Nikolai Zherdev is the kind of hockey player who could live a totally separate life on YouTube and in the icy worlds of Electronic Arts hockey games. He is, at times, a poor man's Rick Nash on a Columbus Blue Jackets team with precious few attractions.



But all of these facts do not detract from the argument that the Sharks could probably find a better deal if they're going to trade Patrick Marleau. Now, I know the 6th pick in the draft would (allegedly) be involved, but although the Sharks are a young team they'd have to be drinking the Upside Kool-Aid to make a deal this foolish.

Although I'll admit I felt much more confident about my stance before looking at Marleau's abysmal 2007-08 regular season stats. Yeeesh.

Still, my post-3 OT, 3 a.m., hasty gut reaction is that Marleau is much better than his stats would tell you and that Zherdev has locker room cancer written all over him (not exactly the magic potion for a Sharks team many feel is in need of a heart transplant). Not to mention the fact that, even on a bad team, being a career -52 in three seasons is a tangible sign of a faulty hockey player.

Then again, I'm no Sharks expert. I'll let the our superior trio of Shark Snarks handle the majority of what I'm sure will be quite a busy sowing circle regarding The Guy Who Was Drafted After Jumbo Joe.

Credit goes to Greg W(ishinsffkskfskfsi...seriously, that guy has a devilishly hard-to-spell last name), the Ultimo Dragon of hockey bloggers, for bringing this rumor to my attention.