"Do you think the Nazem Kadri story would leave scar tissue to the point where Dubas and company would be afraid to make a move?" asked Hayes.
Possibly, that's probably the move that we can point to that, at least in my view, was the biggest misstep they made," Johnston said. "I understand how they got to that conclusion in the sense that they felt that they couldn't trust him in those big games after what happened in those two series vs. Boston, but at the end of the day, he was a cost-control player. He was already delivering better value on his deal in real time, but was also a good bet to keep doing that for the next future seasons from when they traded him."
"I think there is a cautionary element there," he continued. "They identified (Kadri) as someone that they had to move, and they wanted to get a defenseman to fill a hole at the time in return. It didn't work well, and I believe the rumored trade with Calgary that Kadri turned down before he went to Colorado wouldn't have served them any better, either. It's a lesson in what not to do with maybe the approach of how that trade went down."
