Pre-Season Review / Season Pre-View Part 1
I’ve decided to combine together a review of the pre-season and a last minute preview of the regular season and to offer a slightly different take on both. I’ll be offering an analysis of one team, player, situation or stat from each division in the NHL. Here’s part one:
Atlantic Division - Crosby, Malkin, Staal
So how many GM’s in the league would trade their first-born to have the depth and youth up the middle the Penguins now have with these three phenoms? Crosby of course became the youngest player ever to top 100 points last season, Malkin is widely considered the best player in the world who has yet to play a game in the NHL, and if Staal is even close to as good as his older brother Eric is, he will complete the trio of soon-to-be top line centermen playing in Pittsburgh.
Or will that trio ever be together? I sincerely doubt it.
Two problems occur: playing time and money. Money will become an issue somewhere between 2 and 4 years from today. Crosby’s contract expires in 2, Malkin’s will expire in 3, and Staal’s will expire in 4 (I’m assuming here he plays fewer than 9 games for the Penguins this year; if he plays 10 or more his contract will start this year and expire at the same time as Malkin’s).
The other problem, ice time, will be an issue the first time Pittsburgh tries to play all three at their natural position in the same game. There simply aren’t enough quality minutes to go around for three young guys as good as these three. Unless one of them gets baddly injured or wants to switch to the wing, something’s gotta give.
So what’s likely to happen? As of right now, Staal has made the starting roster, taking Malkin’s spot. That won’t last. Staal will play something less than 9 games and will get shipped back down so that his 3 year entry level contract doesn’t have to kick in until next season. That gives the Penguins time to make their decision on who they want to keep and who they want to trade. And make no mistake, they will be trading at least one of the three sooner rather than later.
Other factors are in the mix as well. There are rumblings that Malkin is unhappy playing second fiddle to Crosby. See here for more. The short version is that this is the first time pretty well since Malkin could skate that he hasn’t been the go-to-guy.
So by now you may be thinking ‘how could an embarassment of riches like having these three young stars be a bad thing?’ And the answer of course is that it isn’t. The real question however is not who the Penguins will surround these guys with but who they will acquire for whichever one they decide to trade. They desperately need more depth on the blueline, and if pre-season is any indication (it isn’t) they also need help in goal (Fleury is going to have a solid if unspectacular season, so no need to panic over his disapointing pre-season). Either of Malkin or Staal could fetch quite a price from most teams in the league. How much the Penguins manage to squeeze out for their young talent will likely be the deciding factor for their success over the next decade.