Personally, I was quite happy the Owen Sound Attack did not trade any of their overagers yesterday; in particular Scott Stajcer.
I fully understand there is a virtually even split in opinion on this issue.
The pro-trade faction insists that Stajcer, as one of the top goalies in the Ontario Hockey League, would fetch a marvellous bounty of assets going forward; in truth, as many as 2 players and 4 draft picks were on the table at one point this Fall in a proposed deal with Saginaw.
The pro-trade faction will also claim Owen Sound can only put one goalkeeper in at a time, and thus, any game that Stajcer backs up Jordan Binnington is wasting an overage space in the Attack roster.
Fair enough.
But from my standpoint, I’d rather have Stajcer here.
First, is there any guarantee the young players or the acquired draft picks would pan out ?
Evan Morse, Daniel Milne, Tyler Morgan and Mathew Krug are examples of recent high picks who will not, or may not ever, see the light of day in Owen Sound.
Furthermore. Stajcer is a winner, on the verge of bypassing Jamie Storr for the second most wins in franchise history- he’s put together 9 game win streaks previously and if he can do so again, where does that put us ?
Finally, Stajcer has stated from the beginning, he wants to stay and from my standpoint, he deserves to stay.
From an organizational standpoint, they haven’t had an issue from the get go, when he accepted a position with the Greys as an underage and worked his way fully into a professional netminder.
So, Scott Stajcer stays- where he belongs.
I’m Fred Wallace