Letang was a minus-4 against the caps in the playoffs. He was awful. Im sure we can’t unload his contract, but those defending his play—I just can’t agree with. Nothing elite about his play this year yet he was an allstar. Im all for unloading that hot mess if we can.
I don’t think anyone is really defending Kris Letang’s play, per se. I know that’s not what I’m doing. I think everyone agrees that he had a down year overall and was particularly bad against Washington.
I just don’t agree that his best days are definitely behind him. I mean, that certainly could be the case but who knows? Frankly, you could apply that same logic to any of the Penguins’ 30+-year-old stars.
I also don’t understand how people could possibly look at his TOI and come to any other conclusion than our own coaches believe him to be the team’s best defenseman? I mean if he was such a liability, why was he playing more than everyone else?
From where I sit, that fact ends the debate altogether. What else is there to talk about?
I think what happens with Letang is sometimes his mistakes are so glaring that people only notice those and don’t fully appreciate the other side of the coin like his coaches do, for example.
Letang can definitely try to do too much, which sometimes leads to really awful looking turnovers. He often presses so hard and sometimes that can lead to some really dumb mistakes.
This year, that was exacerbated by the fact that he it’s coming off major neck surgery and did not appear to have that extra burst of speed to help bail himself and the team out of trouble for some of their mistakes. We definitely saw that in the Washington series. A healthy Kris Letang easily chases down Kuznetsov in what was ultimately the series clinching goal.
Maybe that burst is gone forever? If it is, then he will suddenly become a very different player and this will suddenly become a very different discussion. However, what if it’s not gone? What if he was playing through a lot of pain and with a full off-season to rest and rehabilitate it will be better?
For all the talk about horrible he was, you must understand that Letang was also the leading scorer amongst defensemen for the team in the playoffs. He was also an even player for the playoffs, which is better than half of our D-core and a lot better than 81 and 71, for example.
Are you telling me that Phil Kessel’s best days aren’t behind him? Again, I don’t have a crystal ball, so I don’t know one way or the other what the future holds for anyone. I would not trade him either. However, I think Kessel is more likely to fall off the age cliff than a conditioning freak like Letang.
People often attribute Letang’s point totals to secondary assists – which is partly true. He does pick up a lot of assists in transition. However, he picks up so many secondary assists because he breaks us out of our zone far better than any other player on the team and it’s not close.
That’s a really big deal for a team that relies on transition goals to win games.
As I have said many times before, if they get a great trade opportunity for the guy, I would definitely consider it.
For example, let’s say Ottawa decides that it wants him and Sprong and perhaps a high pick or another asset for Erik Karlsson? Were that to happen, I would make the trade.However, that is not likely to happen. Also, just trading him to dump his salary would be...umm...remarkably dumb.
Therefore, our best bet is to clearly hang on to him and hope that he recaptures the form of 2016 and 2017 in which he was one of the best defensemen in hockey. However, 2018 is the new normal for him then of course you have to do whatever you can to get out from underneath that salary.
That said, trading away the guy who eats up the most minutes on the team is not something I would recommend – especially for a team that is already a little thin on the back end.
