To me it's choice between chasing perpetual 'very goodness' or shorter term 'greatness'.
The Wings and Penguins maintained a decade+ of very goodness and mange to break through for another ring or two.
Was tihs the best use of those assets? Maybe not, but when you have no cap room and trade protection on all your big tickets I'm not sure what the alternatives are.
Best* Goalie in the world - age 27
Top 5* D-man in the world - age 31
Top 5* Winger in the world - age 28 (allegedly...)
Top 10 Centre - Age 26
*ish
Other than Point, none of these guys are getting any better. More importantly, their bridge deals for Cirelli/Sergachev/Cernak expire next year. Stamkos 8.5 AAV is 2 more years full NMC. McDonagh 6.75M 4 more years full NTC until final year. Both of the latter are still worth every penny, but may not be forever, and their deals may preclude re-signing all of the bridges.
They likely have to trade one of those bridge guys (probably Sergachev?) to recover a lot of these assets. They'll still have Hagel and he'll be RFA at the end of this deal.
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