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It was the James Neal show in Columbus on Sunday night. The Penguins forward was in on all 5 of the Penguins goals and finished with a hat trick.
Neal has done his best to carry the Penguins while they deal with the injury bug. In his last 5 games since returning from his ill advised suspension he has registered 4 goals and 6 assists. The only game he has gone pointless was the one against Ottawa. In his last 10 games he has 7 goals and 16 points. People look for shopping discounts during the holiday season, but the Real Deal has been James Neal this December.
Another guy who is finding the scoresheet on a regular basis is Deryk Engelland, yes that Deryk Engelland. In his last 5 games played he has 1 goal and 5 points. He only has 8 points in 29 games played this year. That means he's on as hot of a streak as he is ever going to be on.
I bring that up because there is obvious criticism to be made about keeping Simon Despres out of the lineup. Here is to hoping that the coaching staff is rewarding a guy who is on a rare offensive hot streak and not the same old same old decision making process which led to their sweep in the ECF last year against the Bruins. Toughness is great on defense, but it had better come with puck moving skill, otherwise it is useless in the modern NHL landscape against quality teams like Boston.
The decision to keep Engelland in the lineup still doesn’t explain why Despres isn’t ahead of Bortuzzo.
To me I think the writing is on the wall for Despres. He is going to go the way of Ryan Whitney and Alex Goligoski. Shero will get a solid return and that will minimize the uproar, but Despres will be the first defenseman dealt in this kind of situation that will go on to have success. Whitney and Goligoski were addition by subtraction, that won’t be the case with Despres.
Shero has yet to screw up when trading away a young puck moving defensemen so I do not believe there should be outrage if Despres is chosen to be the guy. It isn’t the route I would go but there are not a lot of assets to choose from if you want to get impact player(s) back in a deal.
Basically the options the Penguins have are Despres, Letang, or Maatta. Those are the 3 guys that have legitimate trade value. Maatta is a non starter so you are left with either Letang or Despres. There are valid arguments for both, but the Penguins are probably not going to deal Letang, so then there is Despres.
Personally I would go for a blockbuster trade involving Letang. The reason I would lean towards moving a star player like Letang is asset management. The Penguins would not feel the sting of losing Letang like most organizations would. Moving Letang from the Penguins is not like moving Letang from a team like the Sabres. The Penguins can generate offense quite well with or without #58.
The potential return for Letang provides the best opportunity for the Penguins to acquire another difference maker. If the Penguins could add another quality forward like a Jordan Eberle or an Evander Kane (hypothetically) that provides the opportunity for Dupuis to play 3rd line minutes in the future. The depth of the Penguins forward unit dramatically gets better, especially if Bennett stays healthy and Megna continues to ascend. The Penguins defense depth would still remain at a quality level. The team is better both short term and long term.
Shero drafted all of these young quality defensemen; it’s time to take advantage of their low cap hits and high quality of play. If you aren't taking advantage of NHL caliber players on entry level deals, you aren't playing the salary cap game the right way.
The Penguins would lose a dynamic blue liner capable of putting up 60-70 points per season in Letang, but they would still have 3-4 guys capable of putting up 30-40 point seasons in the future (Martin, Maatta, Despres, Niskanen). I include Niskanen because with Letang out of the picture they could feasibly attempt to keep him around.
The Penguins also have an offensive minded prospect in Pouliot to lean on in the future if they need offense from the blue line. They also have other NHL defense options in the future with Brian Dumoulin and Scott Harrington.
Moving Letang would not be a cap move; his cap hit is a non issue with the cap ceiling rising each year.
Moving Letang would be maximizing return while having assets available to replace him in house.
Whether you find yourself on “Team Despres” or “Team Letang” one thing can be agreed upon, Ray Shero has a very good track record when trading puck moving defensemen away.
Regardless of what route Shero takes the Penguins will most likely come away from the deal better in both the short and long term.
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