Should The Penguins Trade Sidney Crosby?

The Pittsburgh Penguins are now 3 games into life without Sidney Crosby, and the results so far have been mixed. One thing that has been made very clear though is that Evgeni Malkin is more than capable of playing the role of "franchise center/forward/player" when Sid is out. Including last season, Malkin has shown that he can put the team on his back while Crosby is out of the lineup. That got me to thinking... would the Penguins be better off trading Sid?

Ever since early last season a hot topic for Penguins fans has been how will the team keep all of their young talent in Pittsburgh with a salary cap in place. This isn't to say that I don't think the Penguins can keep their core intact. I think the Senators have laid a solid blueprint for locking up the nucleus of your team and staying under the salary cap. I really do think the Penguins can keep Crosby, Malkin, Staal, Fleury, and Whitney in the black and gold for the long haul. But that doesn't mean they couldn't improve the team by moving Sid.

While I love Sid to death and would love nothing more than to see him win several Cups and rewrite the NHL record books in a Penguins jersey, I would not be upset if Crosby was traded in the "right" deal in order to improve the Pens' chances of winning the Stanley Cup. If the right offer came along, I wouldn't hold it against Ray Shero if he took it.

The first step would be to consider which teams would be viable candidates for acquiring Sidney's talents. There is no way you could move him to a division rival and really it would be ideal to move him to the Western Conference if he is to be dealt. With that in mind, here is my list of possible destinations for Sid:

• Toronto
• Montreal
• Detroit
• Chicago
• St. Louis
  
• Dallas
• Los Angeles
• Anaheim
• San Jose
• Colorado

Now that we have a where in place, we need to determine what would it take to get Sid out of the Steel City. In my mind it would probably take a couple top prospects, one or two proven NHL-caliber players, and maybe a draft pick or two. If you took this coming offseason as the earliest possible window for Crosby to be traded, I would narrow down the list of potential trade partners to Chicago, Anaheim, Los Angeles, Montreal, St. Louis and San Jose. I don't see the other teams on the above list having either enough to offer the Penguins in return or the need to give up that much in the coming year or two to be serious considerations.

I understand that any offer for a player of Sid's ability who is still years away from his prime would most likely be promptly rejected, but Ray Shero would have to take some time to think it over if one of the following offers came his way this offseason:

Chicago offers:
- Jonathan Toews
- Martin Havlat
- Brent Seabrook
- Cam Barker
- 1st Round Draft Pick
for:
- Sidney Crosby
- Sergei Gonchar

Los Angeles offers:
- Dustin Brown
- Patrick O'Sullivan
- Jack Johnson
- Thomas Hickey
- 1st Round Draft Pick
for:
- Sidney Crosby
- 3rd Round Pick

San Jose offers:
- Jonathan Cheechoo
- Devin Setoguchi
- Joe Pavelski
- Matt Carle
- 1st Round Pick
for:
- Sidney Crosby
- Sergei Anshakov

St. Louis offers:
- Brad Boyes
- David Perron
- T.J. Oshie
- Ian Cole
- 1st Round Pick
for:
- Sidney Crosby
- Brian Strait

These are offers that would be too tempting to immediately dismiss as they could set the Penguins up to be Cup favorites for many years. I do believe that any time in the next 2 or 3 years would be too early to move Sid. My goal here is more to illustrate the kind of offers I think it would take to land him and that the Penguins may be better off moving him. If they could bring in a package of players and picks comparable to the ones above to compliment the players already in place (especially if Angelo Esposito reaches his potential) they could form a dominant team in Pittsburgh.

As crazy as it may seem right now, there could come a time where trading Sidney Crosby gives the Pens their best chance at success. It's not like there isn't precedent for a move like this either. Gretzky was traded in his prime and the Penguins themselves traded Jaromir Jagr coming off a string of 4 consecutive NHL scoring titles (under less than ideal circumstances). Hopefully things would work out a little better for the Pens if Crosby is moved.

Trade Rumor Extravaganza!

It's time to take a look at some trade rumors as the deadline approaches. Some of these may be legit and some of them are simply wishful thinking on my part. I''l leave it to you to decide which fall into which category.

Sean Avery to Tampa Bay for Brad Richards

There's absolutely nothing to this "rumor", and the cap numbers probably wouldn't even work. I just like the idea of Sean Avery on a last place team and the Rangers bringing in the most overpaid player in the NHL.

Mats Sundin to Calgary for David Hale

Sundin heads to a true contender in the Western Conference and the Leafs get a young defenseman in return. Makes sense for both teams, so it will probably never happen.

Mats Sundin and Bryan McCabe to San Jose for Jonathan Cheechoo and Christian Ehrhoff

This is another move that would send Sundin to a team with Cup aspirations. This deal would also allow the Leafs to unload McCabe while at the same time replacing him with a solid young blueliner in Ehrhoff. The change in scenery would hopefully jump start Cheechoo's game for Toronto, but I'm not sure who they would have left to feed him the puck.

Ales Hemskey to Pittsburgh for a Sidney Crosby autographed puck

Just try and convince me that Kevin Lowe wouldn't make that deal. Just try...

Rob Blake to New Jersey for David Clarkson

Blake will only waive his no-trade clause for a move to a serious contender, but I think the Devils are solid enough to convince Blake to switch coasts and leave the Kings again. The Kings would get some toughness in return and not lose Blake for nothing via free agency in the offseason.

Alex Tanguay to Montreal for Michael Ryder

This would allow the Habs to get a quality player in return for the seemingly unwanted Ryder. For the Flames, the get a guy with something to prove who can walk away after the season ends and give them some cap room to try and re-sign guys like Phaneuf and Huselius.

Martin St. Louis to Dallas for Marty Turco

The Stars and Lightning swap Martys (or is it Marties?) in a deal that actually makes a lot of sense for both teams. So once again, it will probably never happen. You get the feeling though that Tampa needs to do something drastic if they are going to be relevant again any time soon.

That's all I've got for now. I'm sure there will be more to come between now and the trade deadline. I'm sure will hear more out of Pittsburgh once Sidney's injury situation becomes a bit clearer. There will also surely be some teams that fall out of the playoff race and become big time sellers. Hopefully GM's won't be too handcuffed by the cap and we'll see some exciting deals go down.