There is news today out of St. Louis about longtime Blues defenseman Barret Jackman
Not a huge surprise, but still noteworthy -- Blues cutting ties with Barrett Jackman. Longest tenured athlete in St. Louis pro sports.
— Mike Halford (@HalfordPHT) June 11, 2015
Should Pittsburgh be in the market for this kind of defenseman? What kind of defenseman is Barret Jackman?
Jackman is 34 years old and could be classified as a defensive defenseman. Sometimes this moniker gets thrown around loosely to mean a bad defenseman with no offensive ability IE: Rob Scuderi. However, in this instance Jackman is indeed very good on the shot suppression front
Even with the solid defensive numbers Pittsburgh should definitely NOT be in the free agent market for bottom pairing veteran defensemen. Pittsburgh has younger defensemen (Maatta, Pouliot, Dumoulin, Harrington) that need to play, or at least be given a chance to play. While it isn't known what Barret Jackman's next contract will look like it is guaranteed to cost more than the Pittsburgh players on ELC's. Pittsburgh cannot spend frivolously on depth players when they can get similar production for cheaper. Their cap situation dictates this approach.
Pittsburgh has also filled the need for the role Barret Jackman would play by trading with St. Louis just last season
With Ian Cole already in the mix as the #4/5 defenseman they have no need to chase a free agent like Jackman to fill that kind of role, it would be overkill. It would be understandable if Pittsburgh wanted to spend money on a bonafide top four defenseman like Cody Franson, but Barret Jackman does not fit that description.
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The New Jersey Devils are in an obvious situation where they need to get younger and go through a total rebuild...
Devils expected to pursue Paul Martin http://t.co/XuhLHz6Qgn
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