Pittsburgh Penguins: Is a Kris Letang Trade Really Needed?

We are coming up to the midway point of the 2017-18 NHL season and the Pittsburgh Penguins are struggling to string together important wins.

With the amount of struggles the Pittsburgh Penguins have been experiencing this season, it’s no surprise that a handful of rumours are circulating as well. One of those rumours pertains to none other than star defence an Kris Letang.

With the Penguins needing to shed some cap space and the trade deadline approaching quickly, there have been many rumours going around that the Penguins may be shopping Letang. While these are just rumours for now, it very much could become a reality possibly.

But is a Letang trade a good idea? Would it really help us in the long run? We’ve already been struggling enough this season, would trading our best defence man only worsen our season?

The Pros

Well let’s take a look at some of the pros of a potential Letang trade.

First off, the Penguins would obviously shed a lot of salary. Letang currently has a contract worth $7.25 million annually for another 4 years. Shedding this contract would obviously set us up better for upcoming years. We still have to resign players like Riley Sheahan and Patric Hornqvist at the end of the season.

On top of this, many people can argue that the Penguins can actually win without Letang. Last season, the Penguins lost Letang to injury midway through the season. nevertheless, the team still managed to win the Stanley Cup with a defensive core led by Justin Schultz. So it makes sense to think that Letang is expendable.

Pittsburgh Penguins

Above all, Letang hasn’t been playing all that well this season. Things are not looking that great for the star right now.

The Cons

In my honest opinion, despite the argument that we’d be fine without Letang, I really would not trade him.

Letang is a number one defenceman. These defencemen are very hard to come by and when you get one, you keep them in your system,

I strongly feel that Letang is just in a slump. After missing nearly half a season to injury, he still needs to bounce back. He has time and I don’t think we need to trade him just for a slow start. We need to be patient because he has proven before how important he is and he is still in his prime.