He produces at a consistent 20 goal pace. I mean, it's one thing to want more from a player, but it's quite another to be a reclamation project. A reclamation project is a guy who is completely devoid of value. Setoguchi is not, and by the asking price I've heard for Kulemin, he certainly is not. They are guys that just had average years.
Part of the reason those guys don't produce as much as Dupuis is because they aren't glued to Sidney Crosby's hip. Obviously last year is sort of an outlier for Dupuis as he's never done that, and we'd be incredibly luck if he ever did that again.
You give Setoguchi, in particular, a season with Crosby, and I'd put money that you'd see him be a 30-30 guy. I look at Setoguchi in a very similar way that I looked at James Neal. He's a guy who has produced, but if put with the right center, he could absolutely explode offensively. Not mentioning, Setoguchi is a right handed shot that could work the left wall of the powerplay.
I think this is very well said.
You know, I sit here and read all of this, and it's pretty clear that people are split into two camps:
One camp says, unless you're getting a top flight player, don't ever offer more than TK, Tangradi, Strait, and a 2nd.
One camp says you've got to give to get, and sometimes you're not just getting when you acquire the top end guy.
Put me in the latter camp: I see guys like Seto and Kumy as head and shoulders above any winger option on the Pens not named Neal and on a comparable level as Kunitz.
But, that's an issue of evaluation.
More important for me is this: Sid and Geno are no longer teenagers. Geno's knee injury was a fluke, but Sid's concussions really should impress upon people that another decade with those two in pretty good health would be a gift but shouldn't be an expectation.
I am loathe to deal high end prospects. I am sure that I, like everyone else, falls too in love with some prospects or over/undervalue a prospective acquisition.
That said, I'm sick and tired of reading all of this 'so and so is the second coming of ______ and the guy you're looking at is no better than TK' BS, because it's that type of logic that explains how Shero worked at the 2010 and 2012 deadlines.
Me . . . I want the old Ray Shero back, the guy who knew you had to give to get, the guy who wouldn't shy away from dealing a top pick or top prospect.
Right now . . . all of you people who refuse to deal a top pick or prospect for anything short of an elite winger on a long term deal, consider this: That pick or prospect, if he actually becomes a significant contributor, almost assuredly won't make that significant contribution until Geno turns 30.