The Matt Stajan Situation
Kent Wilson
September 28 2011 03:02PM
With just one pre-season game remaining on the schedule, the Flames have a couple of hopefuls still kicking around camp. Jordan Henry and Derek Smith are the guys on the back-end, although their presence has as much to do with the injuries to Cory Sarich and Brett Carson than anything else.
Things are much more interesting up front however. Given how Brent Sutter has managed lines through the exhibition round, there's reason to think Matt Stajan is in a dogfight for his spot on the roster with guys like Roman Horak, Paul Byron and perhaps even Lance Bouma. There is also the persistent question of what the Flames will choose to do with pugilists like Raitis Ivanans, P3L and Guillame Desbiens.
Ignoring the pugilist problem for now, the Stajan vs. Horak et al battle is the most pressing one at the moment. The issue is decidedly weightier than, say, TJ Brodie appearing for a three game cup of coffee last October for one primary reason: demoting Stajan is probably something that can't be undone.
But first, let's assess the bubble players:
Matt Stajan
The erstwhile Leaf has twice scored 50+ points in the NHL and is in the meaty part of his career arc at 27 yers old. In an alternate universe, Stajan is the prohibitive favorite to center Jarome Iginla this season and pool analysts are projecting him to set career highs this season.
Alas.
Stajan was force fed to Brent by his older brother when Darryl became unhinged near the end of his tenure in Calgary. Stajan was the centerpiece of the Phanuef trade and was hasitly re-signed to what looks like an ill-considered contract shortly after he was acquired. He spent the rest of the 2009-10 on Iginla's line and mostly looked in over his head.
Stajan began the next year on the Flames top line between the captain and Alex Tanguay and managed a relatively decent scoring rate for the first month or so before things went off the rails. When Darryl was booted from the big chair, Brent eagerly demoted Stajan down the depth chart - a descent that was perpetuated by the fact that Matt couln't manage a compelling performance no matter where he landed in the line-up. By the end of the season he was relegated to fourth line duty, with even David Moss becoming a preferred option down the middle for Calgary's bench boss. As a result, Stajan finished up with his worst stats line since 2005-06 (his sophomore season) and looking for all the world like the organizations newest albatross contract.
Stajan is probably better than he's showed in Flames colors. His PP time has completely dried up in town and his underlying numbers, while mediocre, also weren't terrible last year as well. He could be a capable enough middle-rotation on most NHL teams.
Unfortunately, the Flames have a veritable cornucopia of middle-tier centerman (Jokinen, Morrison, Backlund, Moss, etc.). Although Stajan is the most expensive of the lot, he is also the least trusted by the coaching staff currently. In the ideal circumstances, a rebound by Stajan wouldn't be out of the question - that is, if he wasn't battling for ice time with so many other, similar players.
Roman Horak
The "guy from the Tim Erixon trade" is entering his first professional season. Ryan Howse's linemate in junior last season, Horak has come out of nowhere to challenge for a position on the team. Although he hasn't managed notable scoring totals on the preseason, Horak has displayed good hands and instincts with the puck on his stick and looks to have decent abilities along the boards. His youth, lack of experience and the small sample size against marginal opposition in the exibition round make him an unknown commodity right now. Like Brodie last year, it's entirely possible that Horak will be immediately overwhelmed by the real thing should he make the final cut.
Paul Bryon
Acquired in the Regehr swap, Byron made a big splash in his first game versus the Canucks split squad, but has sort of petered out since the flashy debut. Small and agile, Byron has a coupel seasons of pro hockey under his belt in the AHL. He also had a cup of coffee with the Buffalo Sabres last year and was considered one of their best prospects before being dealt. He has slowy drifted down the training camp depth chart since the initial contest and ended up on the Flames 4th line last night against the Islanders.
Lance Bouma
More about grit and defense than the offense, Bouma is a bigger bodied player in his second pro season who can play both wing and center. A captain in his junior days, Bouma is a big hitter and capable checker who can also skate relatively well for a depth forward. He saw some action with the Flames last year owing to a spate of injuries and often didn't look terribly out of place on the fourth line.
The Risks
If Sutter and Feaster deem one of Horak, Bouma or Byron to be a superior option on opening day, it's probable the team will have to demote Stajan to make room for his usurper. The organization takes on all sorts of risks if they choose to go that route however.
Not only will Stajan be paid $4.5 million in real dollars to ride buses for the Abbotsford Heat, he essentially becomes impossible to recall since it would expose him to re-entry waivers. If another club claims Stajan after he's recalled, it would leave the Flames on the hook for half of his salary/cap hit for the remainder of his contract.
The cost would be $1.75M in dead cap space for the rest of the season and two more years hence. That may not sound like a whole lot, but consider the fact as many as 10 current Flames players won't even make that much this coming season. Also, the price of Stajan's replacement has to included in the bottom-line - even a mimum wage forward bumps the price of a Stajan re-entry waiver claim to about 2.23M in cap space for the club.
A demotion to the AHL would almost certainly sever the relationship between player and organization as well. Few veteran NHLers persist with a franchise that demotes them; Im sure it kinda feels like being paid by your ex-wife to leave the room so she can be alone with her new lover. Stajan is a professional and it's business, of course, but there's only so hard a guy can kicked in the groin without taking it personally.
So if Stajan is cut this October, his time in Calgary is done. His value as a tradable asset will plummet and it will be next to impossible to revive a relationship the player or hope for any future value from his deal. The choices become: pay Stajan his salary to play for the Heat and hope he can be traded for pennies on the dollar to some cap-floor team at some point in the future or; expose him to re-entry waivers, hope someone picks him up and then eat almost $2 million in wasted cap space until 2014.
Not the best of scenarios.
I think Stajan is given the Khabibulin treatment and is allowed the opportunity to play himself out of the position rather than into it, as most rookies or newcomers would be.
@RexLibris
The situation is somewhat different for skaters versus goalies though. Until Dubnyk started stopping pucks in the NHL, the Oilers didn't really have an alternative, so "let Khabi figure it out" was the only vialbe way to go. In addition, the fact that his contract is +35 means there was nothing to be done with his cap hit (can't be demoted out of existence).
Stajan's stock sunk with Sutter rapidly last year and in part I think it's because he was forced by a higher power to deploy him in ways that went against his own wishes.
We'll see how it goes though.
Adding up the preseason and training camp to now, I have Stajan way ahead for the final roster spot.
Horak gets himself into the right places for success, but seems to lack the experience to close.
Byron needs to use his hockey IQ more often to balance out his frame, and that's again a maturity thing in my view.
Everyone was eyeing his last season numbers hard this summer, ready to throw him under the bus, but it's insulting to compare him to these kids. Feaster and Sutter have made him work for it, and he's earned it.
Will he play the final preseason game?
Yikes..not the best of scenarios indeed. Owners/management should bite the bullet and demote him. For crying out loud he called himself a "whipping boy"
I don't think Stajan's getting cut, unless someone has some insider information to the contrary. Could they trade him? The only way I see them moving Stajan is to package him with a prospect, like Kotalik was forced on the Sabres, as part of the Regehr deal. Something like Brodie with Stajan... In a package deal.
That's the only way you move him and maybe get something back.
The Flames centers should look like this:
Backlund-Jokinen-Stajan/Horak-Horak/Stajan/Bouma
With Morrison out, Horak or Bouma will centre the 4th line. That's how I see it.
To me, the bigger question: where does Hagman fit in? LW's for the first three line include:
Tanguay-Glencross-Bourque
RW
Iginla-Moss-Stempniak-Jackman
Is Hagman the 4th line LW? It's the only place he's seems to fit. If this is where he slots... Why not have Horak centre he and Jackman? Jackman's showed some nice hands and will protect Horak, Hagman plays with some grit, and Backlund did well on the fourth line. All three can skate. Bouma could be your #13 forward, and if it's obvious Horak's in over his head, Bouma centres Hagman and Jackman until Morrison returns...
Of course, if we are keeping P3L... Horak or Bouma will be sent down.
And I still don't see Desbiens as a pugilist... More like Bouma, with more offencive upside, based on junior and AHL #s...
True, but last year Deslauriers and Dubnyk could have been a better option, or shall we rephrase that to be a less-worse option.
And even before that when people were saying that the coaching staff needed to give the kids a chance to play more games they always went back to the veteran...but then again I'm talking to a Flames fan, you guys know all about this.
I think Stajan is in the same boat as Gilbert Brule right now. Speculation her is that were Brule to be put on recallable waivers there would probably be quite a few teams who would take a chance on him, at half price and not for the full $1.8 million. So in Stajan's case it's probably similar in that he wouldn't be so bad if he were just a little cheaper. That and in Calgary he will always be tied to the Phaneuf trade.
Just out of curiosity what's his buyout number?
But truthfully speaking I think there is a zero percent chance that Stajan is demoted. The Flames have no Cap pressure that requires immediate relief and let's be honest... Horak & Byron are not so good that the Flames urgently need them in the lineup (nor would I say that they've been unarguably better then Stajan this pre-season for that matter).
Demoting Stajan just changes the likelihood that you can trade him from slim to none, costs the Flames more real dollars then keeping him, and most importantly doesn't significantly improve the team.
Anyway you look at it the Flames are better served with Stajan in Calgary then in Abbotsford.
Have to agree with JF at the moment.
I was really hoping that Byron would continue to show the effort and determination to be given a chance on the roster. But from the sounds of it his play has decreased each game instead of improving.
I think that Horak is going to need a year of professional hockey before he can take the next step. I see him being displaced by Morisson when he comes back or being in the press box. Neither scenario the best way to develop a young player.
Right now for the cost impact and the on ice performance you are better to keep and play Stajan. Maybe another team has injury problems and Stajan gains some trade value that way.
I find it hard to believe that nobody in the league was willing to take a chance on Stajan this summer. Chaulk it up to a poor fit in Calgary, and it only being one year. I would think an eastern conference team would think he could fit in with them and do what he did in Toronto. I would have thought that Calgary would be able to get some sort of a futures trade package put together that would be based on 2012 or 2013 draft picks depending upon how well Stajan played. Especially for teams that spent stupid money getting to the cap.
@RexLibris
"That and in Calgary he will always be tied to the Phaneuf trade."
This is one habit that Flames fans really need to get over, especially with the roller coaster year this is going to be for the team.
I couldn't honestly care less that Stajan is tied to the Phaneuf trade. Phaneuf is gone and Stajan is here. The two have nothing to do with each other anymore..
If Matt is stinking out the joint every night, I don't really care who we traded to get him. The only thing I care about is his play and his effect on the team.
Did you see his interview on TSN last night, during the intermission? This is a severely broken man. I'm not even talking about physically anymore, but mentally he looks destroyed. He looks like he is EXPECTING to be cut at any minute. This guy is done.
@JF
Unfortunately.. I agree. just can't see the Flames demoting Matt to Abbotsford knowing they can never bring him up again.
I could see Matt often spending time in the press box though with the odd chance at playing time just to shake the cob webs off.
I'm not sure who said it earlier in a different post.. but the Flames should talk to Phx about trading Stajan for Turris.
Maybe Turris is being an idiot and asking for WAY too much money just to force Phx into trading him? Maybe if he's traded to Calgary, he signs for less? Maybe he still wants stupid money from Calgary, but Feaster tells him to go pound sand and at even he doesn't sign Turris, at least they got rid of Stajan. It's a win win in my mind.
So...
Tanguay - Backlund - Iginla
Glencross - Jokinen - Moss
Stempniak - Stajan - Bourque
Hagman - Horak/Bouma/BMo - Jackman
Or maybe switch Stajan to Hag/Jack line?
I think the fact that Stajan suffered a concussion has been overlooked. I'm not making excuses for the guy but to suggest he played poorly the entire year without considering that injury is misleading.
Stajan needs to play with players who will put his passes in the back of the net. The only chance he has at justifying his contract to the fan base is by getting offensive opportunities. However I truly believe the coaching staff wants him to play a low risk game, be harder on the puck etc. I just don't feel he's been put in a situations to succeed this preseason.
I think he's a guy who needs help from his linemates to be noticed and effective, he's not going to make guys better and definitely not 4th line guys (4th line minutes) but he's not being paid like a guy who makes others better. Those are the elite guys.
Stajan's situation is similar to Tanguay's last year in TB, he got derailed by injury and couldn't win the trust of the coaches. Once he got into an environment that played to his strengths he played to his potential.
The good thing is there are forwards pushing who have skill and that's thanks to Feaster.
Everyone knows what I think of what Stajan brings to the ice - not much. I agree with Vintage, he is psychologically broken at this point. I can't help feel a little bad for him, as his current situation rests solely on the shoulders of Darryl Sutter. Darryl's moves that fateful month were completely baffling.
That said, Stajan, is a pro hockey player, and should be capable of more. If what he's brought to this camp is what he considers to be "intensity"..then he is in serious trouble, and so are the Flames.
Kent is right, the Flames have little choice but let him try to play through it. I said in another post that I think Brent moved him up the rotation hoping to bolster his confidence a bit. There's little chance he'll be as bad as he was last year, and there's even less chance he'll live up to his contract. He'll remain with the big club as a 4th line center - possibly seeing some time on the third line, or with injury manybe even the second.
--- so far I've thought pretty highly of Horak's performance in camp, and I'm really rooting for him to bring that into the pros!
They don't have to make the decision in October, and as such they probably will not and should not.
Stajan isn't a liability on the fourth line. In fact a poorly performing Stajan is probably similar to a high performance from Bouma/Byron/Horak.
Spend the month evaluating all four of them. If Stajan earns it then keep him. If a player performs with the Heat them promote them. Maybe a trade opportunity even comes up if Stajan is decent enough and a club is desperate enough. They can only benefit with being patient with the decision. As Kent says, once the decision to demote Stajan is done then its done.
If a prospect was making a clear case then I would be for immediate promotion. But both Bouma and Byron haven't been great and Horak has only recently started to push.
Read my mind dude. JF is bang on, Stajan isnt going to the A & the club is just going to have suffer through this year with him & hope he gets his game back. The only way we dump him is if we take another problem back, which in some cases, a change of scenery can maybe rekindle a player. That said, Turris would be a great option or thinking of what Rex said, Stajan for Brule, but I doubt thats a fit. I was maybe thinking of A Kostitsyn coming back for Stajan + something. But thats the only way something happens with Stajan this year. Maybe next year when his salary drops to 2.5mill then we can maybe move him.
I'd be happy getting like for like back as far as quality on the ice (aka Turris)...as long as the contract was more stomachable...is that a word?
Suck it up boys - Stajan is here for the season. Rationally speaking he should not be demoted to the AHL (mostly because I can't believe another team wouldn't take a chance on him, and claim him off waivers). There are only 2 scenarios that I see him moved (1) the Flames trade him and take back someone else's expensive mistake with a similar term, or (2) Sutter puts him in a better situation to get him going yo increase his value. In the case of the later, this still would not likely happen to late in the season, after the Flames have paid the bulk of his pay.
Maybe he should sit down with Jokinen and get pointers on how to get out his career back on track. Ollie's career was on a similar track not too long ago.
I wish Stajan all the best.
@ChinookArch
Yeah, I feel bad for him, he's not a bad kid & its not his fault some guy threw a contract in front of him giving him wagons of money. But suck it up, does he feel bad when he cashes the paychecks? Feaster inherited this mess in April & it aint going away overnight. In reality, if Feaster could have gotten Buffalo to take Stajan & a 2nd rounder instead of Kotalik, I think I would have been happier. Kotalik would have been easier to bury or buyout. I know its been said a million times already but the end of this year is when change wont be just talk but reality. We are going to just have to bite our cheeks & bear out this year as best as we can.
The guy is a professional and shouldn't have a problem being demoted. As Kevin says, do you really think he feels awful cashing those paychecks? It's part of the business. Players these days get signed to these contracts that they can in no way live up to and the organization or fans should feel bad because the player doesn't like that he has been demoted?
Having said that it doesn't makes sense for him to be demoted, but not because it may damage him mentally.
He'll be better than last year anyway so wait and see seems like the best option.
What about trading or demoting Kostopoulos instead? No real downside if we want to give the young guys a chance.
I wouldn't mind that trade but if somehow that trade did in fact happen, don't do the same thing to Turris that they did to Stajan and give him a huge contract with a NTC.
Also, TEH!
@44stampede
Not to be rude but you seem to be living in a fantasy land where players have no ego, or pride, or feelings.
Good comments so far. I have a serious issue though, Kent.
You keep referring to Letourneau-Leblond as P3L. His nickname is PL3. Please fix this ASAP.
I guess I should have been more clear : If/when a player does take these things personally he needs to get over it. Collect your pay check and do your job as well as you can.
Personally I think since salary is going down to 2.5mil next year with the same cap hit(4.5)... maybe a team that isnt on the 10 do not trade list might pick him up in the offseason.. maybe a team that needs to get to the floor...I belive the same goes for Kipper nmc ends this season...either way this offseason will interesting
Personally I think since salary is going down to 2.5mil next year with the same cap hit(4.5)... maybe a team that isnt on the 10 do not trade list might pick him up in the offseason.. maybe a team that needs to get to the floor...I belive the same goes for Kipper nmc ends this season...either way this offseason will interesting
All 3 guys mentioned aren't hurt by another year in the AHL.
Stajan needs to be given some ice time and pp time and showcased a bit so that hopefully he can be traded.
Barring that you may as well buy him out vs demoting him.
At that point, Bouma fits the bill best to come up for 4th line duty.
Horak needs to develop his offensive game at the minor pro level first.
This comment makes zero sense.
A player with worth gets traded for a dud, but they have nothing to with each other anymore?
They have everything to do with each other.
We moved a marketable asset who wasn't properly shopped for a whole lot of nothing.
So if Iginla had been traded for him, you wouldn't care?
Absurd.
I don't like Stajan, but I'm willing to admit that's mostly because I think trading Phaneuf for him (regardless of his issues) was dumb and signing him to a $4 million/year contract was moronic. It's not his fault, and shouldn't be a factor going forward. Feaster said he doesn't care who players are or how much they're paid, it's the best performers who will get the spots. Frankly, that's just pillow talk baby. That's what you tell the rookies to make them bust their butts. Feaster, like any sane GM, is going to weigh the potential upsides of his actions vs their costs.
Stajan has three ways to go.
1) Demoted: If he goes to the minors he's going to have a very hard time coming back. His confidence will be shot and potting points in the AHL is not going to restore that. We saw that with Kotalik. Sure, the humiliation of being demoted to the minors will motivate him to train hard, but how much more motivated could he possibly be after his performance last year? I agree with the article. Demoting Stajan is a sign of the end for him as a Flame, and we probably won't get much in return even if we do manage to trade him. It would be better to make up some sh*t about a concussion and let him sit in the press box until we can trade him.
2) Traded: The Flames have a lot of depth wingers. Perhaps too many second line wingers fighting for a spot on the second line! If one of the young centers looks ready for fourth line duty we won't need to replace Stajan either. Feaster could package a winger with Stajan and see what kind of return he can get. Stajan's contract doesn't look good right now, but it doesn't look like Kotalik's yet either. You can rationalize Stajan's poor performance with the Flames in any number of ways. Concussion, poor chemistry with line-mates, failure to communicate with Sutter, etc.. He's a 27-year old with a couple of 50 point seasons under his belt. The right team might take on his contract for a smaller price (to us) than we might expect.
3) Rehabilitated: Undoubtedly, Stajan is at a make or break crossroads in his career. His underlying numbers aren't bad. He might have been held back by his concussion last year. Maybe he was just unlucky. Maybe maybe maybe, etc. Bottom line, if the Flames play him and he has a good October, he might get his mojo back. That could mean point production or it could mean a trade that actually brings something of value back to the Flames. Let's not forget, at one time somebody thought he was a first-line center worth $4 million a season! Of course, if his bad luck continues, he's going to need a lot of time with the Flames shrink.
So, what's the cost of bringing a rookie center up? Full NHL salary for an entry-level player and all that demoting Stajan entails. The potential upside? A fourth or maybe even a third line center (this year) on a team that will have too many once Morrison is back. Also, these kids may develop better in the AHL anyways, so we could be hurting ourselves long-term.
What does it cost to try Option 3? Not a whole lot. The other options are still on the table if 3 fails. However, the upside goes all the way up to getting a first-line center for free. This is unlikely, but a guy who can challenge for the second or third line position is realistic.
Feaster is not going to send Stajan down until he's had a chance in the regular season. It would be a very dumb thing to do, even if one of the rookies looks like he could be better this year. If I were Brent, I'd absolutely play Stajan, but give him the cushiest zone-starts and the most powerplay time I can manage. For October, at least. If that fails, come November it will be time to call up a youngster and look for ways to cut our losses.
Is stajnate a word? If so, I think it is the 4th option you forgot to mention.
@Pat Steinberg
Is that the convention? Damn.
@wawful
Thanks for the quality, in-depth comment. Good stuff.
@the-wolf
The perception issue is always one Stajan is going to have to deal with, at least as far as the Flames fans are concerned. Gary Leeman remains a villain in town to this very day. It's not fair, but it's human nature.
The Flames management, on the other hand, no longer has to suffer under those optics. The guy who made that trade is gone. Feaster doesn't have to labor under the requirement to "make it work" the way Darryl did. Which is why Brent eagerly kicked Matty down the depth chart when his older bro caught the axe.
Few things.
Paul Byron was not one of Buffalo's top prospects as indicated in the article. HF's had him as Buffalo's #13 prospect at the end of last season. So after the draft, Byron was probably #16-17.
No chance Horak makes this team. That's not the way the Flames operate.
The moral of this story is every GM Calgary has must sign a contract prohibiting him from ever, ever trading with the Toronto Maple Leafs or Florida Panthers unless it's a salary dump :) :)
@the-wolf
My point was that regardless of who was traded to acquire Stajan, it has nothing to do with the quality of his play or his value to this team. You can't have the attitude that we need to keep Stajan in the Flames line up because we traded Phaneuf to get him. That doesn't make sense. Stajan's place on this team has nothing to do with Dion.
"We moved a marketable asset who wasn't properly shopped for a whole lot of nothing."
That is completely irrelevant to Matt Stajan. That is the fault of Darryl Sutter and his alone. It can't be a deciding factor or even in the same conversation as Stajan's contract or his risk of being put on waivers.
The moral of this story is every GM Calgary has must sign a contract prohibiting him from ever, ever trading with the Toronto Maple Leafs or Florida Panthers unless it's a salary dump :) :)
@I Pitlick the Fool
I based that on HP's Corey Pronman who told me considered Byron one of the BUF better forward prospects.
@Kevin R
I hear that.
In my (limited) viewing of the preseason so far, Stajan has been quite engaged physically, which seems like a great sign. Between that, the fact that he may be healthier than previous, and his age, it seems wise to keep him around. Maybe the coach isn't inclined to feed him PP time to get his scoring mojo going -- fine, he has to play his way out of the doghouse -- but an October demotion seems like a horrible idea on account of the finality that Kent notes.
The problem with Stajan that we *know* is intractable is his shot. If you're going to be in the bottom 1% of all NHL forwards at a particular skill -- which he is, surely -- you have to be extra sound in other areas to compensate.
The problem with Stajan that we *know* is intractable is his shot. If you're going to be in the bottom 1% of all NHL forwards at a particular skill -- which he is, surely -- you have to be extra sound in other areas to compensate.
Indeed. Which he really wasn't last year - one thing that bugged me about Stajan was how often he'd lose possession between the bluelines. I think that's really what drew Sutter's ire.
Clean that nonsense up and he'll be fine. Or better, at least.
I feel that the Flames won't demote Stajan. Even though we have heard that the owners are willing to pay someone 3mill to play in Abby, I feel that Kotalik trade demonstrated that they are NOT willing to pay, as they gave away a 2nd round pick to part with him. Stajan will start the year with the Flames (my guess 3rd line center), either he proves he can play, or he rotates out of the press box with the rest of the plugs. Who knows, what if a fancy east coast team needs a depth center around the trade deadline, maybe they would be willing to give up a 7th round pick for him...
Actually, I think VF has a point in that fans too often tie together players to try and create a link.
An example from Edmonton was Pronger to Anaheim for picks, Lupul, and Smid. Lupul begat Pitkanen who begat Cole who begat O'Sullivan (this is the textbook definition of "diminishing returns") and Smid has only in the last two years gotten out from under that shadow. The picks were all traded away save one, the 22nd overall in '08 which we used to take Jordan Eberle.
Why do I know all this useless crud? Because I'm a fan and we obsess over these things, but should it really impact how I feel about the play of Ladislav Smid? No.
I think part of the vitriol and angst that Flames fans direct towards Stajan is left over from what they (rightly) feel towards Darryl Sutter. Again, like Oiler fans who go on a tirade about Shawn Horcoff, is it fair to blame Stajan for signing that contract when Sutter put it in front of him?
So I see what the-wolf is saying in that fans are inevitably going to tie this all together and link the play of one to the other (try to remember, though, that when that trade was made a lot of Flames fans were excited about the return and felt that the team would take a step forward without Phaneuf in the dressing room).
But I think VF is right in that it isn't fair, or really all that logical, to forever tie those two players together and that once a trade is done it's done, get over it and focus on your team rather than looking over the fence all the time. Trust me, I'm an Oilers fan, when it comes to trading away players I can honestly say it is best to just move on with your own group and welcome the old ones back when they come to visit.
No VF, I didn't see the interview, but man that is sad to see anyone look defeated before the season even starts. I'd wish for him the same thing I'm wishing for Brule, a clean start somewhere new and enough success to be able to retire when he wants to.
are there any teams still under the salary cap floor? maybe the GM should get cracking and make some deals to get rid of all the excess junk we have.....
I see what you're saying, but to me it ties together stll in the sense that Stajan was the centerpiece coming back and received a hefty contract in return.
Therefore, you don't want to cost the team wins, but to not try and get him back into a position where you can move him seems foolish.
Some effort, at least, has to be put forth into putting this guy into a position to succeed (though not to the extent that Darryl mandated).
I know matt. He hates this City. He hates team management. He made little effort to muscle up AGAIN this summer....he's had 8 summers to do so. He will playout his days in Calgary until he forces the hand of management to demote him. He really doesn't care anymore.