Quote:
Originally Posted by Calgary4LIfe
I actually think Stajan is the weak link on the 4th line - and yes, even when Bollig dresses.
Why?
He is constantly losing puck-battles, and his shot seems even weaker than normal (and he is constantly shooting the puck). He looks really slow now - he looks like he lost 2 steps this season so far. Bollig looks faster out there, and at least Bollig is throwing some hits and winning some puck battles in the corners - at least providing 'energy' as is expected of a 4th line. I just see everything dying on Stajan's stick, or he ends up shooting fresh from the oven muffins at the goalies, while I can't see him doing much else. I do think his back-checking and anticipation while playing defence is ok - he just isn't getting there as quickly any longer, and losing an ensuing puck battle more times than not when he does manage to get there.
In my opinion, he looks a lot like 2011-12 Stajan when he lost his job to Horak.
With that being said, what do you do? I doubt any team is going to trade for him. Buying him out doesn't make sense either. I am surprised he hasn't been scratched often.
With that being said, his contract is going to keep him on the team. Until the expansion draft rules become set, that 25% rule makes buying out or trading Stajan with a sweetener a bad idea.
It sounds like I hate Stajan. I don't. I think he is one of the more important guys in the locker room. However, I think the Flames hurt a bit losing McGrattan in the room, but they had enough strong vets to absorb that loss. Will they miss Stajan? I think so, but they can continue on fine I would imagine. Russell and Hudler were probably very missed as well. Giordano and Engelland I would imagine have a bigger impact, but this also allows for some of the younger guys to assert themselves and become part of the leadership group right now - Backlund, Monahan, Brodie, Gaudreau, etc. I feel bad for Stajan - I think this is the very end of his career, which is unfortunate since he seems like 'one of the good guys'.
It isn't the worst thing keeping him on the team - for as long as the expansion draft is looming somewhere on the horizon at least. What I think he should be is a healthy scratch more often. I didn't buy that Grant or Arnold or someone else could be called-up from the farm and replace his minutes, but I do believe that replacing him internally is actually quite realistic.
His game just dropped off a cliff this year. He just seems a whole lot weaker and slower this year.
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I agree with the vast majority of your post. The part I highlighted though is a minor quibble though.
I think Stajan this year looks a lot more like how he looked in 2010-11 than in 2011-12 (except a little worse and definitely slower now). I think Stajan looked clearly worse in 2010-11, which was the year he eventually got relegated to the 4th line near the end of the season under Brent Sutter than he did in 2011-12.
I'm also not sure whether it's a better idea to keep Stajan on the team for next year rather than buy him out in June regardless of the possible expansion draft looming and the need to retain 25% of team's salary for that given how bad he is now. That said, I think we're stuck with Stajan barring going the buyout route because nobody will be interested in taking Stajan unless we either throw in a massive sweetener along with him and/or maybe take back an UGLY contract, and neither of which does any good for this team.
It is sad though because Stajan seems like a truly good person, but it looks like declining skill and speed is really getting him to the point where he won't be able to recover to being the player that he used to be anymore.