You see no reason why the team shouldn't give a third line center (who has regressed the last four years) $5M+/yr on a long-term deal? Probably need to throw a NMC/NTC in there as well. I can think of a few reasons why they shouldn't do it.
So many things wrong with this post.
His regression has been 1-fold, not continuous. You'd think an Avs fan could recognize this. Assists, that's it. Nothing else has gotten worse about his game. Assists for a playmaker are the bulk of their points. So, drill down into this you'll see his plight.
http://www.behindthenet.ca/nhl_time...=COL&c=0+1+3+5+8+9+11+13+15+17+19+21+23+25+27
2012-13; DAVIDJONES JAMIEMCGINN GABRIELLANDESKOG JOHNMITCHELL
2011-12; DAVIDJONES MILANHEJDUK MATTDUCHENE T.J.GALIARDI
2010-11; DAVIDJONES CHRISSTEWART MILANHEJDUK KEVINPORTER T.J.GALIARDI
Jones, Hejduk (washed up), Porter, Galiardi and Mitchell break his top 4 linemates the past three years.
Stewart was the only one that did well with Staz, Landeskog played pretty good with him but it was too short of a time frame to accurately judge yet. Duchene looked alright on his wing (Staz did feed him some amazing passes) but that was a short lived experiment once Duchy got injured.
So tell me, which of those names up there can Stastny expect to score? Because as far as I can tell, Stastny was actually the leading goal scorer on his line when he played with those players.
Let me emphasize this. Paul Stastny scored the most goals on his line when players played with him since Stewart went down.
As far as the third line center thing goes, been down that road numerous times. We can easily afford to play our top three lines at ~18-20 minutes evenly or slightly in favor of the one doing the best. Our centers will end up getting overlapping PP/PK time together no doubt.