Comments on: Showdown With Royalty/Dreger’s Trade Bait

By: Sharks Hockey Analysis » Blog Archive » Trade Season Kicks Off With a Bang

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 17:40:49 +0000

[...] grier’s prediction about Ryan Whitney didn’t come true, but Whitney did get traded today, a big trade less than a week away from [...]

By: Ruben

Ruben — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 23:41:38 +0000

@ Adam

I agree for the most part. For awhile, I was willing to break up the second line to spread it around, but with the Marleau/Grier chemistry, Marluea on the 3rd doesn’t seem to be a bad idea now. Big ups for Patty not taking this as a demotion. I can see how someone like Michalek, Clowe, or Seto would have pouted being put on the 3rd line. Maybe they wouldn’t have, but Marleau just scored some more points in my book.

By: Adam

Adam — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 18:28:05 +0000

Isn’t it a comparative advantage for SJ to have Marleau center his own line, though? This way, one of the three lines will draw some sad sack 3rd defensive pairing. And if not that, then a 2nd D-pairing. Plus, most teams only have 2 scoring lines. Keeping Marleau and Thornton apart — save for the PP — gives the Sharks a significant advantage every night. When Joe first came to the team, Marleau was on his own line and put up his best offensive season, right? Why have 2 awesome centres on the same line anyway? Pronger and Niedermayer don’t play together so that one of them is on the ice at all times, generally. Isn’t that what “strength down the middle” is supposed to be about? Depth? Why proactively reduce your depth? Marleau doesn’t need Thornton to set up his goals. He’s no Cheechoo.

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:36:27 +0000

bcyde, in a word, no. Kaspar basically got onto the first line by pure luck; the Sharks needed to play Marleau at center because of the recent injuries to Goc and Plihal. So Kaspar gets some decent scoring chances, probably because he’s on a line with one of the best setup men in the league. I’ll start coming around when the production continues for at least 10 games, and when he consistently does the right things away from the puck. Right now we have a whisper of the former and none of the latter.

By: bcyde

bcyde — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:43:09 +0000

So after the game last night are you guys starting to change your mind on Kaspar? He had the goal and some other decent chances, but I still saw some instances of him floating at times. Do you think he can keep his work ethic up, or will he be a new Steve Bernier?

By: mthompson

mthompson — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 02:32:56 +0000

I would do that trade from both sides I think.

Michalek is a great young player, but his upside is not that high.

if anything, the sticking point may be that michalek’s cap hit is higher than whitney’s and the pens will run into cap trouble when malkin and staal’s contracts kick in.

By: Brian Boitano

Brian Boitano — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 01:36:56 +0000

DW said today that Mitchell will play this season… does that mean if a move is made it won’t be for a forward?

By: Mr. Plank

Mr. Plank — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 22:45:08 +0000

No dice for me, as Ivan stated Milan has way too much upside. He’s been great on the PK and finally is beginning to use that body on the sideboards/front of the net.

Cheechoo would have to be considered, but I don’t think Whitney’s the right man for the job- he coughs the puck up a lot (think Ehrhoff when he’s doing his “Error-hoff” impression).

I’d pick up the call but wouldn’t entertain it unless the cup of tea gets a nice lil sweetener.

By: David Johnson

David Johnson — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 22:40:53 +0000

Ryan Whitney would be an interesting pickup for anyone. He has a lot of talent, had a good year last year but has been a bit slow to come around after returning from his injury this season. When it comes to trade bait though the Penguins really only have two guys that could net a true top six winger and that would free up enough salary to do so. Whitney and Staal and Stall and his size are too important to give up right now.

Michalek is probably the kind of guy that the Penguins would be interested in. A guy with good size and can score a bit. Interestingly they had a similar player in Ryan Malone but let him go so if they made such a trade it would almost be like admitting a mistake. It would be an interesting move for both teams if it came about.

Personally, I’d stay away from Kovalev. He has as much talent as almost anyone in the NHL and he’ll be dominant one night but then missing in action another night and I don’t think the Sharks need that kind of player on their roster. They have a good thing going there right now so why mess it up.

By: Ivan M

Ivan M — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 22:15:06 +0000

I would hang up, as Michalek is still young and is having a great year. He’ll never score more than 40 goals a season, but he’s good enough to keep around for 2nd line. He’s also a rare European on our -”I-hate-Europeans”-DW squad.

Now Cheechoo and a prospect for Whitney is something I’d do since there were already a lot of speculation of Cheechoo to Penguins last year, at least in Pittsburgh.

How about Kovalev for Cheechoo? I’d welcome him gladly.