Trade Deadline Headlines

Wow.  I'd be tempted to say that The Washingtonstone Capitals have the Eastern Conference in the bag if it weren't for the crippling fecal incontinence they exhibit anytime they make the playoffs.
Regardless, The Caps scooped the best available defenceman and have made their scary-good lineup all the more....scary...and good.
The details are:
Washington gets Shattenkirk and AHL goalie Pheonix Copley.  Yes, that's how his parents "chose" to spell his name.  It's bad enough to name your child after a city (or a mythical, flaming bird, I guess) but do try to spell it correctly.
St. Loomis gets two guys, each the epitome of "guy", a First Round pick and an extremely conditional Second Round pick.

Photos of the other players involved in this transaction are not available because no one has ever bothered to photograph them.

The obvious question here is, are they nuts in St. Louis?  Let's review the ways in which this deal looks incredibly bad for STL.
1) The Blues gave up a player who was BY FAR their best defenceman.  Alex Pietrangelo is pretty good but, beyond him, there ain't much there.
2) Washington will likely win The President's Trophy which will provide The Blues with a 30th-overall pick, firmly within the range of the "best of the rest" players.
3) I believe the message this sends to the remaining Blues players is that management has given up on them for this season.  Los Angeles is now only two points away from knocking The Blues out of a playoff spot and I'm sure that team morale is firmly in the pooper, right now. This really sucks for me 'cos I had some pretty good STL-related insults queued up that I was saving for the playoffs.

The only thing that could make this deal look sensible for STL is if Blues GM Doug Armstrong was absolutely certain that he would not be able to re-sign Shattenkirk.  They have the cap space to pay him, so rule out that as an excuse. They've had no problem significantly overpaying players, either, as they recently re-upped completely average forwards Patrik Berglund and Jori Lehtera for $4.7mil and $3.8mil per year, respectively....for what amounts to complimentary players.  You really can't get a deal done, here, Doug?  I can't wait to see what he does next: Tarasenko to Florida for Vincent Trocheck and some really cool Jaromir Jagr memorabilia?  
None of this makes any sense UNLESS Shattenkirk had clearly indicated that he was not re-signing, no matter what.  Which I would totally get, BTW.