No he didn't have to go. Stop making him out to be the scapegoat.
Look at who we have for a "captain". As mentally weak as a captain can get.
And if he did "have to go", this was the best we could get? A soon to be 32 year old defenseman whose production has been declining (I told you this when the trade was made), with a contract that pays him until he's 40. This was the BEST we could do. And guess who came up small again in the playoffs. That's right. Shea Weber.
He had to go

Why, because he was a colorful character, whose extremely charitable off the ice endeavors actually made the Canadiens organization jealous? (Oh yeah, I read about the whispers about how the Candiens were upset about the whole atrium thing at the Children's Hospital because PK didn't involve the club)
And there is a reason why that EDM trade didn't get done, and this is something that you and the rest of the Bergevin can-do-no-wrong brigade can chew on. If the club didn't make it perfectly clear that they were trying to trade arguably the best player on the team not named Carey Price, if they weren't sop public about it, then maybe we could have gotten a better deal than Shea fucking Weber