Staal is a badass on defense and on the PK, and he definitely has good offensive abilities. He just has to be more consistent for this deal to work out in our favor. If he can be a 25 and 50 guy it's worth it IMO. That still remains to be seen though.
This deal doesn't solve any of our problems. Which is a little unnerving, but the season is still young. You gotta think(perhaps hope is the better word here) Shero is cooking something up. He's pulled the trigger on deals in the past that have helped this team. I'm just worried about not having much to offer. Now that Staal is signed for long term, who do we give up?
I'd trade Satan for a a case of IC Light at this point.
I've said it before, I would have no problem trading Whitney. We have Letang, Gogo and Gonchar when it comes to offensive defensemen. How many offensive defensemen does one team need exactly? Even though Gonchar is up there in age, that still leaves us with two young offensive defensemen on this roster. Not only could Whitney possibly fetch us that quality winger (maybe package deal?), but it would also free up four million a year. Also, he looked absolutely horrible last night. Missed scoring opportunity and he was struggling to keep the puck in the offensive zone when he was at the point. Come to think of it, minus the Detroit series last season, he has looked horrible for some time now.
At this point, the only three defensemen on this roster who I would not be willing to trade are Gogo, Letang and Orpik.
I'm still trying to figure out why we are playing Gogo on a wing when he was leading all rookie defenseman in goals/points. That has to be one of dumbest moves I've seen this team make during the regular season. It would be one thing if Gogo was the weakest link, but I feel he looks just as good as Letang back there. Eitherway, I still feel he's going to turn into one hell of a defensemen down the road. No way I trade him.
Orpik is...well Orpik. I believe the guy is still second in the league when it comes to hits and blocked shots. He's hands down our best stay-at-home defenseman and his skating ability tends to be underrated. No way I trade him.
Letang has come along nicely in my opinion. My only beef with Letang is that he doesn't shoot the puck nearly enough. He has proven in the past that he has a pretty damn good shot. He just needs to use it more often....way more often. He skates just as well as if not better than any of the other defensemen on our roster and his defensive positioning has progressed very well over the years. When his defensive partner blows an assignment, Letang tends to be the first guy back to break up the breakaway or 2 on 1. No way I trade him.
I was all for trading Miroslav Satan not even a week ago, but I've come to the conclusion that there is not one team out there who would want this guy. At this point, I would cut his ass and take the cap hit. Shero needs to swallow his pride, admit that it was a horrible signing and move on. He's absolutely useless and has been ever since he landed at Pittsburgh International Airport.
When it comes to trading Staal, I'm all for it
IF we get a player that is young/relatively young and has the potential to become a legitimate goal scorer in this league. I do not want to see us trade a 20 year old Jordan Staal for a 30+ year old player just because he is currently putting up 30+ goals a year, only to watch him conk out on us in the next year or two. While I do not feel Staal's untouchable, you damn well better make sure your getting value for him because he could possibly bloom into a pretty damn good first/second line winger.
Eitherway, as each day passes, I'm starting to come to terms with the fact that here is a very real possibility that Shero is not going to do a damn thing this season when it comes to trades. At least when it comes to any type of significant trade that would help Sidney Crosby. I'm starting to believe that we will simply bite the bullet for our horrible offseason signings, call this season a bust and look to FA/trades in the offseason.
When all is said and done, this team will not make it past the first round until they get Sidney Crosby a winger. That has to be priority #1 on Shero's to-do list in 2009. You can resign Jordan Staal, you can overpay for a hack winger with a pathetic work ethic and lack of talent, but eventually your going to have to find a way to free up some money and pony it up for a quality winger to play next to the player who took a cut in pay in order for you to acquire that type of talent. If not, we are going to be talking about the exact same thing next season when we are struggling to find the back of the net.
Good luck Ray.
