Guinness wrote:I think if Letang and Gogo perform well, suddenly Gonchar becomes a luxury. I love the guy, but if Letang and Gogo progress as we all hope, that 5 million could be put to use elsewhere... *cough**hossa*cough*

:pop:

Gonchar brings too much to the table. between his shot, his puck-moving and his positional defense, Gogo and Letang are years from his level.

Guinness wrote:I think if Letang and Gogo perform well, suddenly Gonchar becomes a luxury. I love the guy, but if Letang and Gogo progress as we all hope, that 5 million could be put to use elsewhere... *cough**hossa*cough*

:pop:

Gonchar brings too much to the table. between his shot, his puck-moving and his positional defense, Gogo and Letang are years from his level.

I don't disagree, and I like Gonchar on this team, but if they're winning, and winning well, with Letang, Gogo, and Whitney coming back, Gonchar's salary might be a place where money can be freed up.

Guinness wrote:I think if Letang and Gogo perform well, suddenly Gonchar becomes a luxury. I love the guy, but if Letang and Gogo progress as we all hope, that 5 million could be put to use elsewhere... *cough**hossa*cough*

:pop:

Gonchar brings too much to the table. between his shot, his puck-moving and his positional defense, Gogo and Letang are years from his level.

I don't disagree, and I like Gonchar on this team, but if they're winning, and winning well, with Letang, Gogo, and Whitney coming back, Gonchar's salary might be a place where money can be freed up.

Guinness wrote:I think if Letang and Gogo perform well, suddenly Gonchar becomes a luxury. I love the guy, but if Letang and Gogo progress as we all hope, that 5 million could be put to use elsewhere... *cough**hossa*cough*

:pop:

Gonchar brings too much to the table. between his shot, his puck-moving and his positional defense, Gogo and Letang are years from his level.

I don't disagree, and I like Gonchar on this team, but if they're winning, and winning well, with Letang, Gogo, and Whitney coming back, Gonchar's salary might be a place where money can be freed up.

It's a huge IF as to whether the team can play almost as well without Gonchar as with him, but I agree that it would be some phenomenal trade bait to put him out there. Sometimes you have to make the leap to put yourself in a better position.

The question isn't whether or not the Pens without Gonchar can be as good or better than the Pens with Gonchar... the question becomes is the team better with Gonchar or with what he can bring us in a trade.

Depending on how the year goes, I would consider looking into it if I were GM. But it will also depend on if Gonchar can play at some point this year. If he only plays a hand full of games in the playoffs, we would need to play him for at least part of the year next year to show teams he isn't shot because of the injury.

Definitely something to keep an open ear to, IMO... but obviously not something we can even consider pursuing at this time.