I don't know what you mean by Hall getting beaten up in the playoffs. This was the first time he didn't lead his team in playoff scoring. He has seldom been in the playoffs because he's been on such bad teams. This isn't basketball where one guy can take a bottom-feeder to a championship contender, although he came as close to doing so as you can when he pretty much took the Devils to the playoffs by himself that one year, but even the most elite players still need a supporting cast to go the distance.
With Zajac, yeah maybe he would have yielded a bigger return last year, but why should that be his concern? The Devils gave him a no-trade clause, so he has every right to decide if he wants to leave or not. Last year he obviously didn't want to leave, and it's very unreasonable to expect that his thought process should have been, "I don't want to leave, but I am going to so that I can help the team trading me away get a better return." We also don't know what the destination would have been, you are just assuming it was the Islanders.
As for MacLean, he did go to Lou privately first, but a week and a half went by and they hadn't acted on it. Another way to look at it is that once he knew he wouldn't re-sign with the Devils, he let Lou know, which allowed him to trade him and get at least something for him. If he kept his mouth shut, the Devils probably would have gotten no return for him at all. They weren't going to get a much better return than what they got, MacLean had only 3 goals so far that season and was going to be a free agent at the end of the year. That kind of player is never going to get you such a big return that it would make the difference between winning 2 playoff games and going on a long run.
I understand this is your "fan" opinion, I am a fan too, but that doesn't mean you can't be objective about it and think about it from the players' perspectives.
