Giving up on Parenteau, buying low on Stewart, some World Junior talk and more…

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I hope everyone had an excellent holiday. Now it’s Boxing Day, which means it’s time to get back to business. No NHL action today but that just means a bigger spotlight on the World Juniors. Before we get into all of that, I’d like to talk about a trade I made.

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I finally pulled it off. I acquired Chris Stewart for my fantasy team. Or at least, one of my teams. I snagged him for PA Parenteau and Rangers prospect Adam Tambellini.

I'm loathe to sell low on anyone but in this context I'm not sure that I am selling low on Parenteau since Stewart's stock is even lower and offers more upside. It's like I swapped trash bags with my neighbour. Hopefully we each get some goodies we can use.

Still, it stings to give up on Parenteau after I was so high on him before the season started. Unfortunately, he is simply not producing like I thought he would for Montreal. He has been used the right way (for the most part) by the Canadiens, it just hasn't worked out. Skating 15 minutes per game with over two minutes frequently on the top power play unit, Parenteau simply has not clicked scoring just 15 through 35 games.

Check out his most frequent line combinations:

Even Strength Line Combinations

Power Play Line Combinations

You can't force these things. If Parenteau is playing with Montreal's best and still isn't producing, well, I guess it just isn't going to happen.

The advanced stats aren't in his favour either. Parenteau's on-ice shooting percentage at even strength sits slightly below average at 7.35% so he isn't due some major regression that could goose his numbers.

It would help if he could get some more power play scores as he sits with just four PPP this season but Parenteau has never relied on power play scoring in the past so we can't look at this as some "missing ingredient." More importantly, it doesn't appear that the Montreal power play will be turning it around any time soon. They are scoring at a bottom-10 rate on the power play and also producing shots at a bottom-10 rate in those situations as well. That's not a combination indicative of a turnaround, no matter how strong the on-ice talent might be.

Stewart's situation in Buffalo is even direr but he has the advantage of being a genuine trade chip. I maintain that Stewart could blossom if dealt to a contender (Boston remains the best fit.) I cannot advocate stronger for buying low on Stewart in leagues where that's a possibility.

The positive thing is that in many leagues if Stewart doesn't get dealt he can simply be dumped after the trade deadline for an interesting option off the waiver wire. It just so happens that in the league I acquired Stewart we have a salary cap so I don't have the waiver wire option available to me. So while this Parenteau for Stewart swap has me abandoning one hunch for the next, I'm putting my money where my mouth is.

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