I hit the quote button on GL's post, but it didn't take... tried a couple times. Anyway, he said:
Which they knew going in.
They should’ve tried to trade Gio for something. Like two 2nds, the way Seattle did at the following deadline.
But they didn’t make the smart play for organization.
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Like you could magically not make the expansion draft an issue for any other team involved. The Flames didn't want to lose Gio, but they had to make the decision to make him available over other players, because the choice was to give him away or to give someone else away. Trading him doesn't magically make that choice not happen for another team, so why would someone trade for him and expose him in the draft, and if not him, someone else they valued? Everyone had those constraints, and so someone who you could trade for a first+ at a trade deadline for a cup run had virtually no value, because you would have to give someone away to add him.
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