With Ryan O’Reilly back, is it time to move Paul Stastny?
I think Stastny is the guy they need to seriously consider moving. No offense to him either, but if I’m the GM of this team, I go with Duchene and O’Reilly as my top two centers and try to get something for Stastny while I still can.
Stastny, 27, has 12 points (five goals) in 20 games this season, with a minus-5. He has one power-play goal. While it’s true he has scored at least 20 goals his last three seasons, his point totals in those years declined from 79 to 57 to 53. He seems tired with this team, a guy who looks like he could use a fresh start somewhere else. The Avs have missed the playoffs four of the last six seasons with him as one of their top two centers.
Of course, Stastny has one year left on his contract at $6.6 million. That would be a tough contract to trade. But so will O’Reilly’s $6.5 million next year. By letting another team hit them with an offer sheet, the Avs now will pay much more for O’Reilly than they ever intended — and probably more than any team (except one, Calgary) ever would have intended.
If O’Reilly can put up strong offensive numbers again in the next 12 months, he would still have very high trade value. But that probably isn’t going to happen playing with Mitchell and Hejduk.