Oren Koules is Insane: Tampa Bay GM Gets Short End of Andrej Meszaros Deal

To be honest, I've been laughing at how Tampa has operated this entire offseason. 

First, they hired a coach who has done nothing in the past decade.  They signed a ton of forwards that were on the market, many of which truly I don't feel are going to be that helpful—especially Roberts and Recchi, both of whom didn't fit on Pittsburgh, and Adam Hall, who never came close to meeting his potential.

They signed an over-the-hill goaltender, which can only hurt the development of both Mark Smith (the centerpiece of the Brad Richards deal) and Kari Ramo, and they traded quite possibly a cornerstone defenseman in Dan Boyle.  Can it get much worse?

That question was answered just yesterday with a resounding yes.  In one of the most boneheaded moves, Tampa traded Filip Kuba and Alexandre Picard and a first-round pick for Andrej Meszaros. 

Has Koules lost his mind?  Before we go into the ridiculousness of this deal, let's start by looking at Tampa's defensive corps. 

By all admittance, both Meszaros and the other man acquired this offseason, Matt Carle, had off seasons last year.  Tampa is comfortable having their top two defenseman be this young, this unproven—if you're in your early 20s, I don't care how many games you've played, you are still unproven—and coming off bad years? 

That's a recipe for an absolute disaster.  On top of that, they traded Kuba—their most experienced defender.

What makes me laugh about the trading of Kuba is that number-wise, Kuba and Meszaros average about the same numbers (eight goals, 20 assists) a year.  I understand that Kuba is older—so if you want to throw in a mid-range draft pick or Picard, this deal might make some sense—even with Picard being 6'2, 220, and having a ton of upside. 

Instead, Tampa trades the 6'5" Kuba—a very solid defenseman with tons of experience, which is exactly what Tampa needed to hold onto—with Picard and a first-round pick. 

That's unreal.  If they would have gotten a second-round pick back, or even a decent second- or third-liner (maybe Vermette?), I'd be more inclined to understand this move.  But as it stands, Tampa got absolutely ripped off. 

I get that Meszaros is only 22.  That means one of two things to me—either he's young, was on a bad team last year, and will only get better, or he was one of the reasons Ottawa stumbled last season, hit his prime early, and will only stagnate.  Either way, it's questionable that he's a number-one defenseman—and for what they gave up for him, Andrej better be. 

Any way you look at it, Koules continued to do what he's being doing for the past three months—make his team look and sound better, but in the long haul, make his team worse.  Any team that's haphazardly put together, as this one was, is going nowhere—and doing that fast.