Why you might want him: Willie Desjardins was a fucking disaster. Todd McLellan is coming into town and he's already talked about having a plan for this former-Rocket Richard winner. The numbers for this argument don't really lie here. While Stevens was coach for the Kings, Kovalchuk was the Kings' leading scorer and it wasn't even close. At one point he was scoring at a point-a-game clip. At the end of Stevens' tenure, Kovalchuk had 14 points in 19 games, for a ppg of .74 or 61 point pace. Sounds like the perfect sort of guy to help get you to 750 man games, doesn't it?
What I want for him: A pick. This year or next. Next year is fine.
Casey Mittelstadt
Why you might want him: Is this another one where I blame the coach? Probably. Phil Housley was an awesome offensive defenseman. And a super shitty coach. So just about everyone other than maybe Eichel and Skinner had shit years on Buffalo last year. This lil' diamond-in-the-rough is likely worth investing in now that they've gone and hired Ralph "Don't call me Freddy" Krueger. He's the sort of new-age coach that these kids today love and will flourish under.
What I want for him: Maybe one of your younger bums you're not so high on and a high-ish draft pick in this year's draft. I have a decent level of confidence that this will be his breakout year, so I'm not falling over myself to deal him, but I'm down some picks, so this might be the kid that I move to resolve that issue.
Max Pacioretty
Why you might want him: He's fucking awesome and he's a goddamned wolverine. This is the thing, I really don't want to trade him. It's not just that I acquired him for Giroux and now I'm exhibiting a sunk-cost fallacy in my logic. No, I like him as a player, and as a person he's a sweet, sweet man. I also like what he's got going on in Vegas right now, playing with Stastny and especially Mark Stone.
What I want for him: It would have to take a fair amount for me to move him because, again, I really like his potential with Stone this year. I think we could be talking about a career year for Max. No secret I'm looking for picks, but I'm probably better off just keeping Max Pac so if you want to make an offer on him, make it one that will at least tempt me.
