STL Shark
Registered User
- Mar 6, 2013
- 4,397
- 5,456
Thing is that I would not categorize "mid 20's" to a 27 year old. He's much more quickly getting into the late 20's group with a lot of years of term. I'd happily sign that contract as a UFA, but throwing the assets that you're suggesting at it doesn't make sense. If you want to add some traits similar to what Cernak brings, go sign Dumba to a 4 year deal at $5.5M AAV. You can get him for free and still improve the in-zone defense and physicality (plus we were rumored to be in on him last offseason as well so that suggests that the interest is already there).It's reasonable to think it's too early in the rebuild to pay that sort of price for a guy in his mid 20s but I would argue actual in zone defending is our biggest issue and Cernak definitely addresses that. Of course no single player is going to turn that around himself.
3rd round pick for an established 26yo top 4 defenseman on that contract is absurd. Tampa will want to replenish all those draft picks they've dealt away if they trade Cernak. Maybe PIT 1st + our 2nd could do it if you don't want to trade a prospect.
Dropping a 1st for Cernak is a move that puts the perpetual rebuild stuff into motion. Not implying that every draft pick needs to be utilized to draft a player, but if you're handing over a top 15 draft pick at this stage it needs to be for someone that better matches the age curve of the core group or has top line/pairing skills if they're in the Cernak age group. Spending 14th overall for a #3/4 D-Man that's going to be over 30 (with 4 years left on his deal) when we are ready to start trying to win just isn't good value.