1. And some fans on here wanted to re-sign Drouin, too. What "some fans" want is irrelevant. Barron's a young D that needs time to develop. I wouldn't give up on him yet. I've seen this franchise ship out too many young defensemen that they should have hung on to.
2. Yes, Bergevin screwed up the entire Drouin situation, right from the initial trade (paying too much for a player that Tampa was pretty desperate to get ride of). Bergevin's gone, now, though. Don't project the mistakes from the past regime on the current one. By the time Hughes got here, Drouin had no trade value.
3. Newhook is a similar situation to what happened with Dach last year. The Habs identified a young player that they thought was under valued due to how he was being used in his current situation and used young/future assets to acquire that player. The Dach trade is looking positive after one season. Only time will tell if Newhook works out, but it was a legitimate use of draft picks that historically have a less than 50% chance of turning into an NHL player.