I have always maintained that the ability to play well with skilled guys is itself a valuable skill, albeit one that is easily overlooked and tremendously underappreciated. "He's just a product of <other guy>" is a common dismissal levelled at folks who have that skill, because some folks can't tell the difference between an AHLer looking slightly better next to a star versus someone who manages to elevate both their own and the star's play when working alongside them.
An excellent example of this would be Fabbro, who epitomizes this on the blueline - he can't carry a pairing and so it's easy to write him off as valueless, but put him with a quality defenseman and both he and his partner will thrive above and beyond what any other Joe Schmoe would do in that circumstance. It's something a team builder needs to recognize and take advantage of where possible.
And, well, given how Fabbro was treated here, I'm not entirely shocked that this front office didn't realize that Stamkos in his old age has declined from "carries the play himself" to "skill enhancer". Obviously now they've adjusted and things are looking much better. If they continue to deploy Stamkos accordingly, then that would give me hope that maybe, just maybe, they've learned something from the Fabbro debacle.
