From: jrmst8+@pitt.edu (Joseph R Mcdonald)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.hockey
Subject: Re: trade rumor
Date: 19 Dec 92 07:03:56 GMT
Organization: University of Pittsburgh

In article <1992Dec16.181801.7810@bmerh85.bnr.ca> wizz@bnr.ca (Boris Volk) writes:
>In article <Af=nZ4u00Uh701iHAO@andrew.cmu.edu>, Anna Matyas <am2x+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:
>|> 
>|> Food for thought.  Folks were talking about this rumor last night:
>|> 
>|> Jaromir Jagr and unnamed player(s) for Brett Hull.
>|> 
>|> Hmmm...Hull isn't happy in St Louis.  Jagr has said he'll go anywhere
>|> for the money (but he also wants sunshine and pretty girls).  Would
>|> Hull be happy on the second (or third?!) line?
>|> 
>|> Mom.
>|> 
>
> It's absolutly amazing that anybody could judge Jagr to be of comparable value
>to Brett Hull. I realize that most Penguin fans have trouble with this, but
>then again they have a fairly myopic view of hockey in general.

yeah. yeah.  Let's "Pittsburgh bash" so we can look like we're SOOOOO smart.
Go blow it out your ass.

> Jagr unquestionably has talent and enormous potential. But, with the exception
>of last year's playoff, where is the beef? He reminds me of a young Ruzicka
>with better teeth - shows something once every 5 or six games. How could any
>sane GM trade a proven 70-80 goal scorer for a potential 80-90 pt player. Yes I
>believe that Jagr will never break the century mark in points for the simple
>reason that he doesn't have the internal drive to do it. 

He's 20-years-old and makes 1/3 what Hull makes.  Any GM with MONEY constraints
and a 6th place team would NOT be insane to make this trade.  The Blues are
losin, Hull's production is down and his +/- is about -zillion, and he's
overpaid.  Undoubtedly, Hull is better than Jagr at this stage.  Probably,
Jagr will never be as good as Hull at his best.  But this season is showing
that Hull is merely a GOOD player when he doesn't have an Adam Oates to feed
him.

THIS "myopic" Pens fan DOESN'T want the Pens to make this trade.  They already
have the league's highest payroll.  No need to increase is about a couple
million to get an over-rated right-winger who is one-dimensional.

> As for Hull being on the third line, that equally laughable. The Pens do have
>2 franchise players in Lemieux and Stevens, however after that what do they have.
>
>   Francis - solid 2nd line center - his best days were in Hartford
>   Tochett - almost a franchise player
>   Mullen - nobody wanted this free agent - 20 goal man on another team
>   McEachern (sp) - good prospect - who knows
>   Errey - get real
>   
> Should this insane trade come about the lines would probably be
>   
>  Errey Lemieux Hull
>
>  Stevens Francis Tochett

Bob Errey hasn't played on Lemieux's line since 1990.  Stevens and
Lemieux have developed a sort of "ESP" between them on the ice.  No 
way does Stevens move off of Lemieux's line.   If this trade happens,
and I hope it doesn't, the lines would be as follows:

Stevens-Lemieux-Tocchet
Mullen-Francis-Hull (Yes, Mullen would move to left wing.  He did it
                     while Stevens was out recently and him and Francis
                     have the same "ESP" on the ice as Mario and Stevens
                     do).
Errey-McEachern-Loney
Daniels/Needham-Tippett-Stapleton


> Lemieux and Stevens are unquestionably the engine that powers the Pens. It was
>evident that they were much weaker when Stevens was out of the line-up. The old
>Oilers made quite a few journeyman players look like stars when they mixed them
>in with Gretzky and Messier.
>
> Having said all this, the Pens still do have the best talent in the league, but
>I beleive that the gap that separted them from the rest of the pack is
>dimminishing with the influx of talent from Europe.
>
> Boris Volk 

Except some of that talent from Europe is in the Pens organization.  Namely,
Martin Straka, Markus Naslund, and Jagr (if he's not traded).

Howard Baldwin is done spending big bucks this year.  Don't look for Hull
in a Pens uniform anytime soon.

Dean
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Dean J. Falcione                                   Dean's UNIX Exorcism Service 
(using jrmst8 by permission                             "We kill daemons" 
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