The Penguins swung a deal with one of their preferred trading partners today. In a swap of 26-year-olds, POHO/GM Kyle Dubas sent forward Filip Hållander to the Oilers for spare defenseman Spencer Stastney.
With this exchange, I’d say Oilers’ GM Stan Bowman has gone a long way to redressing the balance after being fleeced by Dubas in last season’s Tristan Jarry swap.
Before I break out the blowtorch, please understand that nothing I’m about to write is meant in any way to be a personal attack on Stastney, who as Curly Howard once put it is a “victim of coicumstance.” It is a brutally honest (and impassioned) evaluation of the trade.
I HATE this trade. Absolutely H-A-T-E it.
While Hållander isn’t exactly a kid, I rate him as one of the best, if not the best, of our next wave. Perhaps it’s the fact that the 6’2” 207-pounder spent five seasons honing his game (and excelling) in the Swedish Hockey League before venturing back across the pond last summer.
IMHO, the former second-round pick plays a remarkably solid all-around game. Skates well. Smart. Responsible defensively. Able to win puck battles, something in woefully short supply during our recent loss to Winnipeg.
Maybe Hallander wouldn’t have emerged as a 20-goal scorer. But I could certainly see him netting 10. Maybe even 15. Combined with the strength of his overall game? I’d take that in a heartbeat.
I don’t profess to know a lot about Stastney. However, based on what I can glean from his profile and stats?
He’s small (5’11” 196). Decidedly unphysical (a career-high 13 hits in 66 games last season). He doesn’t block shots. He doesn’t produce offensively. He’s been a play-driver in spurts, sandwiched around stretches where he hasn’t been.
Stastney is a left shot, but that’s about all he seems to have going for him. In Edmonton, he couldn’t even displace Shakir Mukhamadullin, who’s been a disaster so far.
Superficially, he reminds me of an older, less accomplished version of current Baby Pen Jake Livanavage.
Yeah, we needed another one of those.
I get that Dubas was caught between a rock and hard place with Bryan Rust coming off IR, but surely there was another way to go here. I’ll tread as lightly as I can given the recent personal tragedy he endured, but at the risk of sounding heartless, retread Andrei Kuzmenko was a completely unnecessary addition (and potential albatross) who could’ve been exposed to waivers.
Dumping Hållander for virtually nothing smacks of Dubas trying to cover his arse on the back end (no pun intended) of a mixed-bag summer and not doing a very good job of it.
I guess if there’s a bright side, Hållander will likely be afforded an opportunity to shine with the Oilers that he simply wasn’t given here.
Hey Rick,
I am supremely happy for Hallander. As for the Penguins, well, it is par for the course with Du(m)bas(S). I am not surprised, upset, or even frustrated by the trade. My expectations have dipped to new lows, watching our own hostess HOHO. When he brought in all the FAs his first year as HoHO I wasn’t all that concerned, the team was woefully thin. However, as the revolving door has now reach its fourth season I have zero confidence in KD; we thought Hextall had no plan when he was here, Dubas with his incessant flood of reclamation projects destroying any home grown talent development, he is at least as bad. Now Hallander has become a victim of his HoHO’s stupidity of overloading the team with forwards so that he was now painted into a corner.
However, as for Stastney, he is almost the prototype Penguins’ Defenseman; it wouldn’t even be question if he was an inch smaller and about 15 pounds lighter, he would be a perfect match for the team. Stastney is smallish, doesn’t hit, doesn’t block shots, gives the puck away at an alarming rate and can’t seem to be on the positive side of the plus/minus equation.