I think it was more because they had no room for him. Even today, Kulak would have but a faint hope of cracking the lineup. Had Valimaki not been injured again, Kulak would still be the #7 and perhaps even the #8.
He's not a great defenseman by any stretch and was only given so much responsibility in Montreal due to a lack of any better options. Sure, maybe the Flames could've gotten more for him, but they had little leverage at the time, and Kulak had never been very impressive in Calgary to merit any decent return. He was a slightly-above-replacement-level player.
This isn't a great article, and I'm not a huge fan of how Wilson has given a complete handwave to the return, without so much as even researching it -- he says Valiev is unlikely to ever play an NHL game when, in fact, he's already played 12.
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