I don't fault the player when being offered a place and contract especially one of marginal talent who is given a guaranteed deal at $675,000 for two years. However, that is exactly what happened today as the Winnipeg Jets announced the re-signing of Anthony Peluso.
In fact Peluso has played so few games ant minutes at 5v5 I can't even pull up his HERO charts but he does have 3 goals and 6 assists in 107 NHL games played. What's ore shocking is that in the last two years Peluso has played 102 of his NHL games since turning professional in 2009-10.
Frankly this is a head scratching move. While Peluso may be one tough guy when it comes to fisticuffs, he brings little else other than a hard shot at the annual Jets skills competition. He's big he's tough and he plays on the 4th line and perhaps he doesn't cost very much but is he just another placeholder albeit one that can be waived easily?
If Nik Ehlers is going to be playing next year I can see some logic to having Peluso around as 'protection' but this is no longer 1984 and Peluso is no Semenko like Ehlers is no Gretzky. The biggest problem the Jets have faced for years is not being able to trust and use a 4th line, the place where Peluso plays for an average of 5:52 per game. He did average 2 hits per game though!!
Teams need role players and depth guys but they need the right ones and there is more than enough evidence that the type of player Peluso represents is not the right one, along with a few others.
Perhaps I'm being harsh here as last year I had equally strong feelings about the re-signing of Chris Thorburn for 3 years. He had his best season since being a Thrasher so what the heck to I know?