Ok -
You trade your captain Parise mid-season and we don't get within a couple of games of winning the cup. Explain why to your fanbase, who believes he is coming back.
Ok-
You trade Kovy to ?? and the newly signed Devil-for-life contract because you think he's going to retire, and after all, we probably don't need his scoring. He then retires. What does the NHL do other than launch a probe to see if you had a priori knowledge of his planned retirement which would probably result in us losing more draft picks.
Ok-
You trade Clarkson because...aw heck...
What would you have done differently? The answer is- nothing.
1st point:
Trading away Parise for picks and prospects would've been a stupid move, there's no denying that but since you think Lou is the second coming of Jesus Christ, one would think that he could've at least gotten something similar to what Buffalo got for Vanek, or is Buffalo's Gm "smarter" then Lou?
The Sabres landed a player that racked up similar stats to what Vanek had over the past 3 years
PLUS multiple draft picks. A team like the Kings, would've paid a huge ransom in order to get their "stud winger" they wanted when they missed out on the Kovy saga.
The argument of not landing a solid return is flaud since we gave the same player who missed a entire season with a knee injury, the captaincy and we wanted to ink his ass on a LTC. So again, if Lou is smarter then most and wasn't certain about the health of ZP, one would think he would've offered him a one year deal as of day #1 and moved on... but the opposite is actually what happend.
Point #2:
You don't trade Kovalchuk cause basically, he's unmovable, so let's forget about that option.
Point #3:
You move Clarkson since the entire world and the other living creatures around the universe knew that David was going to get the keys to the bank of the TMLSE safe. We weren't making the postseason anyways, so we should've maximised a asset just like Doug Wilson did with Clowe and Murray.