Quoting: Lenny7
Surprised me at the time, but I'm assuming he just didn't mesh well. I feel like that's why teams are always so hesitant to actually pull the trigger on trade away guys with term left...all of the sudden, around 6 months later, you're back in a position where you need to fill that hole that you dug.
Pretty much 4 main reasons they traded him:
- Arvy just hasn't been the same player since the Bortuzzo incident
- Hynes wasn't using him like Laviolette, so he wasn't as successful and wasn't getting as many offensive chances (I'm pretty sure he actually requested a trade because of this, not positive though)
- Long-term contract and wanting to shed salary (same reason they traded Ellis)
- Wanting to get younger and make room and opportunity for younger players like Tolvanen, Kunin, Tomasino, etc.
Whether it's worth it or not or whether it was the right move, I think those are the main reasons why the deal happened.