Lol Karlsson played 30 minutes a night and played with broken bones.
While Anderson gave up on a team halfway through a season.
People calling in question Karlssons commitment to the club are buying into the spin job of Melnyk and Dorion. Weak.
I can understand that you don't want anyone to diminish EK, but is this really your characterization of Andy?
Is he not the goaltender that had an excellent season, and came back to help save our playoff run all while his wife was battling for her life against cancer? That shutout return game was one of the finest games with outside meaning that this team has ever had.
EK playing with broken bones just doesn't compare (still a solid feat of dedication).
This might be a perfect example of cognitive dissonance that Mick was explaining earlier. You're just not able to come to grips with two conflicting pieces of information, so you're choosing to ignore the possibility of one. The easy solution is to consider that if you have a year where you lose control of the room and become part of the problem doesn't make you a bad person, nor does it diminish how great a player you can be on the ice. EK can be all of these things, since he is a human being after all, and you can still love the guy as you do.
Ignoring that there were issues, or ridiculously trying to make this an EM thing is definitely grasping. He was offered a reasonable contract as a starting point, but neither the team, nor EK tried hard to negotiate a deal out of that. It appears as though neither wanted to work to get a deal done. I doubt PD traded him because he was a 'bad' player in the room, but he certainly didn't break the bank. EK sure didn't seem like he wanted to stay with the team, as much as he continues to profess his love for the city. It would appear that he also wanted a change of scenery, and there are so many reasons for this to be a reasonable consideration (personal beef with EM, family issues, etc...).
I don't think anyone is trying to diminish the EK we know, it seems more like given the epic collapse last year, and much confirmed and unconfirmed information about issues in the room, it stands to reason that EK was a part of the problem, which gets magnified in importance a bit because he's the captain. These things happen, it doesn't make him a bad guy, and it's ok to talk about it. We all want the team to get better, and if the underwhelming trade of EK returns a surprise element of locker room unity, well thats a huge bonus for the team and the fans.