When you have to make trades with one hand tied behind your back it's going to be tough to come out on top.
Different owners might have different demands for when trades are happening. How many times have we heard the Flames owners refusal to allow Iginla to be traded earlier hurt the return we got? An owner saying they can't take back any salary will affect how deals happen in a cap world, or the desire to stay competitive now, or whatever else. Obviously no owner will tell a GM to make a bad deal, but that doesn't mean they can't create an environment where they are prevented from being able to make a good one.
But whether or not he did create that environment is pure speculation on my part (albeit I think it's fair speculation. But what isn't refutable is that Melnyk was responsible for this:
He could have just hired somebody to come up with pre-game entertainment and let them do their job. But he just had to meddle, and did something worse for the psyche of the organization and their fans than any poor trading of a superstar could possibly do.
The horror.
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