Trading All-Stars

Pleading for a dose of rationality before pulling the trigger on trades you'll regret...

The last time the Penguins traded a franchise player, they didn’t make the playoffs for several years.

If Nashville would somehow want to trade Shea Weber for Kris Letang and one of Pittsburgh’s elite defensive prospects (and I don’t know why Nashville would, so this is speculative moot point), I do that deal in a heartbeat because it makes Pittsburgh better now.   If Montreal wants to trade PK Subban for Letang, I can live with that deal, too.  

I can’t deal with trading Letang for prospects and “a position player”—it doesn’t improve the Penguins NOW, in Sidney Crosby’s prime.   Getting a “scorer” and a prospect in exchange for an All-Star defenseman doesn’t improve where the Penguins are weak NOW.

I can’t even bring myself to think about trading Evgeni Malkin, but suffice to say if one were to consider such utter lunacy, you’d need to get enough points scored, plus goals saved to make up for the 100 points Malkin would be contributing to your line-up (good luck doing that).   If I trade Malkin, I want a young franchise defenseman, a second line center, and 2 goal scoring wingers, or a 1-goal scoring winger and a 3^rd line center.   I doubt there’s a franchise that has what I need to get equal value for Malkin, and no other team typically wants to gut their franchise for one player (unless we’re talking the Flyers in 1992 for Lindros). 

Trading All-Stars players—generally speaking—weakens a team unless you are exchanging All-Star players for All-Star players.  Think John Cullen for Ron Francis.   Think Mark Recchi for Rick Tocchet.    And, please, whatever you do, do not think about Jaromir Jagr for prospects whose names I can’t bring myself to write (because, while that's the worst-case scenario, the team that gets the better player usually wins the trade).  

Trading All-Star players—without getting equal return—means you’re more likely to become the Tampa Bay Lightning (borderline playoff team) than a much better team.   And getting “equal return”—as in, “Use the cap space to trade and acquire some other defenseman!” isn’t like a video game.   Franchise defensemen aren’t readily available, and cost a mint.  Franchise centers aren’t readily available, and cost a mint. (  You may have “cap space,” but you won’t be able to acquire other “franchise” players without giving up significant assets.)

I recognize we live in the era of the salary cap and it’s impossible to keep teams forever together and that hard decisions have to be made.

I’d just suggest that in lieu of trading All-Stars, Pittsburgh considers putting the All-Stars they already have in the best position to win with the most appropriate line-mates and defensive partners for the postseason (which is very different than the NHL regular season). 

Because—as the years 2002 through 2006 demonstrated so painfully, you’re more likely—short-term—to weaken your team when you trade a franchise player, especially if you fail to get another franchise player in return.   And, because, as the difference between this year’s Penguins and  the 2011 Penguins should show, you’re more likely to advance in the playoffs (even if not capture the ultimate prize) if you keep your franchise players.   

I can only hope management—in particular, Mario Lemieux (who once, basically, approved the trade of Sergei Zubov for Kevin Hatcher)—takes a look at their team and makes rational decisions to IMPROVE the team, rather than IRRATIONAL decisions based on the disappointing emotions of a playoff loss that was a collective, organizational failure (from the GM's failure to get the right (on-ice, not on-paper) support to the coaching staff's failure to adjust to star players' failure to produce to supporting star players' same failure to produce).