Wednesday 28 December 2011

Andrei Kostitsyn not getting a fair shake?

I'm asked again why I keep mentioning that Andrei Kostitsyn should be traded. It’s an itch I’m trying to scratch. I can’t not notice when he coasts on the ice. His occasional explosions only shine a spotlight on his nights off. I’ve fallen out of love permanently, and now I feel betrayed and vindictive.

He’s had many seasons to show dedication and consistency and productivity according to his talent. I’m expecting him to leave in free agency, or worse, for the Canadiens to resign him, another twenty goal scorer, to a multiyear five million dollar a season contract.

My best case scenario is that he plays lights out and we get good value for him at the deadline.

To be clear, I think we should trade all our valuable, moveable assets at the deadline to contenders for prospects and picks. I include Hal Gill, Travis Moen, and Josh Gorges in this list of availables. If a team out there makes a decent offer for Mike Cammalleri or Brian Gionta, we should let them go as well, although I understand their contract and no-trade clauses will make that difficult.

I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect our team to improve by just trading the players nobody wants, like Scott Gomez or Tomas Kaberle. If we want to make trades to get good value in return, we need to trade loyal soldiers who would be the final piece on a contender’s roster, but don’t realistically figure in our long-term plans. Kind of like when we traded away Craig Rivet. That one stung for a while, but it was ultimately a great trade for us.

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