Devin Setoguchi: Maybe It’s Time to Let Go

Is all hope lost for the highly touted Sharks winger who notched 65 points last season?  If the season ended today, yes.

Devin Setoguchi, still owned in 75% of Yahoo! leagues, hasn’t scored a point and is -4 in 8 straight games.  In fact, the Sharks’ entire second line of Clowe-Pavelski-Setoguchi hasn’t produced in 8 straight games.  The Sharks need a shakeup badly.

Setoguchi only has 10 goals and 5 assists in 39 games on the year.  In those 39 games, he’s been held without a point in 25 games and only 4 multi-point games.  He’s also the only Sharks top-six forward who boast a minus rating on the year, -2.

With Todd McLellan unwilling to break up the Marleau-Thornton-Heatley line, it’s difficult to think that any kind of spark is going to ignite Setoguchi and the second line.  When he was placed on the top line in Heatley’s spot to try and shake his funk earlier on in the year, Seto still did not produce.

It’s very possible Setoguchi could round out 2009-10 like he did 2008-09 but if circumstances remain unchanged, Setoguchi doesn’t deserve a roster spot unless you have a deep bench and are willing to ride him out.  At the very least, there’s far better options in Nashville, Philadelphia, Colorado and St. Louis that will provide far more productivity than Setoguchi is right now.