Showdown With Royalty/Dreger’s Trade Bait
February 19th, 2009, 1:15 pm
Tonight is a bigger game against the LA Kings than most Sharks fans might recognize. In truth, Los Angeles is the 2nd best team rolling right now in the Pacific Division and a team that could be a thorn in the Sharks playoff side as they attempt to play the spoiler while making a run at a lower seed themselves. Dallas has been impressive but losing Richards has to be the end of their post-Avery surge, right? Anaheim is on skid row. Phoenix will start selling anything and anyone that makes over 50 cents soon. This leaves the Kings….yes, the team Mike and I mocked in the preseason, as the Sharks biggest challenger down the stretch. They have rolled 6-2-2 in their last ten and beat the Ducks last night. LA is young, physical and expectations are so low, they won’t be squeezing theirs sticks tonight. Sharks need to be on their “A” game.
Take a look at Darren Dreger’s top ten list of players who could be on the move in the coming weeks.
One name that I find interesting is Ryan Whitney. Rumor has Pittsburgh searching for a winger to play with Crosby. How about a trade of Milan Michalek for Ryan Whitney? There are several pros and cons to this deal, but getting Whitney into the Sharks fold for long term (he is signed for 4M/per year until 2013) would give San Jose the best defensive core in the NHL for the next three years…and it gets better when you Big Nick Petrecki.The Sharks could replace Michalek this year with McGinn or Cheechoo on the 2nd line.
Who’d you rather: the high flying winger on the Sharks most consistent line who has found his edge this year or a potential long term replacement for Rob Blake signed for a bargin. If you were Doug Wilson, would you consider this or hang up the phone? I think I would take the call….
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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.
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.
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.
DW said today that Mitchell will play this season… does that mean if a move is made it won’t be for a forward?
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.
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?
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.
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.
@ 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.
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