Will he stay or will he go?

Why trade Cheechoo?

Sharks captain Patrick Marleau is a name making the rounds this week along with his teammate Jonathan Cheechoo.
Ok, I get the Marleau rumors. His salary, and last season’s performance, warrant rumors and speculation. But why in the world would the Sharks want to trade Cheechoo?

So the hot rumor is that Marleau or Cheechoo might be leaving San jose in the next 36 hours or so. or maybe not…

Mike Chen wonders why. As I said about a month ago:

Everyone should just be happy Michalek can still eat solid food after that Brenden Morrow hit. As for Cheechoo, he could no doubt bring back something substantial … as long as opposing general managers don’t have access to his postseason stats.

or as long as opposing general managers see the upside Chechoo has, and see their ability to pull it forward in their system. The same exact comment could have been made a year ago about, say, Mike Ribiero in Dallas, no?

And both Michalek and Cheechoo could continue to mature and bloom in San Jose, too. I certainly don’t want to see both leave. I’d personally not want to see either leave. But if (as people keep saying, and I don’t really disagree) there’s a chemistry issue, or a “not clicking” issue among the forwards, then things need to get shuffled; and you don’t five a problem with the top six forwards by trading a fourth liner. These are bold and clearly controversial moves — but if the answer was simple and easy, it’d have been done by now.

To be honest, my feeling hasn’t changed much.

My view of this falls down to a simple logic puzzle:

If new coach Todd McLellan feels that Marleau is his captain moving forward, and that he can fix this team without changes, you do nothing.

If McLellan wants to change captains, then you trade Marleau.

If McLellan wants to keep Marleau as captain, but feels a change is needed among the top six forwards, you trade Cheechoo.

You CAN remove a C from a player and keep them on a team, but teams rarely seem to do that, and it rarely seems to go well; it’s a bit of a slap at the player, no matter how it’s framed, and a fresh start seems to work best for everyone. It did happen in Dallas with Modano and Morrow, but bluntly, there were hurt feelings all over the place (and honestly, I think Modano is still hurt and pissed) — but the two players and the team made it work, and they have the professionalism and personality to do so.

I’m not implying that Marleau DOESN’T — if anyone on the Sharks team could take a demotion with grace, it’s Patty — but it just seems like a high risk move to remove the C and not trade him. This team doesn’t need internal controversies and schisms. So either Marleau is the captain, or he’s playing elsewhere. you can bet taht’s been a continuing discussion among Wilson, Marleau and McLellan since the hiring.

My gut feel? I think a deal’s going to get done. Maybe 70% likelihood. If a deal gets done, 75% chance it’s Marleau that moves. 5% chance both get moved in separate deals.

We’ll know soon.

Update: from Edward Fraser at the Hockey News. He’s right, unless McLellan doesn’t see Marleau as Captain.

The Hockey News: Edward Fraser’s blog: THN.com Blog: Sharks would regret trading captain Marleau:

One of the names most bandied about – as it seems to be year after year – is Sharks center Patrick Marleau.

While his rumored deal to Columbus makes perfect sense for the Blue Jackets –filling their No. 1 center role, allowing Derick Brassard to slide onto the second line – it would be a mistake for the Sharks to part with their captain, unless they received a deal that (pardon the pun) blows them out of the water.

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