Jordan Staal: To Trade or Not to Trade?

After turning down a 10 year deal worth $58 million, center Jordan Staal has left the Pittsburgh Penguins in a difficult position.

It is known that Staal wants to go to Carolina to play with brothers Eric and Jared. But general manager Ray Shero wants to resign Staal to keep the trio of youg centers in Pittsburgh together.

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reporter Josh Yohe reported via Twitter that Staal’s desire to play in Carolina with his brother Eric is real.

The problem is deciding if Staal worth $6 million a year?

The answer is yes, but not if he is going to center the third line. Giving that amount of money to a player who has never scored 30 goals in a season doesn’t make sense.

But with turning down the offer it puts Pittsburgh in a very weak spot. If they try and trade Staal, teams are not going to offer much knowing that he might not re-sign with them.

For instance, a great team to trade with would be the Anaheim Ducks. They just recently put Bobby Ryan on the trade block.

The Penguins would have to give up more than just Staal for the trade to work, but with the fact that Staal seems unwilling to resign and test free agency it would not make sense for the Ducks to give up an asset like Ryan. Ryan is under contract through 2015 and carries a $5.1 million cap hit each year.

Every general manager around the National Hockey League knows that the Penguins don’t want to let Staal walk and not get anything for him. But that puts the Penguins behind the eight ball as teams know this fact and are not going to offer their best assets.