Quite a few people have argued this for a few years, with it typically being followed up by people condescendingly saying stuff like "LOL, you dont trade players like Malkin, idiot", etc.
Had they pulled off a major Malkin trade ~3 years ago, they'd probably havr a deeper team, with any picks/prospects acquired in the trade being NHL ready and ready to push Pittsburgh up in the standings, instead of their current state of treading water as a secondary Eastern Conference team.
The biggest problem is that any team acquiring Malkin would be so depleted after making the deal that it just wouldn't make any sense.
What would the Leafs have to give up? JVR + Rielly + Kadri + 1st?
The pieces that got moved vs what we receive would just set us even farther back as an organization.
Crosby is 27 and Malkin 28. To trade one of them now for draft picks or young unproven talent ain´t the way to go. They are both in there primes. If none of them have an injurie that will derail them to lesser players than today they have one off the all time greatest center tandems to continue to build around for 7+ years. Both are smart enough players to be good players even when 35.
Even if Fleury had a great year and PO:s, I still think Pittsburgh would be best to part with him. I never have and never will trust him back there. And his worth probably haven´t been higher than know. Then there are some fine tunings left. But if they get Letang back, Hörnqvist plays as he did in the start before the injury, Malkin stays healthy, Crosby stays healthy, and so on: This is a great team and a contender.
And even if I don´t think this trade will happen, of course these trades happens. Gretzky got traded... But the only thing that would worth it for Pittsburgh is one of the likes of Weber/Karlsson/Stamkos coming back. And maybe not even that. And those teams won´t probably wanna part with there player even i Malkin is better, as they are the soul of there team more or less.
Easier said than done of course. Who wants to be the GM that traded Malkin for pieces that maybe don't end up to be as good for the team? I don't know if there's a GM in the league that would've traded Malkin 3 years ago. Nobody is going to be thinking well, in 3 years, we'll be deeper because of it. These are guys wanting to keep their job as GM, even though the guy that didn't trade Malkin 3 years ago is now no longer GM of the Penguins.
Pitt has been underperforming the last few years, no way you can have an A1 dman, 2 of the best players in the game, a solid goaltender and be getting outed so early in the playoffs.
Changing the coach hasn't worked, tweeking smaller pieces hasn't worked (Staal, Neal), time for a big shakeup.
BB is the only legit winger Shero drafted during his entire tenure, and injuries have slowed him as you said. Shero obsessed over the blueline and never rounded out his farm with proper fwd depth.
Crosby played the last playoffs with an aging Kunitz and Gibbons as his wingers. This year he started the playoffs with Winnik, and then they switched Kunitz back there. Kunitz can barely handle the puck now and kills the play every time he touches the puck.
Malkin played with every third liner on the team this season before they settled on Comeau and whatever warm body they could give him. He went into the playoffs with a carousel of wingers, which was fitting for how the entire season went.
When the Pens won the cup, Malkin's winger were Talbot and Feds.
So yep, Malkin and Crosby have spent most of their careers playing with third liners and leeches (Kunitz/Neal) disguised as top six wingers. They have never had the benefit of playing with creative wingers that can carry the puck and generate offense on their own.
Hossa is the only legit creative winger either has played with their entire careers. That was for 2.5 months in 2008.
Sid and geno are likely over the peak, having and paying to two declining superstars is a waste of money imo.
The q is: what can the pens get for geno? Not much anymore imo. Not as much as they could if they traded him after the 11-12 season.
general question.
Do the folks that post here completely ignore significant factors that affect value?
Factors such as:
Injury History. - Malkin has missed between 15-20 games the last 2 years. That average stabilizes at close to 20 if you extend that to the last 6 years.
Geno has missed an average of 19 games per season over the last 6 years. Or 23% of the season.
Cap Consideration - Malkin alone takes up 13.5% of a teams total cap space. Again, this is while playing less than 80% of his teams games
Opportunity Cost - What is it gonna take to acquire a player that will surely throw a teams depth chart out of whack.
No one is going to be doing the Pens any favors. Not insinuating that the Pens will give him up for a song, but no one is going to run knocking on their door offering up four young cheap cost controlled assets just to burden themselves with that contract (9.5 for 7 more years) and no depth.
I agree with what you are saying but let's not get carried away. Neal, Kunitz (up to 2013) and even Dupuis are all solid top line players (and yes I'm fully aware Dupuis is not exactly skilled but he is effective enough otherwise). Not great, but solid. And Hossa is not just legit, he is as elite as it gets.
The real problem is that in play-offs they did not play even with those wingers regularly enough ...
Gretzky got traded, we all know what Malkin is worth. I'm sure out of 29 other teams, everyone is interested, but there would be 5-10 that could put together a substantial offer.
There are many interested offers that could be floated, but the big thing is that as I said above, Pitt has gone flat and small or medium (firing their coach and GM) haven't helped. If you have the caliber of team that Pitts has and the pieces are there, I think the crazier thing is to continually stay put and hope for the best.
Blues would be very interested. 2 clubs that need a shakeup. Pittsburgh needs better quality depth...and STL needs a superstar alongside Tarasenko.
That is sad to say. The guys had many injuries the last few years and are not well surrounded on the wings. Changing management and coaching staff did not help. They both need at least one big winger who can score and make space.
How am I getting carried away? They have never had the chance to play with creative, highly skilled wingers. There is no way around the truth here.
Dupuis, Kunitz and Neal all have zero creativity. Dupuis and Kunitz are straight line guys that have always handled the puck like a hand grenade and Neal was lazy as sin and let Malkin do most of the work for him. None of the three can/could beat anyone 1-1 or hang onto the puck and create space for Malkin/Crosby.
Hornqvist is a beast and I love his game, but he isn't a creative guy either.
What was there top 6 that one year?
Kunitz Crosby Iginla
Neal Malkin Morrow
Please don't say they haven't had wingers. The pens problem is they've failed to find a dominant top pair and dominant goalie.
The top 6 was
Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis
Iginla-Malkin-Neal
It's nice that so many PHI, WAS and DET fans are concerned enough about the future of the Pens that they've figured out how to make them better.
and that is absolutely good enough top6 to fight for the Stanley Cup.
it was pens biggest stars who failed on them that year no doubt about it. they had the depth and star power that year to win it all. though pens fans will probably blame everybody except Crosby and Malkin for that failure. Coach, wingers, defence, Fleury etc.
Iginla was on his off wing for the first time in his career and completely bombed. Kunitz put up points but wouldn't fight in the corners, and could never create his own shot. Dupuis is not a first line winger. Neal had the same problem as Kunitz. Wingers like Hossa/Sharp/Benn/Paddy Kane/etc can actually create space for themselves when they have the puck. They give the other stars on their team creative freedom because of it. The Penguins' wingers have always been incompetent at this. Aside from 2 months of Hossa, the Penguins have never had a guy that can step up for them offensively when the two stars are stymied.
so it was once again everybody else's fault that Bruins completely shut Pens down? i think that Pens fans just have unreasonable expectations to every player besides Geno and Crosby. Wasn't it that season when Kunitz had his best PPG when Crosby went down and Jussi Jokinen was his center.