If my team had any sort of skill in the top six.
I lean towards trading Jake, but if they keep him, I would be OK with it (pending the terms) because Jake is not the problem with the team. They could keep Jake, fire the coaching staff, trade 1 or 2 of Rust/Rakell/Smith, get a different mix particularly up front, let some of the young guys start stepping into the bottom 6 roles, and give it another go next year.
Not sure you can call any UFA "exceptionally valuable."" But they're also too arrogant to declare the era dead and move on, so they'll either re-sign Jake to a deal at 150% his cap hit, further locking in a mediocre team, or they'll let an exceptionally valuable asset walk for free and call him their deadline rental.
The contract's not gonna matter to this team in a couple years--at least cap-wise, I dunno how stoked FSG is gonna be to pay that much to a Crosbyless paperweight. Realistically, they should probably be trying to land assets to take on other teams' albatross deals once Sid's done tbh. The issue with handing Jake a market value deal is that it's gonna come with a super restrictive NTC (NMC, probably, for the first several years) and a cap hit that when the team can no longer bury it's head in the sand and is forced to move him, makes the return complete dogshit. Even assuming the cap keeps jumping to make up for the Covid years of flat cap.
Jake easily lands what's more or less a king's ransom for a UFA, I'm pretty confident of that. A younger roster player, a prospect as good or better than Yager, and a 1st rounder--maybe more on top of that. He's got the statlines and resume that'd make GMs do silly stuff.I agree with you under certain conditions.
it lets you trade him at a later date. and in an unforced way.
Lindholm returned a 1st, the third leading scorer in the OHL (a defenceman) and a decent replacement piece in Kuzumenko. If we get something close to that, thats a pretty high sell imo. Not to mention that the Pens could retain and get him to 1.5m with the help of another team. Other than being center, is Lindholm more valuable than Guentzel?
The only way this is an argument is if the Penguins claw back into playoff contention, so, are you still selling Jake at the TDL if they're like 10-1-1 and in the 7th seed?
Picks are a huge crap shoot. If you are trading for average to below average youth you aren't doing your job.
I have to disagree. Almost everyone on here had to have Karlsson "because at least he will be" fun to watch". Now he's here and they are still "unwatchable" So now you want to watch a product like the Coyotes for the last 10 years because that will be better? I'll have to pass. I'd rather watch a team with at least a shot at the playoffs."It's been so long since the Pens have been truly bad," declares the guy covering a team that hasn't seen the 2nd round in what is about to be six years running, and may miss the playoffs for the second consecutive season.
I mean, I get what he's saying, the rebuild is gonna be downright ugly, but c'mon. It was an unreal era that produced 4 Cup appearances and 3 Cup wins, and saw two of the best ever to play hockey--one being top-5 all time. Also, I don't agree that tearing things down and watching a team full of underdogs with zero expectation of winning is a worse experience as a fan than watching whatever slopshit disappointment this team's been shoveling out onto the ice while JR, Hextall and Sullivan take sledgehammers to the end of the Sid/Geno era.
They're already bad, they're just not getting anything for being bad. They have zero shot at a Cup anymore and that's all that matters at this stage imo. Seeing it differently is just having trouble coming to grips with the fact that it's over, and probably has been for years. There's no "win a round, build confidence for the next season" stuff for a team full of mediocre 30 year olds and a core of 36+ year olds. But they're also too arrogant to declare the era dead and move on, so they'll either re-sign Jake to a deal at 150% his cap hit, further locking in a mediocre team, or they'll let an exceptionally valuable asset walk for free and call him their deadline rental.
