2014 CBJ Offseason Thread

[Monk]

I don't see how. Never seen anyone use italics to indicate sarcasm; until now.

Is this your first day on the Internet?

 

[CREW99AW]

I originally came on here to suggest Michael Grabner as another option. LW, blazing speed, thinks game well, 26... Then I saw he had a horrible year and his remaining two years are at $4MM and $5MM. Only 26 pts in 64 games.

A buy low candidate? He's scored 34 goals before and the Isles certainly didn't have the offensive juggernaut - Tavares or not. Could be an option but only if we moved some salary, in my opinion.

If we were to pursue a UFA I would want it to be Niskanen. At which point I would suggest trading Wiz for Grabner and signing Niskanen. Wiz played on the Island and claimed to love it there. Niskanen could fill the PP void from Wiz and he's 10X the skater.

At the trade deadline, Staple was answering fan tweets. He says the isles had no interest in trading Grabs.

Isles are $13m below the cap floor and will have several 1st-2nd yr forwards. I am guessing they would rather not put added pressure on Strome/Nelson/Lee by taking away a veteran secondary scorer.

The same writer did say fans should look out for a Bailey/Gagner swap. One disappointment for another.

Isles let Wiz go when they did not want to meet his demands, thought he was not worth salary demands. I would guess they still do not want to pay him that salary

 

[Xoggz22]

At the trade deadline, Staple was answering fan tweets. He says the isles had no interest in trading Grabs.

Isles are $13m below the cap floor and will have several 1st-2nd yr forwards. I am guessing they would rather not put added pressure on Strome/Nelson/Lee by taking away a veteran secondary scorer.

The same writer did say fans should look out for a Bailey/Gagner swap. One disappointment for another.

Isles let Wiz go when they did not want to meet his demands, thought he was not worth salary demands. I would guess they still do not want to pay him that salary

Not trying to pawn Wiz off but I do think the Isles could be an option. He is only owed (yeah, only ) $13 MM over the last three years of his deal but his cap hit is $5.5MM per.

I have no problem with the CBJ holding him. For the style we want to play I think he is slow and more of a specialist. However, good leader and great on the PP. I would like to see the CBJ make a run at Niskanen on July 1st. If they could get him then I think Wiz becomes more available.

I realize this is unlikely but something I would like to see happen.

 

[CREW99AW]

Not trying to pawn Wiz off but I do think the Isles could be an option. He is only owed (yeah, only ) $13 MM over the last three years of his deal but his cap hit is $5.5MM per.

I have no problem with the CBJ holding him. For the style we want to play I think he is slow and more of a specialist. However, good leader and great on the PP. I would like to see the CBJ make a run at Niskanen on July 1st. If they could get him then I think Wiz becomes more available.

I realize this is unlikely but something I would like to see happen.

I liked Wiz attitude for the brief time he was an isles. I was not as impressed with his play in his own end of the ice and agreed with the front office decision not to give him $5m a season.

And it's been repeated a couple of times in the Vanek/Moulson threads from this season, that the isles balked at MM's salary demands last fall because of the uptempo style they play. They did not want to give the slow skater $5m or more per season. I just don't see the isles in the mix for Wiz, although I do expect they will look to either sign or trade for a top 4 d-man.

 

[CBJfan4evr]

I doubt the Sharks trade either Coture or Pavelski but I would offer up their choice of Foligno/Anisimov/Atkinson plus Erixon or Prout plus our 1st or a second and a third.

holy overpayment batman!

 

[cbjfaninmo]

I would like to see the CBJ make a run at Niskanen on July 1st. If they could get him then I think Wiz becomes more available.

I am in on Niskanen too.

 

[EspenK]

holy overpayment batman!

My bad. I meant we should give them Erixon and a third. That would obviously be fair.

I mean we are talking about a 25-30 goal top 6 forward for a guy we might not sign (Erixon) or a guy who may or not pan out (Prout) and guy(s) we don't even have our draft choices (in an allegedly weak draft) and a serviceable bottom 2nd/top 3rd line guy. Exactly where is the overpayment?

 

[CBJfan4evr]

The great Connie Mack had a very specific set of criteria for every player that he signed, keeping in mind that a baseball manager of his day would be expected to do his own signings, scouting, trading, re-signing, and every other duty expected of a GM today.

If a player that he was looking at didn't meet his criteria, then Mack wanted nothing to do with him. He wanted players who were respectful and respectable, yet picked up Ty Cobb at the end of his career. He wanted educated players, yet signed Jimmie Foxx (a high school dropout) and Rube Waddell (who didn't earn his nickname ironically). He wanted even-tempered players, yet signed the explosive Lefty Grove (who smashed up more than one clubhouse after a poor outing). On the mound, he wanted power pitchers exclusively, yet signed Eddie Rommel (junkballer) and Eddie Plank (the Jamie Moyer of his day).

Mack was willing to bend a bit on players who could be All-Stars. Anyone filling any type of depth role would get no such leeway. In this case, Bobby Ryan isn't exactly third-line material; he's an All-Star caliber scoring forward and we're fans of a team that needs them. Consider what else we heard from that particular article, where powers-that-be were openly talking about dreams that they were having involving certain players and situations. Burke's blather about Ryan...whatever.

I don't get the whole Bobby Ryan thing? The original asking price when he was with Anaheim was a center, defensemen, forward and our first. We could have swung that deal with Anaheim for Brassard, Moore, Dorsett and one of our firsts. We either did not want him then or Anaheim didn't value the players we could have offered. So it was we did this deal to bring Marian Gaborik to the Jackets. So we're back here again kicking the tires. It's going to take quite a bit to pry this guy away. We didn't do it before and I'm not so sure we should send the volume of assets Ottawa's way to make this sort of deal work.

Defining moment's coming here for JK. I'm still reeling from the NYR trade noted above (Brassard knocking in the gamewinner last night didn't help). Horton acquisition has yet to be graded. Comeau was I believe a JK add(obviously had his detractors in the post season). Failure to add somebody like Stempniak(imagine him playing for us instead of Pittsburgh) at the deadline really hurt. Still dealing from a position of strength however. Time will tell...

 

[EspenK]

You are obviously one of the fans who think this team is fine the way it is. Or you are looking for some idiot GM to give away a guy like Coture or Ryan for next to nothing. Some trades work; some don't. if we could obtain Bobby Ryan or Coture or Pavelski I think it would improve the team immensely as long as we don't trade one of our core guys (the Ryan's, Dubi, Bob, Jenner,Horton imo). Other than that anybody can go and in the long run this would be a better team.

 

[Mayor Bee]

I don't get the whole Bobby Ryan thing? The original asking price when he was with Anaheim was a center, defensemen, forward and our first. We could have swung that deal with Anaheim for Brassard, Moore, Dorsett and one of our firsts. We either did not want him then or Anaheim didn't value the players we could have offered. So it was we did this deal to bring Marian Gaborik to the Jackets. So we're back here again kicking the tires. It's going to take quite a bit to pry this guy away. We didn't do it before and I'm not so sure we should send the volume of assets Ottawa's way to make this sort of deal work.

In 12 months, Gaborik's value went from three players and a draft pick to Matt Frattin and two conditional picks. The Rangers' original asking price was irrelevant to both Los Angeles and Columbus.

It's entirely possible that Ryan, who has one year until UFA status, has fallen so out of favor in Ottawa that they'll simply take what they can get. I don't think it's likely, but it's certainly possible.

Defining moment's coming here for JK. I'm still reeling from the NYR trade noted above (Brassard knocking in the gamewinner last night didn't help). Horton acquisition has yet to be graded. Comeau was I believe a JK add(obviously had his detractors in the post season). Failure to add somebody like Stempniak(imagine him playing for us instead of Pittsburgh) at the deadline really hurt. Still dealing from a position of strength however. Time will tell...

Comeau was an add from the current regime. He'd been on waivers in the 2011-12 season (unclaimed), then wasn't qualified as a pending RFA and thus became a UFA, where he re-signed with Calgary...who then got a 5th-rounder (Eric Roy) for him.

For what it's worth, I think my preferred offseason adds from last year were Johan Hedberg as a backup and Clarke MacArthur as a 1st- or 2nd-line scoring forward.

 

[HattanJacket85]

Would love to get D Niskanen. How much would it cost? At least a 5-year, $25million offer? Considering what we are paying Wiz, that seems VERY fair.

I would like for us to re-sign Nikitin (and Prout for that matter) and see if we could move either Tyutin or Wiz.

I think Horton would be a great 2nd line RW, meaning I think we need a top-line RW this offseason. I can only dream of us re-landing Jakub Voracek (although I know that's nearly impossible). But what a great first line of Jenner-RyJo- Voracek.

I'm not big on Curtis being our backup, but I don't know of any other realistic options...

 

[CBJfan4evr]

You are obviously one of the fans who think this team is fine the way it is. Or you are looking for some idiot GM to give away a guy like Coture or Ryan for next to nothing. Some trades work; some don't. if we could obtain Bobby Ryan or Coture or Pavelski I think it would improve the team immensely as long as we don't trade one of our core guys (the Ryan's, Dubi, Bob, Jenner,Horton imo). Other than that anybody can go and in the long run this would be a better team.

Not really, I know we need to better to compete for the cup. I think my "core" group that I would not trade might include more players than you listed. I get frustrated when I see us put together substantial packages for that one special player that is going to push us over the top. Call me a jaded fan; or maybe just older and wiser after watching this club evolve. Here's the deal that magic pill doesn't exist. We've seen it play out over and over again with guys like Foote, Commodore,Nash, Gaborik etc. Would l like to have a guy like Pavelski, Couture, Ryan? Hell yes! Do I want to give what I perceive to be a King's ranson for him? No. So I think that's where you and disagree. Kudo's to JK for rolling the dice on the Gaborik deal. That was big boy trade that didn't work out. I think there might have been some value deals (e.g. Stempniak) at the deadline that might have made us better. I'd be ok with finding the best value in the offseason to fill that gritty 25 goal/yr position, we also have to figure out what to do with the logjam of young D (Erixon, Gobulef). IMHO Mayor is correct in addressing the back up goalie. BTW heard from a friend that Wennberg has started to bulk up, maybe he is closer than we think and adds speed/skill/goals that we need.

 

[EspenK]

Okay so who would you trade? And what (who?) should we be targeting to obtain?

The fact Wennberg is bulking up doesn't make him ready-closer,yes because that aspect of his development is well under way. I'd like to see him play at least a year in the A or until he proved that he was acclimated to the North American rink size and the more physical game.

As to no magic bullets - I agree they can be overrated especially when you are the Jackets of years gone by. This time I think it is different. A highly skilled forward(s) is(are) a missing piece from a pretty good roster. Look what Carter did for the Kings-and not to prolong this debate but what Gabby appears to be doing this year.

 

[CBJfan4evr]

Okay so who would you trade? And what (who?) should we be targeting to obtain?

The fact Wennberg is bulking up doesn't make him ready-closer,yes because that aspect of his development is well under way. I'd like to see him play at least a year in the A or until he proved that he was acclimated to the North American rink size and the more physical game.

As to no magic bullets - I agree they can be overrated especially when you are the Jackets of years gone by. This time I think it is different. A highly skilled forward(s) is(are) a missing piece from a pretty good roster. Look what Carter did for the Kings-and not to prolong this debate but what Gabby appears to be doing this year.

I'd trade the folks no one wants; but seriously I think you've got to leverage the glut of youngs guys on the back end. Out of Savard, Prout, Erixon, Gobulef I think at least one of them has to go. From there it gets tough. So lets start by saying I'm keeping Dubi, Johansen, Horton, Calvert, Atkinson, Foligno, Mckenzie. Leaving guys like Asimov, Umberger, Letestu as possible candidates to move. What could you expect in return for a deal that would include Somebody like Gobulef/Erixon and Anismov + a 2nd/3rd? Toronto needs D help. Would that be enough to pry Kadri from Toronto? Could we sweeten the pot and make a run at Kessel? Maybe a run at Kesler from Van? The guy I think that could really make a difference would be Evander Kane. Not the hulking kind of guy I'd like to see us have but quick wrist shot and proven ability to score.

 

[Cash for Nash]

I'd trade the folks no one wants; but seriously I think you've got to leverage the glut of youngs guys on the back end. Out of Savard, Prout, Erixon, Gobulef I think at least one of them has to go. From there it gets tough. So lets start by saying I'm keeping Dubi, Johansen, Horton, Calvert, Atkinson, Foligno, Mckenzie. Leaving guys like Asimov, Umberger, Letestu as possible candidates to move. What could you expect in return for a deal that would include Somebody like Gobulef/Erixon and Anismov + a 2nd/3rd? Toronto needs D help. Would that be enough to pry Kadri from Toronto? Could we sweeten the pot and make a run at Kessel? Maybe a run at Kesler from Van? The guy I think that could really make a difference would be Evander Kane. Not the hulking kind of guy I'd like to see us have but quick wrist shot and proven ability to score.

Anisimov + for Nazzem Kadri? eh....

 

[CBJfan4evr]

Anisimov + for Nazzem Kadri? eh....

Yeah maybe to much. Numbers are similar. Kadri slightly more physical slightly better numbers Thinking Kadri is a slight upgrade over Asimov. Asimov + might be overpayment.

 

[SuperGenius]

Hell no on Kadri. Kid's a punk. Can't see how he passes the character test with JD or JK.

Count me in on Bobby Ryan, though.

 

[Xoggz22]

Any thoughts on the following? Atkinson moved via trade as part of the Silfverberg deal. Bailey appears to be available from the Islanders and has smarts, upside and maybe with a better system/leadership group he provides a top 6 talent in the bottom 6. Howdon has always intrigued me and is young. Ready for the NHL but would be brought up slowly through the 4th line and can play a 2-way game. May not have the "bullets" for these moves but I think we could do it and it strengthens the team short term and could be a Cup contender with development. Also allows Wennberg to come into play in 2-3 years and move up through the lineup.

Jenner Johansen Silfverberg
Foligno Dubinsky Horton
Calvert Anisimov Bailey
Howden MacKenzie Skille
Chaput & Boll

A little bored today so just throwing a few ideas around. On D I would like to take a gamble on Cowen from Ottawa. Size, skating but really struggled this year. Could be the shutdown + guy if he can get his game back. Maybe a buy low candidate....

 

[CBJSlash]

If we end up adding a forward like Logan Couture, Joe Pavelski, Paul Stastny, Evander Kane, Ryan Kesler or Bobby Ryan

I would be stoked.

 

[db2011]

I'd trade the folks no one wants; but seriously I think you've got to leverage the glut of youngs guys on the back end. Out of Savard, Prout, Erixon, Gobulef I think at least one of them has to go. From there it gets tough. So lets start by saying I'm keeping Dubi, Johansen, Horton, Calvert, Atkinson, Foligno, Mckenzie. Leaving guys like Asimov, Umberger, Letestu as possible candidates to move. What could you expect in return for a deal that would include Somebody like Gobulef/Erixon and Anismov + a 2nd/3rd? Toronto needs D help. Would that be enough to pry Kadri from Toronto? Could we sweeten the pot and make a run at Kessel? Maybe a run at Kesler from Van? The guy I think that could really make a difference would be Evander Kane. Not the hulking kind of guy I'd like to see us have but quick wrist shot and proven ability to score.

I keep Anisimov over Atkinson. He's a center, more experience, and is strong defensively. Also, as has been pointed out, Cam's contract makes him a valuable trade option to other teams.

Like you say, it's tough. I also think long and hard about moving Letestu. That's admittedly based on my affection for the guy, but he's good on the PK and in shoot outs. He also seems capable of moving up and down the lineup.

 

[MoeBartoli]

I keep Anisimov over Atkinson. He's a center, more experience, and is strong defensively. Also, as has been pointed out, Cam's contract makes him a valuable trade option to other teams.

Like you say, it's tough. I also think long and hard about moving Letestu. That's admittedly based on my affection for the guy, but he's good on the PK and in shoot outs. He also seems capable of moving up and down the lineup.

Agree on Letestu and also admit a bias toward him. As you point out he offers great versatility that adds value, especially as injuries pile up during the season. Good PK and FO skills.

 

[cslebn]

Agree on Letestu and also admit a bias toward him. As you point out he offers great versatility that adds value, especially as injuries pile up during the season. Good PK and FO skills.

his production for his contract is incredibly valuable as well.

 

[Viqsi]

Would love to get D Niskanen. How much would it cost? At least a 5-year, $25million offer? Considering what we are paying Wiz, that seems VERY fair.

I just have horrible memories of his early years that I can't quite shake. I know he's much, MUCH better than that now - I've seen it - but I still flinch every time I see his name.

(Then again, Wiz had a similar "holy crap he sucks"/"holy crap he can score" development history, so I probably shouldn't be so twitchy. But, gahhh. Can't help it. )

I would like for us to re-sign Nikitin (and Prout for that matter) and see if we could move either Tyutin or Wiz.

I don't see anyone we could realistically replace Wiz with on the PP - other than maybe Niskanen, and again, he worries me. Not unless Savard's shot accuracy abruptly goes way, way up, and I think he's already done enough weed-like growth without us putting that kind of expectation on him so soon.

And call me sentimental, but I kind of want Tyutin to retire a Blue Jacket.

 

[blahblah]

I just have horrible memories of his early years that I can't quite shake. I know he's much, MUCH better than that now - I've seen it - but I still flinch every time I see his name.

Hate to give big money to a guy coming off a bit of a break-out season coming up on a UFA contract. I like what he's become. I also think we can develop that in-house with what we have.

I would rather save that cap space for our RFA's and help at skilled forward (which I think is more pressing). If we get him, we get him into his mid 30's.

I would not move either Tyutin or Wiz. I think those are both players you regret moving.

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

If we're going to invest in a defenseman, I'd rather it be a guy with a clear-cut disposition toward solid, even physical play, in his own end. That said, if this happens, and I flip-flop as to whether it should, it would likely be via trade, IMO.

In general, I see two roster additions - one via FA and one via trade. Plus if you need/decide to replace McElhinney, about which I also flip-flop.