Travis Moen underwhelms less than a year into his new contract

The natives are restless.  The tom-toms are beating.  And what they're saying about Travis Moen isn't good.  Michel Bergeron, especially, is not satisfied with what he "contributes".  Meaning, he's not fighting enough.  He's not justifying the four-year deal he signed just this summer.

I applauded the move at the time, it retained for us a trusted veteran who can play physical and kill penalties, play the fourth line and move up in a pinch.  Unfortunately, he's underperforming a touch this year, and with Ryan White being off his game, Brandon Prust hurt, and Colby Armstrong not bringing a physical edge, this lacuna is magnified.

We need to remember the context last summer before July 1.  We had a lot of holes on the forward lines, lots of injuries.  Travis seemed like a 'valeur sure', a sure thing, you plug him on your roster at a manageable cap hit and you move on and worry about other problems.  The fourth line winger problem is now half-solved.

I posited a couple weeks ago that he may still be feeling the effects of the concussion that ended his last season.  Either physically or psychologically, he's not completely able to perform.  It would be hard to blame him for that.

So yeah, a disappointing start to the new contract, but it's still a reasonable amount of money, and he'll always have trade value, so if he needs a change of scenery eventually it's doable.