Player Discussion Marc Staal: Part II

[True Blue]

No point in going on and on about this. But another related Sather blunder was to make your goalie your franchise player in the first place. Pretty much accepted now that it is a poor way to construct a Cup Contender, and best not to make your goalie your highest paid player. Almost never works well.

Except that he WAS in fact the franchise player. Were not for him, no sniffing Cup runs or playoffs in many of those years.

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

Hank was still a top player in the league when he signed his contract. In every way, he was the franchise.

Staal was clearly declining and looked bad once Stralman left. We had enough data to go on there that he was the weak link in that pairing. Even if his deal was market value, it was clear to anyone who watched the games that his best days were long gone and he wasn't going to get any better than he was at the time the ink dried (which was pretty bad. This turned into really bad immediately.)

We knew we'd pay on the back end of Hank's deal but we at least got good years out of that contract. Staal's performance has been that of either a low tier bottom pair defender or worse for the entire duration of his deal. I'm still baffled that with the talks about buyouts, almost all of the signs point towards it being Hank instead of Staal. One of these guys will have his number retired and will go into the hall of fame, the other has been a terrible player for more than half of his career. Even if we were to just look at the 2 of them now, Hank is better at his job than Marc is at his.

 

[OrlandK]

Hank was still a top player in the league when he signed his contract. In every way, he was the franchise.

Even if we were to just look at the 2 of them now, Hank is better at his job than Marc is at his.

True but both contracts are albatrosses at this point and there is at least somewhat of a spot for Staal for one more season whereas there is no spot for the King, as Georgiev beat him out as backup last season.

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

Georgiev should be traded regardless of what happens with Hank.

I'd say that there is more of a spot for Hank as at least, by the numbers, he can be an adequate backup. Staal in a bottom pairing role was still really, really, really bad.

 

[OrlandK]

Georgiev should be traded regardless of what happens with Hank.

But not at this time. Goalie market is a going to be a buyers market. Also Shesty has played 13 NHL games and was injured twice already. If Georgiev plays 30 games well his market value will increase significantly as well as helping the team as a significant backup.

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

... Or his value drops even more than it already has due to getting lit up. I've been of the impression that they've already held onto him for too long.

The injured twice thing is a bit of a cop out. One of them was a minor injury which occurred after a ton of time off (guys miss a few days during TC with some soreness all the time) and the other was an off ice incident which isn't something you can bank on happening again.

Even if it turns out that Shesty is too brittle to carry a starters load, they should still trade Georgiev.

 

[OrlandK]

... Or his value drops even more than it already has due to getting lit up. .

That's true about anyone but not to be expected. Given his age and career to date Georgiev appears to be ascending to whatever his prime turns out to be.
Alternatively the King has been on a downward spiral for years:

Season	Age	SV%	GAA
2014-15	32	0.922	2.25
2015-16	33	0.92	2.48
2016-17	34	0.91	2.74
2017-18	35	0.915	2.98
2018-19	36	0.907	3.07
2019-20	37	0.905	3.16

[TBODY] [/TBODY]