Yesterday the Philadelphia Flyers gave forward Jakub Voracek a four year contract extension worth $17 million. A $4.25 million cap hit is an awful lot of money to give to a guy who has yet to break the 20 goal barrier. Voracek scored a career high 18 goals last year in his first season with the Flyers. He scored a total of 39 goals in 3 seasons with the Columbus Blue Jackets before being involved in the Jeff Carter trade.

The Hawks’ Viktor Stalberg is entering the last year of his two year contract and is coming off his first 20 goal season. If Stalberg repeats his 20 goal season this year what would he be worth? If Voracek is getting $4.25 million per year, Stalberg can ask for $5 million. The Blackhawks should not and probably will not give Stalberg that much money. This just confirms what I wrote about earlier; the time to trade Viktor Stalberg is now. His trade value is at its highest level. I think you can package him with Niklas Hjalmarsson and a prospect or a draft pick and get quite a return. I really started to like Stalberg as the season progressed last year but I don’t want to see him walk next summer. Make the smart move and get something for him now as opposed to nothing in a year.

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