I find it ironic that you called me Jay "don't call me Paul" Martin. I could not have been happier when he left the devils this summer for the pens. he is one of the more overrated players in the league, in my opinion, and is an absolute liability in a salary cap kind of world. especially when, in that cap world, you have to overpay to get him. you can't tie up $5 million of your cap for a guy who's not really going to miss enough time to be on LTIR but WILL miss enough time to hurt the team. he was supposed to be the team's best d-man last year (last few years), except he missed 60 games to injury last year. actually, in his 6 seasons, he's played more than 73 games twice. that basically translates to there is a 33% chance that he's going to miss at least 4 weeks in any given year. that's what you want from your best defender?
and the reality is that he's just not that good. he's scored more than 35 points in a season once. you could argue that playing for the devils would stymie his offensive stats but I would counter that it's even more of a time to shine... assuming he actually had the talent needed. which he doesn't. this year, if he can play 75 games, he'll end up with 40 points on the pens. crosby and malkin will make him better. then everybody will rise up and blame the devils for holding him back and see? he's really much better. and then I'll say shut the hell up. I could score as many goals as paul martin playing with crosby/malkin and I can't skate. if you're really good then you make the players around you better rather than riding the coattails of someone awesome. by the way, crosby is awesome and fans need to get over it already.
wait, what was I talking about? oh yeah: eff the rangers.
I would have much rather had dan hamhuis for $500,000 less. similar players, similar numbers (martin has a higher ppg average, which I don't feel like finding right now), except for that pesky issue of durability (hamhuis missed 9 games over his 6 year career, a span that saw martin miss 92 games). I like andy greene at a fraction of the cost. I think that matt taormina's ceiling (greene's too, for that matter), might be similar to that of martin, which is fine if they're not thrust in the position of carrying the D and getting paid $5 milllion a year. greene should sign a contract similar to david clarkson's in the offseason (3 years/8 million). he's worth that. he's not worth 5 years and $25 million. unfortunately, if he puts in similar numbers this year, he'll probably get overpaid by someone (4 years at 4-5 mil/year).
the problem is that when you tie up cap space on him you can't spend that cap space on someone else. seems logical, right? the thing is that when he gets injured during the season, you're not replacing him with a comparable player making the same money (who, in theory has the same value on the ice); you're replacing him with mark fraser, a decent AHL defenseman*, but that's really it. would you rather have martin at 5.5 or any of vancouver's defensemen (hamhuis, bieksa, edler, salo, ballard, ehrhoff) for 5 or less? by the way, I really like vancouver's defense this year, altough they're not going to win the cup, which is something else we can all just get over.
martin is solid, when he's physically able to play, which never really seemed often enough. he is a 30-35 point defenseman, which is fine for a number 3, but not, not, not good enough when you're supposed to be the best. even on a team such as the devils that never cared for individual stats. actually, way back in the days leading up to the kovalchuk trade, I had really hoped that we would include martin in whatever package went to atlanta. granted, he was hurt at the time, but I digress. wait, no I don't. I just re-made my main argument.
I think I've made my point. it's late here and I don't feel like re-reading any of the above nonsense to find out for sure. by the way, keep in mind that I absolutely am that sucker for anyone who shares my all-too-common last name. I liked the idea of paul martin back when he was a highly touted prospect - the replacement for scott niedermayer (ha!) - and, yes, a lot of that was based simply on the fact that he was a martin. too bad the devils drafted and then overpaid the world's crappiest martin. he will not be missed.
*there is no C in defenseman. get over it, johnny canuck.
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