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Who The Blues Could Trade
by Paul on 12/21/09 at 07:48 PM ET
Comments (6)
from Jeff Gordon of the Hockey Guy at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch,
Blues fans are drooling about the prospect of dealing for free-agent-to-be Ilya Kovalchuk, who could demand maximum NHL dollars over a decade on his next deal. We’re talking nine digits here.
Can the Thrashers afford to play that? Can they afford NOT to pay that?
No team will give much to acquire Ilya without getting a contract extension in place, so he will control the process. Bigger markets like Philadelphia – where the Flyers need a big overhaul – may make more sense for Kovy.
More realistic targets are big Hurricanes center Eric Staal and/or winger Ray Whitney, since Carolina got old all at once and needs to start over from scratch. Staal, 25, is trying to reestablish his goal-scoring touch in time to earn a Team Canada role in the 2010 Olympics.
To make a move, the Hurricanes would want to shop from this group of players: David Backes, David Perron, T.J. Oshie, Lars Eller, Ian Cole, Alex Pietrangelo and Patrick Berglund.
more and I don’t understand why people think Staal is going to be moved., it just isn’t going to happen…
Filed in: NHL Teams, St. Louis Blues | KK Hockey | Permalink
Comments
There’s no way they are trading Staal. He’s one of the handful of legitimate 1st line centers in the league, and they have him locked up long term. Dream on.
Posted by Kstewy16 on 12/21/09 at 08:14 PM ET
Honestly, I hope Carolina doesn’t trade him. Between his deal and Cam Ward’s they are effectively neutered unless and until they happen to land some great prospects in the draft. One less team to worry about.
I’m just saying they’d be stupid not to.
Sure, Staal’s a legit top line center… but he’s also the only legit top line forward they have on the whole team, and you can make a decent case the Canes only have maybe 2 guys who should be in a good teams’ top 6. If you could turn him into two or three top 6 forwards (a player, a young player and a top pick or two) you have to do it, unless there’s some kind of great prospect class coming up through the system.
Posted by HockeyinHD on 12/21/09 at 08:33 PM ET
Posted by HockeyinHD on 12/21/09 at 08:13 PM ET
Yeah, you’re nuts. No way in HELL they move him.
Posted by Garth on 12/21/09 at 11:17 PM ET
Honestly, I hope Carolina doesn’t trade him. Between his deal and Cam Ward’s they are effectively neutered unless and until they happen to land some great prospects in the draft. One less team to worry about.
Absolutely agree. What Carolina need to do to be a competitive franchise is replace Ward and Staal. Trade Staal away for a high draft pick or center prospect, the kind of kid who could score 100 points a season and who you could build a franchise around. And swap Ward for a young goalie with massive upside, playoff experience… heck, maybe even a Stanley Cup ring!
In all seriousness… it’s a shame the Canes suck this year tbh, it comes down primarily to injuries and also to a number of key players (Brind’Amour, Wallin, Aaron Ward, maybe even Whitney) reaching their autumn years in a big way. But with Bowman, Boychuk, Sutter and co. coming through, and a high draft pick next summer (Cam Fowler would be a perfect addition on defence), the Canes are looking pretty good for the future; no need to panic, and their management is good enough to understand that. Unfortunatey, most newspaper columnists don’t seem to…
Posted by fredster from manchester on 12/21/09 at 11:23 PM ET
Absolutely agree. What Carolina need to do to be a competitive franchise is replace Ward and Staal. Trade Staal away for a high draft pick or center prospect, the kind of kid who could score 100 points a season and who you could build a franchise around. And swap Ward for a young goalie with massive upside, playoff experience… heck, maybe even a Stanley Cup ring!
Trading Staal for one player or prospect would be stupid. Trading him for a number of them would be smart.
And I’d like to remind you that the Hurricanes will miss the playoffs three of the past 4 seasons once their 2010 year finally gasps its last breath. Pointing out the success of 2006, which was a function of getting a goalie white hot out of nowhere, having the Sabres top 4 dmen all get hurt, and then facing the #8 West seed, who lost their starting goalie about 7 seconds into the first game in the Finals… well, if that’s the series of events which needs to happen for the Canes to win, don’t expect to see that happen again soon. Or, really, ever.
Again, I expect Carolina to act the same way the Lightning did with Lecavalier. Hang onto a guy who is locked up long term and who is going to cripple their cap flexibility because they ‘don’t want to panic’. Trading one guy isn’t panic when the team sucks, and has sucked for the majority of the time in missing the playoffs 4 of Staal’s 6 NHL seasons.
And like Tampa, they will set themselves up nicely for a good long run of mediocrity.
Posted by HockeyinHD on 12/22/09 at 07:56 AM ET
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Four data sets tell the story:
$8,250,000
2016
6 goals, 13 assists
9 wins, 20 regulation losses, 6 overtime losses.
Now, I’m not saying Staal WILL be moved, but if Carolina could get a package similar or better than what Boston got for Kessel, they’d be stupid not to move him.
Getting out from under his contract all by itself would be a big plus for the franchise.
Now, I think Carolina will make much the same decision on Staal that Tampa did on Lecavalier, tying some kind of greater importance to the player with regards to fan interest, but if Carolina can win, whether or not Staal is there is immaterial.
Posted by HockeyinHD on 12/21/09 at 08:13 PM ET