Most of my enthusiasm about the future was centered around having a D with BOTH Larsson and Severson.
There are legitimate questions about both players' potential and now you see the flaws of one being trotted out and the flaws of the other smoothed over. People (sports fans) are so predictable at times.
You are 100% correct. And I have been somewhat hypocritical. I never wanted ANY of our defensemen traded. I always believed that the strength of the defense was the sum of its parts.
But in my defense a lot of things have changed.
Getting Hall is an obvious one.
The other was how we needed to use Larsson last season was very disappointing to me. Whether it was simply management decisions or the reality of the situation based on ability, inseparably tying Larsson to Greene made the overall defense worse and our offense worse.
We are 5 season removed from Larsson being drafted #4 overall and while there is no doubt Larsson is a solid defenseman, he simply hasn't lived up to expectations.
So really the question has changed. It used to be how good can a Larsson, Severson, Santini and Merrill unit be. Now it is where are we? Are we worse off or better off all things considered.
It's never a happy situation to lose a home grown player but are we better because of it? I think so.