i think the trade neids stuff came from the fact that we appeared to have too strong a defense especially with offensive defensemen, and at the beginning of the season trading rafalski for offense was ridiculous since he was our best offensive defensmen the last 3 years and trading tverdovsky was pointless since we just got him as a new toy, so niedermayer would be the one to go.
however i never wanted to trade neidermayer ever he is my favorite player on the team, but our second best player this year has been Langenbrunner