Rumor: 2024-2025 Trade Rumors and Free Agency Talk | Part Deux

[hockeyfish]

Have the Hawks even confirmed they want to move on from Jones? They have zero cap issues and seem to want to build up the team around Bedard so why would they move him unless they get blown away by a proposal? This isn't a guy they can't resign or playing out a deal so get some value for him. He's a legit core member and I don't see why everyone in here is all over this move as if CMac better make it happen or else.

Been a few wispers that he is available. Also, Evan confirmed that the Avs have looked into it.

 

[John Mandalorian]

Colorado should not be paying for retention. Jones is NOT a 9.5M player. The Blackhawks should know this. Their cornerstone player is 19 and Jones is 30. LOL at him being a core player. If Chicago retains to align with his actual value as a player, they’d still be freeing up 7ish million off the books for several years to build around Bedard.

Some of the recent comments about this are embarrassingly bad.

 

[PAZ]

It's not about how much he's worth or how big of a risk he is, it's about how much cap space we want to allow to defense.

In the unlikely event where they agree to retain 2M, do we want a 7.5M + 5M second pairing? With a guy making 4M on the 3rd pairing? All that while having one of the most expensive 1st pairing in the league? Does it make sense to any of you?

As long as Bednar is coaching this team, 100%. This team still lives and dies with the transition game.

$7.5 mil for a #3D is going to be the norm sooner than later with the cap skyrocketing, and honestly Jones is going to be playing 20+ minutes a night. Manson is on an expiring deal and can easily be traded if we can't fit him.

This team with Jones would be scary.

Have the Hawks even confirmed they want to move on from Jones? They have zero cap issues and seem to want to build up the team around Bedard so why would they move him unless they get blown away by a proposal? This isn't a guy they can't resign or playing out a deal so get some value for him. He's a legit core member and I don't see why everyone in here is all over this move as if CMac better make it happen or else.

He wasn't signed by Davidson is the last of the old guard in Chicago. I also don't think Jones was expecting to go through a full-fledged rebuild. I wouldn't be surprised if he's just showing up for games rather than filling the expected vet leadership role.

I get what you're saying because as a observer it doesn't make much sense to trade Jones this year, but Chicago was scouting the Avs hard prior to the Rants trade so something was going on.

 

[expatriatedtexan]

The biggest thing for me is, he can step in really take minutes off Makar's plate, pk, and reliably move up to the top pair *when Makar is injured.

That is extremely valuable insurance, and makes it more likely that Makar is at his best in the playoffs, and not nursing injuries from blocking shots on the PK.

Makar will have a better career with a player like Jones behind him on the right side.

I would think Jones is PK1 and the only way he is part of PP2 is if the coach is trying to stroke his ego to keep him happy... but PP2 doesn't get ice time here. The question about can he step up if Cale is out...I think basically you see pairs flip and Girard-Jones would get top pair minutes and Toews would move to second pair with whoever is the next best RHD.

I would hope that a Girard-Jones pairing would be good enough to get a bit more 5v5 ice time as well. And if we somehow managed to still have Manson on the third pair.... I won't say we are rolling pairs but that would as deep at D heading into the playoffs as the Avs have been for as long as I can remember.

Toews-Makar
Girard-Jones
CDH-Manson

That's a strong D group.

 

[Vaslof]

Who are you sacrificing to make space for Jones? Necas? Drouin? Both? Lehkonen?

 

[RoyIsALegend]

Who are you sacrificing to make space for Jones? Necas? Drouin? Both? Lehkonen?

Why do we have to sacrifice those guys?

 

[expatriatedtexan]

Who are you sacrificing to make space for Jones? Necas? Drouin? Both? Lehkonen?

Depends on how much the Hawks retain. But the hockey gods will put the required amount on LTIR during the Four Nations. Have faith, my gentle friend!

 

[dahrougem2]

Then next year we have a very expensive top 4 with Malinski level crap on the 3rd pair again.

I think the difference is you'd have a much, much better overall top-4 than what you have now. Jones IMO isn't what he used to be but he's still a damn good defensemen and quite easily MUCH better than Josh Manson at everything except throwing big hits.

You run Toews-Makar and Girard-Jones for 24-25 per night and the 3rd pair can be heavily sheltered.

You worry about moving Manson, Colton and/or Wood in the offseason.

If you can get a couple of kicks at the Stanley Cup with that top-4 before Makar's mega deal is signed - especially if you can't upgrade on Mittelstadt - I say go for it.

 

[Vaslof]

Why do we have to sacrifice those guys?

Salary cap. Those are some contracts we need to renew soon. I guess you can add Makar to that if you prefer Jones on 3rd pairing making 9M over Makar.

 

[RoyIsALegend]

Salary cap. Those are some contracts we need to renew soon. I guess you can add Makar to that if you prefer Jones on 3rd pairing making 9M over Makar.

Have you seen what the cap is rising to?



$7m higher next season than this year… $15.5m higher the following season than this year… $25m higher the season Makar’s new contract kicks in than this year…

Manson - $4.5m
Colton - $4m
Wood - $2.5m

These are the sacrifices this summer, not the guys you’ve mentioned.

Jones on 3rd pair? What?

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

Salary cap. Those are some contracts we need to renew soon. I guess you can add Makar to that if you prefer Jones on 3rd pairing making 9M over Makar.

You understand its going up by $26M over the next 3 years, correct?

I guess you also clearly missed the part where everyone is talking about Jones retained down to $7.5M or lower.

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

- Trade Colton to NJD for 2025 2nd
- Trade Wood + Ivan + 2026 1st to Chicago for Seth Jones(Retained to $7.5M)
- Re-sign Drouin, 5x$3.5M
- Re-sign Kiviranta, 2x$1M
- Re-sign Parsnip, 1x$1M


Lehky(4.5) - Mack(12.6) - Necas(6.5)
Drouin(3.5) - Mitts(5.75) - Nuke(6.125)
Landy(7.0) - Drury(1.75) - Parsnip(1.0)
LOC(2.5) - Kelly(0.8) - Kivi(1.0)


Toews(7.25) - Makar(9.0)
Girard(5.0) - Jones(7.5)
Middleton(0.8) - Manson(4.5)

Blackwood(5.25)
Wedgewood(1.5)


Total Salary: $93.825M/$95.5M. Leaves the Avs with $1.675M to carry 2 additional skaters, for example Prishchepov and MacDonald who are signed next year for a combined $1.581M.

Just as a pretty simple example of how they could make it work with Jones if they get him retained down.

Then in July 2026, Necas, Wedgewood and Manson are the main UFAs with Drury as an RFA. The $8.5M increase in cap would cover both Necas(Say $10M, so a $3.5M increase), and Drury(Say $4M, so a $2.25M increase) raises and we would still have an additional $2.75M from the rising cap alone to spend on the roster...

And all of this is assuming Landy returns and is a full time player pretty much.

The next "crunch" is when Makar is a UFA... But even then, its pretty debatable to actually be a crunch.
That summer the cap will once again be increasing by $9.5M. That will cover all of Cale's raise and still have more money left over. Even if Cale gets $15M on his next deal, that's only a raise of $6M. And that same summer Cale is a UFA, you've also got Girard, Mittelstadt, and Lehkonen as UFAs. So lots of money to work with if they want to bring some of those guys back as well.