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It doesn't really matter what Fox or his agent said. Until he is signed, there is uncertainty and the value is diminished.

it also doesn't matter if Fox eventually does sign with Carolina, because the fact is at the time of the trade, he was NOT signed.

If you want to quantify the asset, you could argue that if Fox was signed, he might be a mid to late 1st rounder.

Unsigned and with uncertainty, maybe he's a 2nd rounder.

So you look at the trade as:

3 years of Hamilton
1 year of Ferland (or, at the trade deadline, a 2nd round pick?)
2nd round pick

for

multi years of Hanifin
multi years of Lindholm

So it's Hamilton and two seconds

for Hanifin and Lindholm.

Value wise, that seems pretty fair to me.