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Originally Posted by Grover
Yandle to Pittsburgh is picking up some serious steam.
EDIT: Or maybe not...
Pierre LeBrun @Real_ESPNLeBrun Pitt has dealt Z. Michalek to Phx in exchange for prospect Harrison Ruopp plus a 3rd-round pick this year (81st) and goalie Marc Cheverie.
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Not really a fan of this move. Michalek was no worse than the rest of the crew down the stretch and in the playoffs. And prefer him a ton over Martin. He's a 2nd pairing guy...but a really good 2nd pairing guy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue
Are the Pens dumping salary to gear up for a run at a Suter or Parise?
Apparently so, as the Pens tried to acquire Suter's rights...
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You could make the case that, on long term deals, they have enough room to sign Suter AND Parise. Certainly not likely...but nice to dream
And if they can still move Martin...another $5M (less whatever comes back).
Shero is doing the Paul Holmgren move to his D
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wolfpack
I don't know how to feel about the Staal trade as of yet. I feel like Carolina gave just a little too much on it. Sutter's a solid, though not spectacular two-way player, but very much a hard worker and character guy. He doesn't have huge statistical numbers, but he played center on Carolina's checking line and often was tasked with trying to cancel out other #1 lines rather than getting his own points. I really think the Dumoulin portion of the deal is what hurts, though. Carolina's defense is not that great and Dumoulin would have been a great asset to develop alongside Justin Faulk. I'm guessing JR felt the pressure to make a big move and must think that other d-men in the system can make the jump at some point.
I'm also uncertain who will or should take over the checking line center or whether Muller will look to roll three offense oriented lines and rely on an aggressive forecheck to play defense with, as it were. As it is, while it's nice to fantasize, I don't think Carolina has enough depth in the middle now to have Jordan at center and Eric on a wing, so Eric remains #1 and Jordan moves to #2. I think Eric's line help will have to come from some other trade or free agency acquisition, which pretty much means they'll be all-in to try to get Parise. If they whiff on getting him, there's not really a Plan B that I'm aware of to make up for the miss that could potentially make up the difference (unless they dump a sizeable chunk of the team to get Nash and that would still require Nash to waive his NTC).
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I would expect that the 3C job be up for grabs, but when holding a lead late, Jordan Staal fills that role. Even when Crosby was out (and the year before that, Crosby and Malkin), with leads, JS become the shutdown guy, and all the offensive zone starts went to Mark Letetsu and a bunch of other junk.