I was responding to a comment about Connolly being a tough fit on the current team, not about the trade and I said..."In theory, it seemed like an OK gamble that he could bounce back to being a 3rd line scoring threat, which would make him only slightly overpaid…and then we all saw him play. Horrible misread by the pro scouting department."
If the Hawks thought Connolly was totally cooked, the trade only makes sense if they were very confident Borgstrom is a legit #2 center or Stillman is a legit middle pairing D. Obviously, both of those are very big reaches.
Therefore, if I'm putting myself in Stan's shoes at the time of the trade, he obviously really liked Borgstrom's potential and Stillman is fine as a 6/7 and thats what he's being paid at. But if he truly thought Connolly is just cap hit, then that that means he's guaranteed to take on a 3.5M cap hit for Borgstrom's potential. And no matter what you think of Stan, if that is all there is to the trade, that is insane.
My point is, they had to think at the time they were going to get something out of Connolly (he had a garbage 20 games for the Panthers after putting up 2 seasons of 0.5ppg/22 goals). That is not the same as saying he was the reason they made the trade or whatever else you want to read into it.