Last week, before a game at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, I had a P.K. Subban related discussion with a longtime NHL executive who was at the game. I asked him if he thought the price tag on Subban was being set too high, either by the player himself in his contract demands and/or by the Canadiens in the rumored trade return they want if they deal his rights.
His answer: "Yes and yes. Look, I like Subban a lot. He's already good and he has a chance to be great. But he isn't there yet. So if Subban is worth all that, then what is [Alex] Pietrangelo worth? That kid is already one of the cream of the crop. He can name his price, and he deserves every penny. He's a franchise player. Subban isn't there yet."
Quite frankly, the longer Pietrangelo waits -- he can be a restricted free agent this summer -- the more likely it is that he won't have to "settle" for a bridge contract that teams have been pushing for since the lockout. If he stays healthy the rest of this year, he's going to break through to Norris Trophy finalist status after knocking on the door last year. Book it.
Many HockeyBuzz readers have asked me numerous times if it's possible that another team could "poach" Pietrangelo via a massive offer sheet this summer or by trading for his rights. Alternatively, they wonder if perhaps Kevin Shattenkirk (also an RFA) could be had in lieu of Pietrangelo.
The answer: Highly unlikely for Shattenkirk and zero chance Pietrangelo is pried away from the Blues. St. Louis has built its nucleus from the blueline out, which is not to say that there is also not a fine corps of young forwards coming of age as well. But Pietrangelo is the one who is viewed as the keep-at-all-costs franchise player, and he's going to be paid as such. He is the Blues' emerging version of Shea Weber, and get used to hearing his name mentioned in that elite company.
Pietrangelo doesn't have Weber's mean streak, but he's real solid defensively in addition to his formidable offensive skills. Plain and simple, he's the real deal. That's not a news flash to anyone who pays attention to what goes on around the league, but it has only been with St. Louis' emergence (after a long absence) as a power in the Western Conference that he's started to receive widespread national attention in the U.S. and Canada as a serious Norris candidate.
The method by which St. Louis developed Pietrangelo should be a blueprint for other teams in how to bring along a top defensive prospect. Unlike so many top-of-the-draft guys who get rushed into the NHL, the Blues took their time with Pietrangelo after choosing him with the fourth overall pick of the 2008 Draft. He was returned to his junior team twice rather than letting him struggle in the NHL. By the time he cracked the NHL roster as a full-time player in 2010, he was ready to handle the massive challenges that awaited him.
I see a bit of a parallel here with Weber, although Weber was initially a second-round pick rather than a first-rounder. The common theme is that he was brought along slowly, playing in junior hockey until he was 20 and then the majority of his first year in the AHL. That made the growing pains less severe in the NHL, and decreased the learning curve.
At any rate, the Blues' patience with the young defenseman and his own persistence in sticking with the program have paid off on the ice. He is going to get a massive new contract from St. Louis. The only question is whether it will happen pre-emptively before other teams can even mull over the possibility of an RFA offer sheet that drives up his price or if it happens over the summer. But it will happen, and St. Louis's new ownership group will have little other choice but be part of the next bar-setting contract for the maximum that a young D is worth.
Ottawa fans may kill me on this, but I would say Pietrangelo's market value is worth every bit of what Erik Karlsson is making on his $6.5 million cap hit over a seven-year deal. Even though that deal was signed under the old, less restrictive CBA, Pietrangelo is the type of player who will not feel the pinch. He's going to cash in regardless.
In the meantime, it's going to be interesting to see how the "new world order" in Norris Trophy balloting shakes out starting this year. With all due respect to Zdeno Chara, I think he could be bumped out of the finalist picture with Pietrangelo joining Karlsson and Weber as one of the three main guys up for debate.
Let's see what our readers think. Weigh in below....
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