Quoting: Boomer125
It is correct that Anaheim is quickly building up a very nice prospect pool - my point is this - in this particular trade Anaheim is aquiring 4 mid twenties NHL players all entering their prime either signed with term or controlled RFAs for the price of 2 twilight players with no term and on the back end of thier careers - now if Anaheim was serious about a rebuild their stock pile of prospects is still 2 maybe even 3 seasons out - the 4 players acquired fall right in line, age and term wise, for a rebuilding team. In all honesty this is a very smart trade for Anaheim and very poor asset management from TO
Let's set aside the issue of whether Getzlaf would waive or we would ask him to.
The problem is that you're ignoring who the 4 players are.
Where do you propose we play Johnsson among Rakell, Heinen, Milano, Jones and Comtois?
Where do you propose we play Dermott among Fowler, Lindholm, Djoos, Larsson, Mahura and Guhle?
Where do you propose we play Kerfoot among Henrique, Zegras, Steel, Lundestrom and Groulx?
Kapanen is admittedly an excellent addition and would play in our top 6, but only assuming that we didn't have to shift Rakell over to make room for Johnsson or Kerfoot on the left.
In short, in isolation, this is a good-value trade for Anaheim, but we have to play the team we have. We need help at RD and secondarily at RW, so effectively, we are taking one (Kapanen) and a half (Dermott on his off side) steps out of 4 forward. That's not enough.
And I agree with the OP's refutation of your claim that this is poor management on Toronto's part -- due, again, to the reality of the current structure of this team, some or all of these players are going to have to be moved this off-season or next.