Oy vey...lowest of the low standings-wise, Staal in meltdown mode, Cammie giving up more than the occasional softie, other teams flying through the neutral zone. Still, you can see bits and pieces of improvement in overall play and effort, and the powerplay is getting fixed. It's obvious several players can't or won't fix what's wrong in their individual games, and there is no hope for the playoffs as things currently stand. All that would point to major trading in the days after Christmas. So who's going?

Obviously, there is Tuomo Ruutu, a UFA who is playing pretty decent on a line with the now invisible Jussi Jokinen. I'm sure there are teams out there who see him as a strong banger on the 2nd/3rd line who can screen goalies on the powerplay, he's sure to generate interest. I would rank him as first to go just because of his net worth.

On defense, there's Timmy "Can't-Move-Fast-Anymore" Gleason who has gotten pretty good at leaving his man open in front of the net and screening his own goalie. I love Timmay from 2 years ago, HATE the current version. If someone sees him as a veteran who can play on a 2nd/3rd pairing, I could see him gone.

Allen and Spacek? Don't know what we could get for them, likely draft picks. Might be attractive to someone, maybe Philly.

Nash/Bowman/Boychuk/Dalpe, et. al. down in Charlotte? When called-up, only Bowman has shown anything substantive, and that was just in one game. Not sure if JR is committed to giving them all a shot up here or just using as trade bait. If I had to pick some to keep, I would keep Bowman and Dalpe just because they are somewhat bigger than Nash/Boychuk and could develop into 3rd liners, maybe 2nd liners over time.

Rosie? Career year, has played with guts and drive -- he just is too damn weak on the puck along the boards and misses so many freaking shots wide or shoots right into the goalie's chest. It's getting old -- trade him while he's at his peak.

Stewart/Ponikorovsky? Has either one really shown his worth? Both have a handful of goals, but they've come in spurts. I don't think either was a good pickup at all by JR.

So I know it seems like I have us trading half the team, but on a team as bad as ours, I don't think that's necessarily bad. I would not be completely surprised to see a mega deal involving Staal, but I doubt JR would want to part with him without trying to bring in some decent linemates for him. I would think maybe giving him an A and moving the C elsewhere (Sutter?) could help matters, who knows.

Thoughts?