Keep Schultz, Cole and Dumo. Jettison Maatta, let Hainsey and Daley walk, and desperately try to find a way to replace Letang with a guy who isn't gonna miss 25 games a season and the entire playoffs every other year. Before anyone jumps at the opportunity, I realize Letang hasn't missed every other playoffs for his career, but even the most staunch of Letang supporters have to admit that two of the past three is concerning, and the toll of his injuries will only make it worse as times goes on.
Either way, completely dismantle the blueline. If we're gonna be this **** without Letang, stop committing to him as the cornerstone of your defensive corps. If you can't rely on the guy to be healthy, and it's blatantly obvious you can't, move on. There's gotta be a GM out there who will take a chance on him, and pay up big time. If we can, through some series of moves, go from Letang being the cornerstone of our blueline to Trouba, I'd be ecstatic.
Completely fine with the idea - in theory. But how do you replace him even if you can move him for a semi acceptable return? In FA this year you have Shattenkirk as the only RD who's even close to being able to play those minutes. There's certainly a collection of lesser D (Stone, Russell, Del Zotto, Kulikov, Smith, Alzner, etc) but all will get paid (4-5m+) and none are even close to Letang in terms of skill or ability.
Which means you need to either replace him via trade or hope like hell a GM decides that they're willing to move a slightly lesser player for him in hopes that he's healthy for them. Neither of which I really see happening any time soon.
So yeah, while I'm good with the idea that we should probably try to strengthen our blueline so that we're not nearly as dependent on Letang, that's not something that's going to happen overnight. We're probably talking about 2-3 years to get there. And if Letang continues to miss games and have injuries, moving him will only get harder.
As for this summer, I'd probably look to see about moving Maatta for a comparable D who's better, but also a little older. Either work out a swap with LV where they draft player X from another team, and then they take MAF from us, and we trade them Maatta for player X. LV gets the young cost controlled D with 5 years term, we get someone who fits our style better and who's hopefully a little better than Maatta, but also a little older and perhaps more expensive.
To see the effect of missing Letang this year and realizing his importance to the team,.,..why trade a guy who is 90% of Karlsson when healthy?
Because while he's absolutely 90% of Karlsson when healthy, he's only healthy for (at best) 75% of the season. And while I'll agree that him missing the POs against the Rangers the other year isn't a big concern in itself (I agree were were not contenders that year), that happening, and this year happening and I don't see how there's not all sorts of red flags being waived all over regarding his long term health as he hits his early 30s.
I don't know how you could have watched this series and say you'd send out Maatta before Cole or Schultz.
Schultz we simply cannot afford to let walk. Has he been great? No, of course not. But I think all that shows is he's not a #1D, but a solid top 4 guy who needs a true #1D ahead of him to excel. As for Cole, I think his value is meh, and he's cheap and an effective 4/5D who can PK. I'd have nothing against moving him, but I don't see him freeing up the cap space to allow us to afford the D we need/want and he doesn't have the value to bring back said D in a trade. Moving Maatta accomplishes both while also solving the issue of him stylistically not being a fit.
The next time Letang plays a game, he will be trade-able. About 20-25 teams would be interested in him as soon as they know he's healthy enough to play. The dude is REALLY good at hockey.
I agree. But that will be mid season and finding the "right" trade - even if ownership and Rutherford were willing to go there would be next to impossible mid season. Moving a player of Letangs ability - not to mention contract/cap, needs to happen at the draft. Which means (as mentioned before) you're talking about June 2018.
We could definitely use a defenseman like the old Despres. The new one though...
