2024 Training Camp Thread

[Fred Glover]

Certainly they'll try a lot more things, but I think I have a good guess as to what the default is going to be.



Hmmm...

Jenner - Monahan - Marchenko
KJ - Voronkov - Chinakhov
JVR - Fantilli - Brindley
Silly/Olivier - Kuraly - Danforth

You may have a good guess but that is all it is
A guess
When the coach says everyone has a clean slate and he will learn alot more about the players in the upcoming games, then unless you are Nostradamus you don’t know

 

[majormajor]

This is why I wasn’t a big fan of picking up JJ. I get the veteran voice and the good vibes he brings, but having Christiansen as the extra guy made a lot of sense to me.

I suppose we could keep 8 D, we have before, but I think Christiansen is off to Cleveland.

JJ would be a perfectly fine 7 or 8 himself, I'm still hoping they've left open the possibility that Christiansen will be a spot or two ahead of JJ.

You may have a good guess but that is all it is
A guess
When the coach says everyone has a clean slate and he will learn alot more about the players in the upcoming games, then unless you are Nostradamus you don’t know

A clean slate means saying that you're confident a kid is going to be a top4D in the NHL this year? Despite never having played bottom pair well? That's not actually a clean slate.

 

[CBJWerenski8]

JJ would be a perfectly fine 7 or 8 himself, I'm still hoping they've left open the possibility that Christiansen will be a spot or two ahead of JJ.

I just don’t see the path for Christiansen to make it unless there’s an injury. I think he’s probably behind Harris, JJ, and maybe even Mateychuk.

 

[CBJx614]

I just don’t see the path for Christiansen to make it unless there’s an injury. I think he’s probably behind Harris, JJ, and maybe even Mateychuk.

There's always injuries though. He'll get his playing time this season.

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

Evason has already been pressed into talking up Jiricek's readiness, before he's even played an exhibition match. And he didn't look good today in scrimmage. And I'm obviously not happy that Sillinger looks to be getting the center job over the "LW" Voronkov - again this isn't something that Evason is deciding based on how they've played, it's just the priors of the organization heavily dictating what he starts with.

I'm still hopeful for Evason really taking over the team once he figures things out. He has high expectations for his players. Though if he's pushed to just be a development coach and not go all out to win, then I think that might become somewhat of a self-fulfilling prophecy. I'd like to see him run with the players who are currently the best players, and if guys aren't ready, there's the AHL for that.

So it’s Rick Nash that’s doing this, giving Evason his marching orders regarding where and how to play young players? Because I thought we were getting a clean skate with the new GM.

 

[majormajor]

So it’s Rick Nash that’s doing this, giving Evason his marching orders regarding where and how to play young players? Because I thought we were getting a clean skate with the new GM.

I don't know who is saying what but Waddell was pressed to come in here and extend all of our RFA forwards and make a lot of moves before he had presided over a single game. And he didn't seem to be the guy who went back through 1000 hours of tape before doing any of it. Obviously the staff was giving him their priors.

And likewise Evason hasn't watched a ton of tape from before, which is fine, but at the same time you can observe from the lines and statements about what he's been told. Maybe not marching orders, I don't mean to presume that he hasn't been given authority. But the staff has priors and that's going to guide his early decisions.

I just don’t see the path for Christiansen to make it unless there’s an injury. I think he’s probably behind Harris, JJ, and maybe even Mateychuk.

Forgive me for making this distinction, but do you think Christiansen is behind JJ in terms of actual play or other factors?

 

[Fred Glover]

JJ would be a perfectly fine 7 or 8 himself, I'm still hoping they've left open the possibility that Christiansen will be a spot or two ahead of JJ.



A clean slate means saying that you're confident a kid is going to be a top4D in the NHL this year? Despite never having played bottom pair well? That's not actually a clean slate.

Porty wrote it
Porty said the HC seemed confident
But did he say it or did Porty surmise this?
I don’t know
Where did the HC say this? I missed it
Perhaps he did say it but I missed it so please provide where he said it

 

[CBJWerenski8]

Forgive me for making this distinction, but do you think Christiansen is behind JJ in terms of actual play or other factors?

Other factors mostly. Namely veteran leadership, good vibes, and PKing ability. They didn’t sign JJ just to waive him.

 

[majormajor]

Other factors mostly. Namely veteran leadership, good vibes, and PKing ability. They didn’t sign JJ just to waive him.

No but I think a reasonable place for JJ is as a #7/8D on a 23 man NHL roster. He's not getting sent down but that doesn't mean he should be an NHL regular either.

 

[Iron Balls McGinty]

But do they think Christiansen is going to be an NHL player because he does require waivers?

 

[majormajor]

Porty wrote it
Porty said the HC seemed confident
But did he say it or did Porty surmise this?
I don’t know
Where did the HC say this? I missed it
Perhaps he did say it but I missed it so please provide where he said it

That was in response to what CBJW quoted in post #223.

 

[Youngguns1380]

Voronkov is a better center than Sillinger. Unless their is a radical change to his game/skating he is definitely living a charmed life on being given the gifted center position.

As someone has said earlier there isn’t a clean slate when all kinds of remnants of the past (Nash and leftover coaches) are there to constantly remind Evason and Waddell of their preferences.

 

[Fred Glover]

That was in response to what CBJW quoted in post #223.

I read that
It is Porty surmising it in the Athletic

 

[majormajor]

(Nash and leftover coaches)

etc... etc... JD and Jarmo are still here.

 

[CBJWerenski8]

 

[punk_o_holic]

This is why I wasn’t a big fan of picking up JJ. I get the veteran voice and the good vibes he brings, but having Christiansen as the extra guy made a lot of sense to me.

I suppose we could keep 8 D, we have before, but I think Christiansen is off to Cleveland.

Does Christiansen require waivers to get sent down? Chances of him getting claimed? If he clears, does he require waivers to call him up?

 

[majormajor]

Does Christiansen require waivers to get sent down? Chances of him getting claimed? If he clears, does he require waivers to call him up?

Yes. No idea, but I'd claim him. Re-entry waivers are no longer a thing.

 

[koteka]

Voronkov is a better center than Sillinger. Unless their is a radical change to his game/skating he is definitely living a charmed life on being given the gifted center position.

As someone has said earlier there isn’t a clean slate when all kinds of remnants of the past (Nash and leftover coaches) are there to constantly remind Evason and Waddell of their preferences.

Voronkov can only handle very short shifts. He barely scored the last 20 or so games of the season. Every time the team was asked why he didn’t play more the answer was that Voronkov keeps his shifts short or Voronkov takes himself off the ice. The truth is Sillinger plays center because nobody has beaten him out for the position. If Voronkov wants to be a center he needs to be able to play more and in more situations.

 

[Dangleittus13]

Unless Fimis was terrible in the the drills or locker room, I don't see how he doesn't get a contract.

BJH looks pretty comfortable with the puck on his stick as well.

Brindley looks real good, gained the zone and was patient to let things get setup. Things kinda broke down after a good pass but Hall was able to convert a garbage goal.

Vogelhuber on Jiricek "he's a high draft pick, but young dmen we say they need 250-300 games before they know who they are as a pro player, he's got 150 games? Let's give him another 150 games. I told him to look at Victor Hedman, it wasn't until his 300th game that he started to define himself"

You were pretty bullish in your comments about Fimis so I'm curious what you think happened? Kid had a great Prospects camp, gets the invite to Main camp, scores in the inter-squad game and then gets cut immediately afterwards. I think I read that someone referred to his goal as a garbage goal, but a goal is a goal and you’ve gotta be in the right spot to score so credit to him. Are you surprised they didn’t give him a preseason game?

 

[CBJx614]

You were pretty bullish in your comments about Fimis so I'm curious what you think happened? Kid had a great Prospects camp, gets the invite to Main camp, scores in the inter-squad game and then gets cut immediately afterwards. I think I read that someone referred to his goal as a garbage goal, but a goal is a goal and you’ve gotta be in the right spot to score so credit to him. Are you surprised they didn’t give him a preseason game?

As someone else said they probably just want to see some more out of him. There's a reason he went undrafted and it'll be interesting to see what he does this upcoming season

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

As someone has said earlier there isn’t a clean slate when all kinds of remnants of the past (Nash and leftover coaches) are there to constantly remind Evason and Waddell of their preferences.

etc... etc... JD and Jarmo are still here.

Well then that's a serious problem organizationally and has me questioning any goodwill I might have toward D-Wad and Evason.

 

[tunnelvision]

Personally I don't give much importance to what JJ, Mateychuk, Jiricek, Svozil and Christiansen do in one poorly filmed team practice/scrimmage, actual preseason games should be more telling.

Looking forward to watch and assess the performance of tonight's D group. Soon Mateychuk and Christiansen will probably get their first games as well. Hopefully Evason is planning to play both Voronkov and Sillinger at center today.

 

[CBJx614]

Camp Q&A: Mateychuk looks to push for Opening Night spot | Columbus Blue Jackets

One of the team's top prospects, the defenseman enters his first pro season with an eye on making an impact

www.nhl.com

 

[majormajor]

Well then that's a serious problem organizationally and has me questioning any goodwill I might have toward D-Wad and Evason.

It's made me question D-Wads because he's had to make so many moves and big RFA extensions while at the same time he's been honest that he doesn't know them that well. It's obviously coming from organizational prior beliefs. And that likely includes guys pet players.

Wads cutting Bean and Boqvist was encouraging though. It was hard to imagine Jarmo doing that.

Evason has been honest that he doesn't know what anyone did before. But he's obviously getting priors from someone. You can't make a camp lineup if you aren't talking to people. That part isn't inherently wrong, it's unavoidable. It's just some of the specific choices that make me question who is steering things.

Evason in Minnesota ran a really tight ship with high expectations, and if you do that you'll end up slotting players where they need to be. And I think he'll eventually get there with us. If the org directs him to just be a development coach and lowers expectations, that would have me more concerned because I think we've allowed bad development under that lenient approach before. A lot of low effort BS is allowed to pass and so the "focus on development" paradoxically doesn't work.

Looking forward to watch and assess the performance of tonight's D group. Soon Mateychuk and Christiansen will probably get their first games as well. Hopefully Evason is planning to play both Voronkov and Sillinger at center today.

Voronkov is listed as LW, FWIW. Obviously I don't know if that will change. But if you're taking a guy who got good results as a center for you last year and now listing him as LW, then that says something.

 

[majormajor]

It's made me question D-Wads because he's had to make so many moves and big RFA extensions while at the same time he's been honest that he doesn't know them that well. It's obviously coming from organizational prior beliefs. And that likely includes guys pet players.

This was why I was so keen on replacing Jarmo as swiftly as possible last Fall. I wanted fresh eyes on the team last year. Now we have to wait so many months for Wads and Evason to fully form their own opinions. Was it worth it to wait until a guy like Wads was available this summer? I personally think of him as the most generic old hockey man possible, so for me it's a no. But I don't really know who else was available or how they stack up in every way.