Bobby Bevilacqua

The crazy trade rumors are starting really early this year.

Photo courtesy of Kyle Terada/USA TODAY Sports.

An annual occurrence, Patrick Marleau’s name has been coming up in some trade rumors early. First reported by Kevin Kurz of CSN Bay Area, Marleau had supposedly stated that he would accept a trade to the Los Angeles Kings, the Anaheim Ducks or the New York Rangers.

Marleau is currently in the second year of a three year, $20 million contract. He has a full no trade clause and would need to approve any trade the Sharks would try. TSN’s Bob McKenzie later reported that it is more likely that Marleau asked the Sharks to look at trade possibilities, and it probably wasn’t the Sharks asking for a list of teams.

It is less likely SJ asked Marleau to waive NTC and more likely that Marleau asked SJ to explore trade possibilities to select teams.

— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) November 11, 2015

The Sharks have gone through some tough times over the past two years, missing the playoffs last season, and stripping players of their captaincy. Marleau was removed as a captain and an assistant captain since 2010, and he’s the recipient of criticism during the playoffs, despite no player scoring more playoff goals than him (60) since he entered the league. He also is yet to win a Stanley Cup, a goal of every NHL player.

Marleau has spent his entire career with the Sharks since being drafted by them in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft. Last night’s game against the Islanders was his 1,334^th with the club and he sits just three points shy of 1,000. He’s the franchise leader in games played, goals and points, and he’s second in assists, behind teammate Joe Thornton.

If that list of three teams is true, Marleau really handcuffed the Sharks. Two of the teams are in their division (Kings, Ducks), and the Kings look like a playoff team right now. That means they’ll probably look to trade him to the Rangers right? New York has had scouts at the Sharks’ last two games according to Kurz.

It’s not like it wouldn’t help. Marleau is still a good player, posting four goals and five assists in 15 games this season. He’d add a threat to the top six or fit in with Kevin Hayes and Oscar Lindberg bolster the power play even further (41 scoring chances generated). In that sense, sure it makes sense.

If the Rangers made this trade, I would honestly be flabbergasted. I don’t see how this would work, how it would help the Rangers, and it would handcuff them down the road.

First off, this would be a Glen Sather move, not a Jeff Gorton trade. Gorton doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who would trade away young talent and picks for an aging rental.

Also, the Rangers don’t really have the resources in extra young talent or draft picks because those were already traded away during the acquisitions of Martin St. Louis and Keith Yandle. They don’t have a first round draft pick until 2017, and it would hurt the team in the long run to trade away a prospect like Anthony Duclair again. They don’t have a stockpile of assets to make the move.

One might argue that they could trade away JT Miller or someone like him. But that would be really foolish. New York’s biggest strength right now is their depth. Trading away Miller or Etem or Stalberg just makes them less versatile on the bottom six. The fact that they’ve been rolling four lines and they’ve received scoring from throughout the lineup is a massive reason for their success, and compromising that would make them a worse team.

Many people also tend to forget about this thing called the salary cap. Jeff Gorton has worked the roster to give himself $1.26 million in true cap space. Patrick Marleau carries a cap hit of $6.7 million. In order to make this trade work, Gorton would have to work some serious magic, or move a big name player like Marc Staal or someone else. But I don’t see that happening either.

Gorton also has to worry about the expiring contracts of Chris Kreider, Kevin Hayes, JT Miller, Emerson Etem and Keith Yandle. Bringing Marleau’s $6.7 million on board would make that even harder.

This isn’t to say that Marleau is a bad player. He’s two years removed from a 70 point season, and he tallied 19 goals and 38 assists last season. But when looking at the Rangers current situation, it just doesn’t make any sense to make this move. They’d lose depth, young talent and future assets and lose out on signing players next season.

Don’t expect Marleau in a Rangers uniform during his career.