Matheson, and it’s not close.

Matheson 100% and anyone who disagrees can debate a wall.

Reason being that Matheson was playing the best hockey of his career with us and sadly, was just getting started. Had he stayed he could’ve easily emerged as our best defenseman in a year or 2 both offensively and defensively. He found a new element of his offense with us and flourished in our system alongside Marino, in which inevitably he got a defense game out of nowhere that he did NOT have in Florida. Can remember the ugly stints he had in Florida and how much Panthers fans wanted him out of there…

As for the Marino, Smith one I wouldn’t say that one’s worse. We saw the max potential in Marino and that was a shut down defenseman. The offense didn’t need to be there because he played his role. He was smart and played the puck well most of the time. Though common tendencies would be he would get outworked, was a bit soft to an extent, and had his fair share of ugly turnovers here and there but needless to say Marino was a very solid defenseman in our system.

Smith we haven’t quite seen that potential yet and it’s definitely higher than Marino’s so I wouldn’t quite race to conclusions on that trade. He put up a very respectable season in WBS and looks ready for a lineup spot next year, in which he will get and we’ll get a look at things and determine the trade from there. I personally think we end up winning that one but some may argue differently.

Definitely not the best offseason Pittsburgh had in their history

Both were equally egregious. They traded Marino for a young LD they couldn’t find a place for and a 3rd.
They traded Matheson to replace Marino with an older, slower Petry who was much worse defensively than Marino and less offensively gifted than Matheson. The only good to thing to really come out of both of those trades is that we should see Ty Smith this year but wouldn’t be surprised if he is used as trade bait and Poehling has started to excel here. If the team can get faster better players in the bottom 6, he could be a solid 3C.
The right move was to trade Dumo. Even if they had to pay or retain half to get out of him and force Sully to play MP with Letang and play Matheson with Marino.
Pettersson-Letang
Matheson-Marino
POJ-Rutta
Would have been a much better defensive core than having Dumo-Petry replacing Matheson-Marino.

matheson 100% i worked at every habs game this season. saw this guy play and his improvement is insane. his skating and confidence with the puck was unreal he could put up like 60pts next year

This seems like a tough one. But Petry and Poehling both had solid seasons, while Smith couldn't even fit on the roster - so I think the answer is obviously the Marino/Smith trade as of right now - but not by a lot. Subject to change though if Smith has a great season this year in the NHL