542365
2018-19 Cup Champs!
- Mar 22, 2012
- 22,329
- 8,706
If it doesn't seem like Pietrangelo is going to re-sign, going after Hall makes a lot of sense IMO. Stack up because it's our last real chance at the Cup until we find someone on par with Petro, which will likely be a while. Come playoff time we could run:
Hall-Schenn-Tarasenko
Schwartz-ROR-Perron
That's among the best top sixes in the league to go along with our incredible depth, high end defense, and Binnington in net. It would definitely be a "win now, worry about the future later" type of move, but if your captain and best player is about to walk, and you have an injury to your best goal scorer that may prevent him from being very effective in the playoffs, a little insurance in the form of a Hart Trophy winner wouldn't be such a bad thing. We won the Cup without him, but we had quite a bit of good fortune on our side. This definitely pushes the odds in our favor. If Petro walks, we're not going to win the Cup regardless what we have left on our team. We'd still be a good team, likely a playoff team, without Petro, but we're not getting past the second round. It sucks to say, but this might be it. This might be our last year as true Cup contenders for a while. I'm not losing any sleep over dealing Klim Kostin, Ville Husso, Scott Perunovich etc. for a guy like Taylor Hall. Only prospect that would give me hesitation is Kyrou, simply because he's a rental. We all would love if Kyrou became even half of what Taylor Hall currently is. He's "mailing it in" to the tune of 208 points in 211 games for New Jersey. We haven't had a scorer like Hall since Demitra. Adding him to the Cup winning roster would likely make us the odds on favorites to win again. There are no guarantees in the playoffs, we could just as easily get bounced in the first round, but it would go a long way towards stacking the odds in our direction.
I'd much rather avoid Hall and re-sign Pietrangelo, but if that's off the table, which our reportedly heavy pursuit of Hall would leave me to believe, I'd like to make one more swing at the Cup before he departs. There's no better player that's available than Taylor Hall.
Hall-Schenn-Tarasenko
Schwartz-ROR-Perron
That's among the best top sixes in the league to go along with our incredible depth, high end defense, and Binnington in net. It would definitely be a "win now, worry about the future later" type of move, but if your captain and best player is about to walk, and you have an injury to your best goal scorer that may prevent him from being very effective in the playoffs, a little insurance in the form of a Hart Trophy winner wouldn't be such a bad thing. We won the Cup without him, but we had quite a bit of good fortune on our side. This definitely pushes the odds in our favor. If Petro walks, we're not going to win the Cup regardless what we have left on our team. We'd still be a good team, likely a playoff team, without Petro, but we're not getting past the second round. It sucks to say, but this might be it. This might be our last year as true Cup contenders for a while. I'm not losing any sleep over dealing Klim Kostin, Ville Husso, Scott Perunovich etc. for a guy like Taylor Hall. Only prospect that would give me hesitation is Kyrou, simply because he's a rental. We all would love if Kyrou became even half of what Taylor Hall currently is. He's "mailing it in" to the tune of 208 points in 211 games for New Jersey. We haven't had a scorer like Hall since Demitra. Adding him to the Cup winning roster would likely make us the odds on favorites to win again. There are no guarantees in the playoffs, we could just as easily get bounced in the first round, but it would go a long way towards stacking the odds in our direction.
I'd much rather avoid Hall and re-sign Pietrangelo, but if that's off the table, which our reportedly heavy pursuit of Hall would leave me to believe, I'd like to make one more swing at the Cup before he departs. There's no better player that's available than Taylor Hall.
