Ron Wilson's delusion and when to derail the Cheechoo train - NHL Experts B... - NHL - Yahoo! Sports

Greg at Yahoo comments:

As for the roster, the Sharks are making the case for stability. But Chuq Von Rospach - who has his own evaluation of the Wilson situation here -- believes there needs to be some roster shuffling, and Milan Michalek and, surprisingly, Jonathon Cheechoo are his targets:

I think there needs to be some shuffling on the front lines, and it can't be 3rd/4th line guys. To me, the guys who are sometimes scary-awesome and sometimes missing are Mchalek and Cheechoo. They don't seem to be clicking into the system and chemistry of the team consistently. both should have strong market value, and could bring back a top 6 forward. Of perhaps an upgrade at D, if that's what is wanted. I don't think we need to trade both, but I'd listen for offers for either and take one that makes sense.

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.

I see there are two answers here: leave it alone and expect the team to work itself out, or do something significant to shake it up. Any middle ground is likely to do more harm than good.

A good argument could be made for leaving it alone: the 20 game streak at the end of the season, the key 7th game win against calgary, the comeback against Dallas from 0-3 to the fourth overtime loss in game 6. Those are significant proof points that this team isn't broken.

Yet -- if the goal is to win the stanley cup, I'm just not convinced leaving it alone is enough to get there, not because this isn't a hell of a team, but because it's been shown there are a number of other teams in the league that are also hell of a team (Dallas, Detroit, don't count out Anaheim next year -- just in the west). They aren't going to make it any easier in future years, so if you really want to step past them, you aren't going to do it with baby steps.