At first, as the news broke, I was not sure what I thought of the move, as I am a big fan of the POTENTIAL I have seen in Joe Morrow. At one point, I had visions of he and Simon Despres anchoring a large and mobile defense corps well into my old age. Two camps ago it appeared that Joe Morrow could have made the big club as a teenager, and I had visions of grandeur associated with a blue line that had Letang, Morrow and Despres as the anchors along with Harrington, Strait and Bortuzzo. Well folks upon further review, I think it is a great move for the Penguins as I read some of the pros and cons, and make my own opinion. Those who are against the move cite a few major reasons;
The big time top four POTENTIAL of Joe Morrow;
The relatively lackluster season of Brenden Morrow thus far;
The rental nature and advancing age of Brenden Morrow;
Well, those are all points that are well taken, and in a vacuum all are totally true issues that can be chalked up in the con column. But there are way too many arguments to the pro side of the equation. First, and this ties back to my Sutter and two stud blue line prospects for Staal post, is the fact that Ray Shero has stockpiled blue chip defensive prospects for this very reason. To improve the team's chances of winning the Stanley Cup NOW, and in the future. According to Josh Yohe, the Penguins scouts have been said that both Olli Maata and Pouliot project to better pros than Morrow, and that does not even cover the emergence of Despres on the Penguins, Bortuzzo as the seventh defenseman on the Penguins this season, or the high regard for Brian Dumoulin and Scott Harrington among others in the system. In other words, despite the POTENTIAL of Morrow, the Penguins blue line depth for now or the future is FAR from depleted by this move. The world is full of blue chip prospects who never actually reach their POTENTIAL, ie Noah Welch, Angelo Esposito, Eric Tangradi, et al. So to me, the Penguins decided to take advantage of a team who is poised atop the Conference, but possibly lacking some grit, leadership and size in the top 9 and they took a shot at winning NOW, without mortgaging the future at all. But, did they get an aging rental who is past his prime? Possibly they did. But is that not what they got when they added Gary Roberts and Bill Guerin at past deadlines? Did both of those players not add to the team in a way that led to a Finals trip and a Stanley Cup? Has Noah Welch even played enough ever to be noticed as an NHL player much less win the Norris? There you go! And what did the Penguins get in Morrow? They got a 6'0" and 210 lb LW, who has been the captain of the Stars since 2006-07. They got a gritty player who goes hard to the net, and has 243 goals and 528 points in his regular season career to go with about 1200 PIMs who probably recognizes this stop as one that may represent his last best chance to hoist the Stanley Cup, no small matter for a fierce Canadian kid who won Gold representing his country in the 2010 Olympics, despite the availablity of younger kids. He was selected for the grit and leadership he possessed, and he helped to deliver. Is he on the downside of his carreer? Sure he is, but he does not have to drive the numbers in Pittsburgh to lead them to the promised land. He will clearly either add some drive and grit to the second line along with Neal and Malkin, creating even more space for those two guys, along with getting them the puck in battles along the boards, a la Chris Kunitz or he will match up with Sutter and Cooke, leaving Bennett to keep gaining his chemistry on the second line to give the Penguins a truly nasty to play against tough ass third line who can wear you out and score the occasional big goal. Or more than occasional GWG when you add the big goal potential of Morrow, who scored 3 of the Stars' game winning OT goals in their drive to the Finals, to clutch goal scoring of Brandon Sutter. Folks, the Penguins are a much tougher match up problem for any opponent today than they were yesterday, and they gave up NOTHING from the roster today. They took a man with POTENTIAL, albeit big time potential to take a shot at winning NOW. And they took that man from a deep pool of others with POTENTIAL. They also moved up two rounds in a deep 2103 draft with swapping of draft picks that occurred as well. If Morrow is a rental and the Penguins make a deep run into the post season at least, still a good deal. If he adds the depth, grit and character to win the Cup then it is a GREAT deal. This move does not in any way guarantee the Penguins a deep playoff run, much less the Cup, but the teams who do win the Cup tend to be deep, balanced, gritty and defensively responsible. The Penguins are more of all four of this things after this trade folks. All in, nicely done!
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