Thoughts on Trading Parise?

That would ruin the team too much, and I don’t think Lou is quite ready to go that far yet. Yes we need centers, but I think he’s counting on Henrique and Josefson as the future of our the Devils down the middle.

Dude your acting like i said Parise for Kunitz.

How in your logic does Parise being in Pitt lead them to an automatic ECF, but Malkin in NJ not equal the same thing?

And come on…Pitts going to trade Malkin for Elias? Why not Pandalfo for Malkin while you’re at it? That would be even better, no!?

The whole point of this post and the reason “this proposal” it’s getting some traction is that it’s as near win-win it is for both teams as a trade can be and is somewhat plausible a scenario. Elias for Malkin is just absurd.

You just contradicted yourself in one comment. Malkin doesn’t fit, but a line of Malkin and Kovy would be exciting?

How if Kovalchuk is signed, does Malkin not fit?

And really Lou would never make that trade?? I remember him trading Sykora and dismantling the A line to get to another Cup. How is this any different?

bottom line, you don’t give a division rival that kind of help. If Malkin was playing in Vancouver, it would be a different story.

Dude, no one besides you (let alone any GM) thinks Parise is worth more than a 24 year old center with two 100pt seasons, a Stanley Cup, an Art Ross and a Conn Smythe to his name. In all likely hood if a trade for Malkin, were to happen it would be NJ throwing in another player, not the other way around.

And this coming from a huge Parise fanboy.

What about trading Brodeur, Parise and a 1st rounder for OV?! Maybe we throw in Tedenby and Zajac for Backstrom?!

Sorry, not Dave Hakstol, Dean Blais

Malkin is better than Parise. No denying it. But in saying that, Parise is a grown player who we drafted. He has more drive and he is hungrier for the Cup.

How does one prove this?

But, you can’t say Malkin is not better than Zach, cause he is.

Great. How is Malkin better than Parise?

You’re right. And the Oilers would never trade Gret…… um, never mind.

Malkin may have more raw talent but Parise works 10 X harder

How does one prove this?

I personally think Parise was given a bit of a shaft when the signed Zajac for more than him and traded for Kovy. Lemaire going Kovy crazy didn’t help.

Parise surely isn’t that petty. He knows full well Zajac signed his deal last summer, whereas Parise signed his current deal two summers earlier in 2007. Besides, Parise’s salary will be $5 million, much more than Zajac’s $3.5 mil. salary for 10-11. Only his cap hit is lower than Zajac’s now.

Lets not forget not only have they been together in this hockey tourney but also the past olympics past 2 if i’m not mistaken and a couple years at least in this tourney thats all well in good but that line also consists of Datsyuk whos if not the best one of the best defensive forwards who also has a heck of a scoring touch better linemate then what they’d have if they both ended up in NJ.

The crazy thing on here is that some of you are blinded by your team spirit and really think that parise is a better player than malkin.

It depends on how you value individual traits and what you feel the team needs.

Malkin is a more gifted scorer, there’s no denying that. Pure numbers aside, the guy can score from almost anywhere and is a beast on the PP, whereas Parise is not much of a threat from beyond the dots and earns his paycheck much closer to the net. Malkin can, and has, also carried the team at times… but so too has he disappeared. And not just by not scoring, as everyone goes through streaks and slumps, but where he genuinely appears to not care.

I might not go so far as to say that Malkin is a defensive liability, but he’s definitely ranked far lower than Parise in the defensive end, so it’s not just a matter of personal preference, but also who one thinks fits into the NJD system better.

Better is relative, so thinking one player is better than another doesn’t make one crazy, just opinionated.

They are certainly different types of players, and dont play the same position, but malkin is in another galaxy compared to parise. malkin plays a position of need for us, is signed, and is truley one of the top 3 players in the league.

Malkin plays Center, but he’s better suited to playing Wing. Don’t be surprised if you see him there next to Crosby next year with Staal taking his place as the 2C.

He had a 40% Faceoff Win Percentage (even Elias was better). He was a -6 for the season, and he led his entire team, by far, in minor penalties, suggesting he got called for restraining penalties, a symptom of being out of position and/or beat defensively.

Don’t get me wrong, he’d make the team better. There’s no refuting that fact. But if I had to choose between the two, I’d take Parise. You can call that homerism if you’d like, but I feel I have a pretty good rationale as to why I’d make that decision and that is that Parise is, while not as naturally gifted, is consistent and reliable and those traits are very important to me… enough so that I’d sacrifice the potential for the known.

Think about the team now before the players.

It’s outside of the scope of the OP and a bit unfair as we benefit from several years of hindsight a GM at the draft wouldn’t have, but I’ll answer: it would depend on what I felt the team needed, my scouting reports and possibly my salary cap situation.

If I wanted a pure sniper who would be at the top of the league in scoring every year and felt I had the pieces to make up for any defensive downside, I’d pick Malkin. Anyone would.

If I wanted a blue collar guy who was going to have to fight every shift but score his own fair share of goals and also be above average defensively, I’d take Parise.

Flip it around. If both guys were sitting there on Pittsburgh’s selection, would they take Malkin again or Parise? Is their triple threat of Centers but weakness at Wing by design or by fortuitous accident, and with the benefit of hindsight, would they opt to put themselves in the same situation or go for a more traditional set-up? It might seem obvious to you that Malkin is the easy choice, but I’m sure there are more than a few that drool over the prospect of Parise to the left of Crosby more so than Malkin centering no one of merit, especially in light of their past season.

Despite your dismissal, it does matter what the team needs. Some teams draft the best player on the board at the time, and some draft for need. If it were me, I’d draft to the need… and if I needed to build a team around a player, I’d build it around a guy like Parise over a guy like Malkin for several reasons, the two main ones being that I know what I’m going to get every game with Zach, and I know I’m going to have a little more to spend on teammates for him.

And, I disagree that Malkin is a top 3 player. A top 3 scorer, yes. A top 3 player, no. You and I (and everyone else in the world) have different measures as to what makes a player better than another at any given time (which is why, IMO, discussions about who is better are wastes of time until everyone agrees on which measuring stick is being used).

I’m not saying there is no situation in which I wouldn’t draft Malkin, just that if given the choice, I’d almost always take a good scorer who’s well-rounded over a gifted scorer who struggles with consistency and the parts of the game that don’t involve scoring.

Ok perhaps i had shouldn’t have brought up leadership when the barometer for that is a difficult one to decipher. Thanks for the in depth reply as well RolliePollieKovy. However in regards to Malkin winning a cup as being more of a leader i happen to think him winning was a team leadership concept something i feel is lacking in NJ ever since number 4 hung it up