The only thing that makes me want to keep Rakell is that he had chemistry with Bunting, and he's going to be used with him again if he stays.
4.04 career PPP/P60 is pretty rough. He had his outlier year on the PP with us, but I don't expect him to bring that again, now that he's gotten comfortable and complacent here.
He averages 12 PPPs per 82 games. We got a problem on that left side.
Smith is more valuable imo. He PK's at a very high level. He doesn't rely on PP for production much at all, he has much stronger career 5v5 numbers, and he defends better at ES.
Odds are he improves if he stays, playing with Sid.
The thing with Raks is we didn't get a down year for him. It just feels that way because of his outlier year 1.
2023-24 was in line with his career average, which is 1.76 5v5 P/P60. Last year 1.75.
So a realistic expectation from him if he has similar deployment, is a similar result. And with a 5 mil price tag I don't think that's worth it.
You bring up Garland. I would much rather have him.
And yeah if Duchene can be convinced to come here, I would let Raks go and pay a little bit more to bring him for sure. He can play C as well, which adds value.
Malkin might suck next year, so...
Rakell had a long drought which, relative to career norms, was an outlier. Combine that with the PP being trash all year, there's reasonable explanations on his current numbers.
I don't think Smith's defense is any better or worse than Rakell. I really don't think any GM would be trading for either one under the guise that either of them is or is not some defensive stalwart.
For all intents and purposes, on paper last year, Garland and Rakell were basically the same player. Very little meaningful difference.
But here's what I'm coming back to - if you look at the average performance, salary, and expectation of a 2nd line top 6 RW, Rakell is right in the money. He's not over or underperforming relative to his cap hit and contract. We can argue that he had a down-ish year last year but most players, on average, return to their norms. If you want Rakell's performance, I believe it will cost you more in money and term in free agency compared to trading for him. So if he is what you want, there's a fair value that can be assigned to him that doesn't include a sweetener to move.
We just need to be realistic about what $5mil gets you on the market and what the expectations for a 2RW are league-wide.
Here is how I look at the direction of the club. What Hextall and Burke did is irrelevant to this conversation. Dubas tried something last summer and the results just were not there. So, he is pivoting. Is this not what you want from a GM? It is what I want. Be pro-active, admit mistakes as soon as possible, and try a new course of action.
This new course of action should have been our course of action since at least 2020, but I may even argue the summer of 2018. But I digress.
Agreed. I think last year, Dubas gave Mike Sullivan the lineup that Mike Sullivan wanted. Seeing it fail makes me think Dubas will not be doing that again this year. I think Sullivan will still have a say but I think Dubas will be more authoritarian on roster construction. I find it hard to believe Dubas and Spezza are sitting in his office saying "Man, Sullivan was totally spot on! We just needed to play a little better! That's all!"
Dubas also came out and said that as the GM you have to make hard decisions and that sometimes makes you the bad guy but so be it, that's the job. Makes me hopeful for Jarry, Rakell, Smith, etc trades. Now that said, none of those guys are a "trade at all costs" where you are willing to take a bad return just to get them off the roster. If he offers up Rust to the league and the best he can get is a 4th, then he would be 100% correct to keep Rust.
Things started to go wrong at the expansion draft. That off-season was a major blow. You lose Tanev and McCann, you sign McGinn, keep Carter, and then you lose ERod the next year. Then little by little we lost talent and the replacements were not always up to par. Combine that with Sullivan doing Sullivan things...we've just been a mess ever since.
Jake-Sid-Rust
Zucker-Malkin-McCann
Tanev-ERod-Kapanen
DOC-Poulin-Puustinen
Pettersson-Letang
Marino-Matheson
POJ-JSI
Jarry-Blomqvist
could be a realistic lineup heading into the season. Just so make self-inflicted wounds...
It's gonna be hilarious to me when the team finally cans him in like 2030 after yet another GM switch and the team goes on a heater and makes the playoffs for the first time in 8 years and everyone is all like "WhO wOuLdA ThUnK iT?!/?!1"
We're gonna be on here saying "Coach Sidney Crosby was the catalyst, for real".
