Yah those McCann, Pettersson, Zucker, Marino, Kapanen trades are terrible
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I actually even like the Kessel trade getting rid of his full contract when he is obviously going down hill and I like POJ.
Also this trade has a decent chance of being a win for the Pens. Matheson is a great skater, very good shot, physical and great at winning pick battles. The talent is obvious and he just needs to take less risks and bring down his turnovers. Ekblad has a ton of turnovers also in that system and he is a great defenseman. Matheson has the talent to play top 4 minutes and he had for a couple years already at the age of 26. All take my chances for a soon to be 34 year old bottom 6 forward with a $5.3 million cap hit.
Definitely a chance Matheson doesn't work out but you don't get a defenseman with that much talent in his prime for a 34 year old winger if he doesn't have something that needs work. I like the risk. I could care less about the length. This team only has 2 years left and 3 max to win with this core. After that I want to tank for the next generational talent to lead the next Pens decade like Mario and Crosby did. You don't get those players without dropping to the bottom. So I want 3 years of being at the bottom and this contract won't be a problem by the time this next era of Pens is ready to compete.