Shero Does It Again

It is becoming an annual event now that at or near the NHL trade deadline Penguins’ General Manager Ray Shero will make an aggressive trade that looks great on paper and gives Penguins fans an extra bit of anticipation towards a Stanley Cup run. In 2008, Shero acquired Marian Hossa, Pascal Dupuis and Hal Gill in two separate trades that helped propel the Penguins to the Stanley Cup Finals. In 2009, Shero acquired Chris Kunitz (along with Eric Tangradi), Bill Guerin and Craig Adams in a series of moves that helped put his team over the top and win their first Stanley Cup Trophy since 1992. Last year, Shero traded for defenseman Jordan Leopold and forward Alexi Ponikarovsky in the first of his deadline deals that did not work out. As the saying goes, two out of three ain’t bad…and this year Shero is at it again.

With the NHL trade deadline still a week away, the Penguins have traded defenseman Alex Goligoski to the Dallas Stars in return for winger James Neal and defenseman Matt Niskanen. Talk about a win-win trade for the Penguins. Not only do they beef up the current roster for a run at the Cup this year, assuming Sidney Crosby’s return of course, but the Penguins control the rights to both Niskanen and Neal beyond this year. In Neal’s case, the Penguins control the promising power forward’s rights until 2015 and he quickly becomes a part of the Penguins young core expected to compete for Stanley Cups for the foreseeable future. Despite only being 23-years-old, Neal scored 51 goals in his first two seasons in the NHL and has 21 goals already this year. Put Neal on Crosby’s or Malkin’s line and who knows what to expect. Neal, as he matures, could easily develop into a 30 or even 40 goal scorer.

Sure Goligoski possessed abilities that most defenseman do not have, especially in the offensive zone, but at this moment he was locked in as the Penguins’ fifth defenseman and was average in his own end at best. With the Penguins having the core of their defense in place with Kris Letang, Paul Martin, Brooks Orpik and Zbynek Michalek, they were dealing from a position of strength. Besides, you have to give something up to get something in return.

Niskanen, meanwhile, is a former first round pick, is six months younger than his trade counterpart and has already played in 100 more NHL games over his career than Goligoski. A change of scenery could do some good for the young defenseman who has struggled the past two years after a very promising start to his career. The Pens should be able to plug the newly acquired defenseman in on their third defensive pairing with Deryk Engelland or Ben Lovejoy and not miss a beat defensively. Niskanen does not have the offensive repertoire that Goligoski has, but all that will be expected from him is competent play in his own end.

At the end of the day, Ray Shero has done it again. The Penguins GM has managed to strengthen the core of this Penguins’ roster without disrupting the team’s long term goals. This time, however, Shero was able to upgrade the current roster while also improving the long-term outlook.


A Couple of Leftover Penguins Thoughts:

- I thought Shero would target a rent-a-player such as former Penguin Alex Kovalev to replace some of what the Penguins lost in the offensive end with Malkin’s injury. The best part of Monday’s trade for Neal and Niskanen is that Shero still has the flexibility to acquire such a player. If Shero can land Kovalev or a similar player for only a mid-round draft choice I would expect him to pull the trigger.

- Those that criticized Mario Lemieux for his comments on how the league handled the events on Long Island because he employs Matt Cooke are flat-out wrong. Every team in the league would employ Cooke at a reasonable price and many employ a similar player anyhow. Just because a team is trying to win within the rules of the game doesn’t mean they have to particularly agree with the rules. Besides, what Cooke does as a borderline dirty player is much different than the pre-meditated violence that took place in New York two weekends ago.

- Those that criticized Lemieux for his comments because he has failed to help facilitate change in the game are right on. Lemieux, as a former player and arguably the best or second best player of all-time, carries considerable weight around the league and could be a driving force among the owners to clean up the violence in the sport. Lemieux, however, has not capitalized on this considerable influence that he could possess. It is certainly within his rights to own and manage his team however he sees fit but I can’t argue with those who criticize Lemieux for only using words and not actions.