Hope can be a hell of a drug. Reality after the initial hope is often a hell of a crash. To avoid one, you need to swap the order. Look at the likely reality first, then look at the hope. Decisions that comes from that line of thought often protect themselves.
That logic can be used for a lot of decisions, in both life and sports. In this context we’re going to start talking about Chris Kreider, but there are more examples than I can count otherwise. The Milan Lucic contract, the Taylor Hall trade, the Ryan Spooner trade — wait, why are all of these focused around the recently fired Peter Chiarelli?