It wasn't shocking that he had a career ending injury here? How was Erik Cole injury prone? He was fairy healthy. 10/11 season on, he was fine.
10/11 - 82 games
11/12 - 82 games
12/13 - 37 games (lockout year, 48 game schedule)
13/14 - 75 games
14/15 - Played 57 games prior to the trade.
He was a speedy powerforward that had 18 goals in 57 games. I was surprised what happened, apparently you predicted something like this would happen. Marek Zidlicky had 11 points in in 21 games for the Red Wings.
Trades were fine. I missed the majority of those playoffs sadly as I started a new job but regular season wise, it certainly helped. Team need, he went in the right direction. Many are also forgetting signing Marian Hossa, Ty Conklin (was huge first run), Daniel Alfredsson (left the only team he knew), Jonas Gustavsson (was great here), Mike Green, Frans Nielsen (been very, very consistent), Thomas Vanek, Danny DeKeyser, Jared Coreau, and hell, I like that Steve Ott signing for the league minimum.
Watching this season, I agree with Abdelkader and Helm. I was okay with Abby at the time, but hated that Helm signing. Depth wise, I have him on my fourth line. Frans Nielsen, he's a healthy mule which is on our side during this contract. He's been fantastic despite the **** team.
Jakub Chychrun dropped a bit for some reasons obviously mentioned before. He does have a man's body though, which will make his leap quicker. Give that trade some time, obviously. We drafted a raw prospect, and a fantastic Czech D.