Letang Extended; 8 years 7.25mm, Limited no trade (15 teams)

[Steve Dave]

Letang for Ladd and Trouba

Ugh. I hate seeing this, only because the Jets would never do it. They can't keep big Buff. They already have Enstrom. I'm a huge Ladd fan, I think the guy leaves everything on the ice. Trouba is going to be awesome. Huge fan of his development in the US system. I would do that deal in a second, but I don't think the Jets ever would.

Letang, Kunitz and 3rd

for

Ladd and Trouba?

[pens2005]

Letang for Ladd and Trouba

Ugh. I hate seeing this, only because the Jets would never do it. They can't keep big Buff. They already have Enstrom. I'm a huge Ladd fan, I think the guy leaves everything on the ice. Trouba is going to be awesome. Huge fan of his development in the US system. I would do that deal in a second, but I don't think the Jets ever would.

Letang, Kunitz and 3rd

for

Ladd and Trouba?

I'd still want the pick.

[sniper]

what would make anyone in their right mind suggest vokoun won't be here next year? he better be when fleury lapses into another playoff rut.

I didn't see anybody say to not bring Vokoun back next year. Letang and Vokoun are both signed for next season. It's the year after that where both would need a new contract. At that point I wouldn't re-sign Vokoun. That's an approximate $1.5M savings. If Fleury sucks again then I doubt he's still around and you probably saved yourself even more. By not bringing back Vokoun and Niskanen when their contracts expire and replacing them with entry level contracts you save yourself almost $3M that could go towards Letang's raise. Add in the cap likely going up that season and maybe you can keep Letang without losing anyone of significance.

That will depend on what Dupuis gets this year and what Orpik and Kunitz want next off season. Personally if what Letang wants is in the $6.5 to $7.2M range, I sign him and risk losing Orpik/Kunitz/Dupuis. It would hurt short term, but if you don't give Letang a no trade clause you can always move him a few years later for younger more affordable forwards once the young d men have had time to develop.

After Crosby and Malkin, Letang is the best player on this team. If he's willing to sign a reasonable contract then trading him to keep guys like Dupuis, Kunitz, and Orpik doesn't make much sense to me. He's better, younger, and harder to replace than them.

To me Crosby, Malkin, and Letang are the core. With Neal's contract he's close. The rest are changeable. Some guys it would hurt to lose for a year or two, but they would still be a playoff team easily. You don't want to lose Letang long term. Look at their record without him in the lineup. It's ugly. He is the transition game. He's young. Lock him up and sort out the rest of the complimentary guys later. Some day he may become expendable, but today is not that day. I think part of Letang's turnover issue is Bylsma's system is to get the puck forward quickly. Well if you do that you are bound to mess up now and then. That said I do think he jumps into the play too often and gets caught. That's easily correctable. You can't teach skill. He's got loads of it. You can teach when to and not to pinch. The man puts up points at a rate few defensemen have in the last 20 years. The Pens will miss that a lot more than most of you seem to think if they trade him, much like they missed Staal in the playoffs this year.

[MRandall25]

Letang for Ladd and Trouba

Ugh. I hate seeing this, only because the Jets would never do it. They can't keep big Buff. They already have Enstrom. I'm a huge Ladd fan, I think the guy leaves everything on the ice. Trouba is going to be awesome. Huge fan of his development in the US system. I would do that deal in a second, but I don't think the Jets ever would.

Letang, Kunitz and 3rd

for

Ladd and Trouba?

Holy hell that's an over payment on our part.

[Steve Dave]

My original was Letang for Ladd and Trouba but npv stated the jets would never do that. Always liked Ladd. Would love to get him in a Pens sweater.

[k0la]

“I think when you have 2 franchise players like this, if you can do everything you can to keep them"-Ray Shero. More: pens.pe/14zIlSu - 7 hours ago

Current banner for me now on forums. Am I the only one reading this as a message to Letang "Your not as important". Tough the article was about having signed both Crosby and Malking longterm, so might be why only those two were talked about as franchise players.

[Gaucho]

Nobody would ever call Letang a franchise player. A franchise player is a player you build a team around.

That said, he's a #1 defenseman entering his prime, so trading him for picks or prospects is ludicrous. Any deal not including an experienced top pairing defenseman is a non-starter, except if your idea of being a GM is creating new problems for yourself.

[Pens15]

Problem is, why would a team trade a top pairing defenseman to get another top pairing defenseman?

Reality is that with Letang's contract situation, it's going to be a Staal-like return. Shero won't be getting an equal talent in return.

[columbia]

Nobody would ever call Letang a franchise player. A franchise player is a player you build a team around.

That said, he's a #1 defenseman entering his prime, so trading him for picks or prospects is ludicrous. Any deal not including an experienced top pairing defenseman is a non-starter, except if your idea of being a GM is creating new problems for yourself.

I'm not so sure that such a deal is possible.
Who would they trade for that would be affordable (in relation to Letang)?

[Beveridge]

People will want Shero's head for this, but I think Letang is a player that you risk losing for nothing. Unless someone blows you away with an offer you can't refuse, you keep him next year and see what happens.

[Gaucho]

Nobody would ever call Letang a franchise player. A franchise player is a player you build a team around.

That said, he's a #1 defenseman entering his prime, so trading him for picks or prospects is ludicrous. Any deal not including an experienced top pairing defenseman is a non-starter, except if your idea of being a GM is creating new problems for yourself.

I'm not so sure that such a deal is possible.
Who would they trade for that would be affordable (in relation to Letang)?

Best case scenario - assuming Letang is traded - would be getting a guy like Yandle (+?) with a cap hit of 5.25 million (three years left on his contract). Problem is, the Coyotes have no good reason to make that deal.

[Gaucho]

People will want Shero's head for this, but I think Letang is a player that you risk losing for nothing. Unless someone blows you away with an offer you can't refuse, you keep him next year and see what happens.

Yes, I'd want Shero's head for that.

[GSdrums87]

People will want Shero's head for this, but I think Letang is a player that you risk losing for nothing. Unless someone blows you away with an offer you can't refuse, you keep him next year and see what happens.

Yes, I'd want Shero's head for that.

Exactly. Knowing how difficult it'll be to keep him with the cap dropping and still field a balanced team, there's NO way you let him walk for "one more shot".

[Idoit40fans]

You don't make sacrifices like you did this year then lose a centerpiece to a defense the following offseason. If you were planning to go for it going into the 12-13 season and didn't have Letang under contract, i'd understand it. You don't follow up this trade deadline with losing Letang for nothing the next offseason.

[RisslingsMissingTeeth]

I think you trade Letang for the single biggest glaring weakness in your org. Young forwards. I'd bet my bank account that Shero addresses his pathetic recent history of not drafting any forward prospects. In fact, I'm betting that Shero knew that someday he would use his deep defensive corps solely to acquire the prospects he intentionally did not draft.

[pfim]

Problem is, why would a team trade a top pairing defenseman to get another top pairing defenseman?

Reality is that with Letang's contract situation, it's going to be a Staal-like return. Shero won't be getting an equal talent in return.

I don't know that you need one equal talent, certainly that doesn't make sense-why would the other team trade a cheaper, equally talented player for Letang? But some here seem to underrate Letang's ability and value so much so that you'd think the only option here is to get a draft pick or a bottom-pairing defenseman in return.

Fact is, the team can't afford to give up Letang and not get a very good, experienced defenseman in return. Letang, Martin and Orpik got all the ice time, there is no one in the system that is ready to contribute that much.

[Idoit40fans]

Maybe they should trade Letang for Goligoski and some prospects.

[Gaucho]

Maybe they should trade Letang for Goligoski and some prospects.

I've seen some propositions that amount to about that.

[Take the Body Shoot the Puck]

Problem is, why would a team trade a top pairing defenseman to get another top pairing defenseman?

Reality is that with Letang's contract situation, it's going to be a Staal-like return. Shero won't be getting an equal talent in return.

I don't know that you need one equal talent, certainly that doesn't make sense-why would the other team trade a cheaper, equally talented player for Letang? But some here seem to underrate Letang's ability and value so much so that you'd think the only option here is to get a draft pick or a bottom-pairing defenseman in return.

Fact is, the team can't afford to give up Letang and not get a very good, experienced defenseman in return. Letang, Martin and Orpik got all the ice time, there is no one in the system that is ready to contribute that much.

This is true, but in my dream world we trade Letang for a similar package to Staal and sign Rob Scuderi to take his even strength and PK minutes while Martin takes over as PP QB.

[Gaucho]

This is true, but in my dream world we trade Letang for a similar package to Staal and sign Rob Scuderi to take his even strength and PK minutes while Martin takes over as PP QB.

Do you sometimes wake up screaming?

[Pens15]

Problem is, why would a team trade a top pairing defenseman to get another top pairing defenseman?

Reality is that with Letang's contract situation, it's going to be a Staal-like return. Shero won't be getting an equal talent in return.

I don't know that you need one equal talent, certainly that doesn't make sense-why would the other team trade a cheaper, equally talented player for Letang? But some here seem to underrate Letang's ability and value so much so that you'd think the only option here is to get a draft pick or a bottom-pairing defenseman in return.

Fact is, the team can't afford to give up Letang and not get a very good, experienced defenseman in return. Letang, Martin and Orpik got all the ice time, there is no one in the system that is ready to contribute that much.

Assuming Letang would negotiate and sign with the team he's dealt to (because if he won't do that the return will be very weak), even then I doubt Shero will get a good experienced blue-liner back. It doesn't make sense to trade strength for strength. It seems more likely that a team with depth at forward would make the logical trade partner.

Unfortunately it's tough to imagine a realistic Letang trade that doesn't make the Pens worse for next season.

[pens2005]

Nobody would ever call Letang a franchise player. A franchise player is a player you build a team around.

That said, he's a #1 defenseman entering his prime, so trading him for picks or prospects is ludicrous. Any deal not including an experienced top pairing defenseman is a non-starter, except if your idea of being a GM is creating new problems for yourself.

That's not going to happen. If it would, we would just be better off signing Letang.

Any experienced players coming back will cost too much, totally negating the whole purpose of trading him in the first place.

[pens2005]

Problem is, why would a team trade a top pairing defenseman to get another top pairing defenseman?

Reality is that with Letang's contract situation, it's going to be a Staal-like return. Shero won't be getting an equal talent in return.

I don't know that you need one equal talent, certainly that doesn't make sense-why would the other team trade a cheaper, equally talented player for Letang? But some here seem to underrate Letang's ability and value so much so that you'd think the only option here is to get a draft pick or a bottom-pairing defenseman in return.

Fact is, the team can't afford to give up Letang and not get a very good, experienced defenseman in return. Letang, Martin and Orpik got all the ice time, there is no one in the system that is ready to contribute that much.

Assuming Letang would negotiate and sign with the team he's dealt to (because if he won't do that the return will be very weak), even then I doubt Shero will get a good experienced blue-liner back. It doesn't make sense to trade strength for strength. It seems more likely that a team with depth at forward would make the logical trade partner.

Unfortunately it's tough to imagine a realistic Letang trade that doesn't make the Pens worse for next season.

You're right, and that's the price you pay for having two $9 mil/yr. players on your roster.

It's a double edged sword. It's cool to have two superstars, but the ******** and complaining will continue in regards to our defense or lack of secondary scoring because of it.

[Gaucho]

Nobody would ever call Letang a franchise player. A franchise player is a player you build a team around.

That said, he's a #1 defenseman entering his prime, so trading him for picks or prospects is ludicrous. Any deal not including an experienced top pairing defenseman is a non-starter, except if your idea of being a GM is creating new problems for yourself.

That's not going to happen. If it would, we would just be better off signing Letang.

Any experienced players coming back will cost too much, totally negating the whole purpose of trading him in the first place.

Yes, we'd be better off signing Letang, period.

[Idoit40fans]

Yeah, i'm starting to lean that way.