Idea of picking Perron over Staal if the money's even close is beyond my understanding. Staal's a better offensive player over his career. Vastly better defensive player. More versatile. All situations forward. Much bigger. Much better skater. Better possession player. Better track record of success.
Even if you played Jordan at wing, you're still much, much improved. He's just significantly better at hockey.
I think there is a lot of assuming that Staal would be happy as pie with third line minutes. None of the big three centers play like they did in 08 and 09. There is no guarantee at all that he'd come here and be happy as a shut-down, penalty-killing center again.
I'm sure Staal would be at his most happy as the first line center on a Leafs dynasty that has all three of his brothers playing prominent roles, but that's not gonna happen.
Within the next 12 months, unless Eric extends (which doesn't look likely), Staal's got a binary choice:
a) play as a 1C on a perennial loser with the worst linemates imaginable after the only reason he wanted to be there packed up and got on a plane, only to return once a year...raising his family in a city he now has limited connections to for the next 9 years of his life
b) force a trade to a short list of places he'd rather live and work. Say, a list of three teams.
Would it really be surprising if he picks b? Or if we made the list?
We should start a Perron vs Staal thread and only gordie and cassius can comment.
I'd love to see that, actually.