Is Jordan Staal a Piece of the Penguins Future?

Seems like a fair question, right?

Should Jordan Staal be a Pittsburgh Penguin long-term, like Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are?

Perhaps the better question is ... will he be?

Although this writer believes he probably should be, I feel more and more with each passing day that he very well may not be.

Let's face it. Jordan Staal is a good young player with decent skills. He's only 20 years old and has many years in front of him to develop his talents. Every team in the NHL would love to have him.

Like most Penguin faithful, I'm a big Jordan Staal fan.

BUT .....

I think circumstances may be lining up against him staying with the Penguins.

For Jordan to have a role on this team, he either has to play center on the 3rd line or play wing in a top-6 role because, for as good as he can be, he's not going to leapfrog Crosby and Malkin on the depth chart even if he takes three steps forward as a player this season.

More on that in a minute.

Staal has gone on record as saying that he feels he is a top-6 forward who can and should play on the top 2 lines. But does his track record back that up?

Sure, it's early in his career, but looking at some numbers doesn't necessarily bear out a guy fully worthy of a spot on lines 1 and 2.

In his first year, he scored 29 goals playing a fair part of the season on Malkin's left wing. Last year, back in his "natural" position as a Center, he had only 12 goals and 28 assists in all 82 games. He also was -5 on a team that scored a fair number more goals than it let up, and that's not something to brag about for a guy who is supposed to be one of the better "2-way" hockey players on the team.

And let's not forget something else --- Crosby missed about 30 games last year. That gave Staal a chance to center a 2nd line. Although it's true that Staal didn't have a guy like Hossa patrolling his wing, he didn't take full advantage of the opportunity to put more pucks in the net or otherwise generate more offense on his own.

That's something that top-2 centers are supposed to do.

This year, with the departure of winger Ryan Malone to the Tampa Bay Lightning, Staal again started the season with Malkin. After playing the better part of the first 5 games with #71, Staal was moved back down to center the 3rd line. In those games, he had 1 assist and was -3, while Malkin shot towards the top of the league lead in scoring.

And those paltry numbers were earned all while getting some more time on the 1st power play unit.

So much for those three steps forward .... so far, anyway.

Despite the fact that Staal will certainly continue to develop as a player, it is not unreasonable to question how high his offensive ceiling really is.

All of this might not be as much of an issue if it weren't for 2 things:

1) This is the last year of Staal's entry level contract, after which time he'll be a restricted free agent subject to an offer sheet from another team; and
2) Despite the good play from new acquisition Miroslav Satan this season, the Penguins still need a high scoring winger.

Those 2 factors have Staal the subject of more and more trade rumors throughout the league. Panthers players David Booth, Jay Bouwmeester and, yes, Minnesota Wild star winger Marion Gaborik -- due to be an unrestricted free agent after this season -- have all been linked to the Penguins.

Gaborik is the most interesting case. I'll probably talk about him more in subsequent weeks, but he's certainly the type of star sniper the Penguins (and every other team in the league -- the Wild included) could use.

Certainly, the salary cap comes into play here. The Penguins are fairly close to the cap ceiling (although they are saving some money because of the longer-term injuries defensemen Sergei Gonchar and Ryan Whitney are dealing with). Now, the cap could again increase, which would allow the Penguins to spend more. But that would probably be offset by the raise Malkin will get when his 8.7 million dollar extension kicks in next year.

Back to the rumors. Certainly it's true that talk is cheap in the NHL rumor mill, but there probably is some truth to them in this case. And the Penguins would be foolish to not explore their trade possibilities with Staal, and explore them now. As I mentioned, he's still highly regarded around the league. He's a guy that could easily fetch the Penguins a high-scoring winger. If he continues to have another subpar offensive season, however, is stock could drop some.

In the end, that could make it easier for the Penguins to keep him around. If Staal isn't worthy of a 5 million dollar contract, he's certainly more affordable.

The question at that point is -- would Staal believe he's worth more? That may be a moot point. Although Staal will contend that he is capable of being a top-6 forward and needs regular duty at center on the top 2 lines to thrive, we'll never really know if he can be a leading man in those circumstances.

As long as Crosby and Malkin are wearing a Penguin uniform, Staal will continue to be a support player.

For that reason, it's fair to question whether he will -- or should -- be a part of the Penguins future.