it's not really a knee jerk reaction, I look at our top 6 wingers in JVR/Kulemin/Lupul/Kessel and I don't see Clarke fitting in. now with him currently making 3.25 and he's about to hit the UFA market he probably looking for an increase in salary. probably around the 4-4.5 million mark on a 3-4 year deal. you can't give out that term and money to a 3rd line forward. espicially when we have cheaper options like frattin and Komarov. thats why MacArthur should be dealt at the deadline. it would be bad asset management to ethier re-sign him or let him walk for free.
You're trading offensive depth because of the "not fitting in" mentality. From my mind, i can't think of a better scenario than having higher quality offensive production and defensive awareness on a 3rd line over someone who simply "fits the bill".
trade deadlines are way to overemphasized today, and simply dealing someone because they're going to be a UFA is what I would call a knee jerk reaction because you are making a move based on an assumption that something may happen down the road in which you cant answer.
lombardi for picks is trading away someone who doesn't fit in anymore because he's dispensable
trading away clarke macarthur's guaranteed (if healthy) 25 points because he doesn't fit into the top 2 lines is not good depth management, its simply trading for the sake of trading because he doesn't fit a "criteria"
MacA-Grabo-and Kulemin all had chemistry once.
Grabo continues to do most on his own, but I have no idea why Kulemin and MacA have declined so much.
Personally, I think Kulemin lost a lot of his scoring ability, smarts and toughness more when Gleason roughed him up than the Lokomotiv crash did. I think he's also got some other personal issues going on...he did get married and have kids recently. Who knows..I would like to believe he's not hurt.
Kind of like when Kaberle was never the same player once Janssen cheap shotted him.
MacArthur...I dunno. I see him as expendable. He's alright, but when he's not scoring and getting top 6 minutes, it makes you wonder.
Kulemin is 2nd. in scoring so what else would you like him to do, lead the team?
.
He has O Grapes, 5 apples, and is a -1.
What happened to his goal scoring touch? Yes, it's encouraging he's at least getting a bunch of second assists to make his production look better.
Anyone riding shotgun with Grabovski should be putting up better scoring stats...including MacArthur.