebs -- we don't know who Ottawa would have taken), but I can see the logic in wanting a guy who was rated just as highly but two years farther along in his development.

Ottawa got a little unlucky on the 2nd-round pick too. Dallas went to the finals in 2020, so they had the 2nd-last pick of each round. They probably didn't expect that at the time of the trade. Even asking for the better of the two 2020 2nd-round picks Vegas owned would have moved them up only one place.

Understandable... But even at the time (can't really take credit for it), I was shocked they didn't get a 1st

Me too, until I found out that Brannstrom was considered equal to or better than a mid-1st.