Carolina Hurricanes: Should the Canes Trade for Patrick Marleau?
By Brett Finger
With Patrick Marleau’s name swirling around in trade circles, the Carolina Hurricanes may want to throw their hat into the race.
The Carolina Hurricanes currently hold on to a record of 6-8-0 in early November, and given their current situation, the final month and a half of the 2015 calendar year will play a massive role in their playoff hopes.
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It has been years since this team has actually been in the playoff hunt through a month. It looks like this team has a better chance to actually make a run for a playoff birth than any other Hurricanes squad in recent years.
With that being considered, should the Carolina Hurricanes go out and make a play for San Jose Sharks forward Patrick Marleau?
During Saturday’s Hockey Night in Canada broadcast, Elliotte Friedman said that Marleau has been subject to early-season trade discussions across the league.
Marleau, 36, has 9 points in his first 14 games of the year and is a six-time 70+ point getter. His offensive ability is something to be admired, and he put that on display earlier this week against the Florida Panthers.
Patrick Marleau uses cheat codes. 🎮https://t.co/YFKWBNh3wD
— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) November 6, 2015
Given the current state of the Carolina Hurricanes, the club possibly pursuing the veteran scorer isn’t far fetched by any stretch of the imagination, but a couple things need to be discussed.
Would the addition of Marleau help a struggling Hurricanes offense? The answer is a definite yes, but any trade made can not cost the Canes their future.
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That means that any trade involving a high-end prospect like Haydn Fleury would have to be thrown out the window and the same would apply to a trade that would leave the club without a first round pick in the 2016 draft.
Where things get interesting, however, is the fact that the Hurricanes will have two top-30 picks in the 2016 draft. They have their own pick and the Los Angeles Kings 1st rounder that they acquired for Andrej Sekera back at last season’s trade deadline.
Throwing a first rounder into a trade for a player like Marleau would absolutely help this team for now, but then you would be losing a potentially high-end player for the future.
That makes an in-season trade for Patrick Marleau tough, and I can’t imagine that Ron Francis, the general manager of the Hurricanes, would make a trade involving a high draft pick, unless it is at the draft table and they don’t like their options.
On top of that first round pick, the Hurricanes would likely also have to add in a player or prospect. Looking up and down the roster, their really isn’t a player of significant value that you could send the other way that makes sense.
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Exchanging Eric Staal for Marleau makes absolutely no sense. Sending Jordan Staal away again makes no sense. Justin Faulk, Elias Lindholm, Victor Rask, Noah Hanifin, Brett Pesce, and Brock McGinn are all in the category of untouchable as well, which leaves very few players that could work in a trade of any sort.
One player that could work is Ryan Murphy. Murphy is among a massive group of great young defenseman that the Carolina Hurricanes have in their possession, but he also has the highest offensive upside of all those players, excluding the already elite Justin Faulk.
Murphy has had his fair share of issues early on in his career, but trading away a fast and talented right-shot defenseman as young as he is would cost the Canes’ future. If he bombs this season, then that is a different story, but he hasn’t played that poorly early on. In fact, he is a +1 and has developed a great chemistry with Noah Hanifin. Will they stay together forever? Probably not, but it is worth keeping him on the team for the remainder of the season to see where he is in April.
Another player that could work is Jeff Skinner. In my mind, Skinner is a great trade chip, but only for a massive deal that would definitely help the team. Marleau simply is not a better option than Skinner for the long-term. For the short-term, maybe, but if they deal Skinner to the Sharks for Marleau, they will regret it in 3 seasons.
Also, like every other player in the league, Patrick Marleau also has a pay check. Marleau has a $6.66 million cap hit this season and next season. At his age of 36, the question of how much he has left in the tank has to come up. The Canes have the cap room to bring in a big contract, but it isn’t clear if that would actually be worth it.
He is coming off of just a 57-point year back in 2014-2015, his lowest full-season point total since the 2003-2004 season. This may be a sign of his age keeping up with him a bit.
Would the Carolina Hurricanes benefit from adding a veteran point producer with great leadership qualities? There is no question that yes, they would, but they can’t put the future of this team at risk to do it.
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If a trade falls into his lap and it is the perfect deal, then Ron Francis will undoubtedly pull the trigger, but that rarely happens in today’s NHL.
Ron Francis has a plan in place, and all signs point to this plan working very well. Getting rid of important pieces of the puzzle makes no sense for the Carolina Hurricanes, which leads me to believe that a trade involving Patrick Marleau is quite unlikely, as tempting and as beneficial as it may be.