2024 Training Camp Thread

[ColumbusTrill]

I'm not writing off anyone who was on the team last year and those who are need to remember how much of a shitshow 2023-24 was

 

[VT]

I don’t think he is their second best defensemen. He is not a good defender and he is an an inconsistent offensive player. He brings no toughness and has nothing to add for power plays or penalty kills.

If you can move Provorov to the right side:

Werenski - Provorov
Harris - Jiricek
Mateychuk//Christiensen - Gudbranson
JMFJ

Werenski and Jiricek in the power plays.

Werenski-Provorov
Harris-Gudbranson

on the penalty kills.

Nobody wants to get Severson. He is right.

 

[CBJx614]

Dropping Severson would put us in a dire need to make a move to become cap complaint, not that it's remotely a realistic option

Harris and Christiansen both have to be on the roster for us to be cap complaint which imo means one of Mateychuk or Jiricek needs to be in the AHL.

I think it's obvious if Waddell is true to his word about the best players playing the Jiricek will be in the AHL and that JJ will be the healthy scratch.

 

[thebus88]

The guy to waive if we want to keep Jiricek up and not lose anyone is Severson. I doubt it will happen.

I don’t think he is their second best defensemen. He is not a good defender and he is an an inconsistent offensive player. He brings no toughness and has nothing to add for power plays or penalty kills.

If you can move Provorov to the right side:

Werenski - Provorov
Harris - Jiricek
kills.

This is ridiculous. Severson might not be the 2nd best defenseman, but, he’s no worse than 3rd, or maybe 4th depending on how you value and look at Gudbranson and Christiansen. You want to “dump” Severson and roll with that “top 4”? 3 of those guys are worse than Severson. Jiricek in another year or 2 will be a better option. Harris?

Who definitely ISN’T the teams 2nd best defenseman, is Provorov.

IMO Severson is better than Provorov at EVERY aspect you just named off. He’s better defensively/on the PK and (arguably) better offensively and on the PP. And he plays with more of an edge or with more toughness than Provorov also. The only thing Provorov is better at is skating.

 

[koteka]

I also don't think getting a temporary waiver to remain below the salary cap is free license to drop that cap it any lower.

It doesn’t. Nobody would claim him. You are only burying a small part of his cap in the minors. The guy replacing him offsets that.

This is ridiculous. Severson might not be the 2nd best defenseman, but, he’s no worse than 3rd, or maybe 4th depending on how you value and look at Gudbranson and Christiansen. You want to “dump” Severson and roll with that “top 4”? 3 of those guys are worse than Severson. Jiricek in another year or 2 will be a better option. Harris?

Who definitely ISN’T the teams 2nd best defenseman, is Provorov.

IMO Severson is better than Provorov at EVERY aspect you just named off. He’s better defensively/on the PK and (arguably) better offensively and on the PP. And he plays with more of an edge or with more toughness than Provorov also. The only thing Provorov is better at is skating.

I am explaining how you can keep Jiricek up and not lose anyone to waivers. I am not saying this is what the Jackets should do. It is my fault for doing a thought exercise in a place where thinking is scarce.

 

[ColumbusTrill]

It doesn’t. Nobody would claim him. You are only burying a small part of his cap in the minors. The guy replacing him offsets that.



I am explaining how you can keep Jiricek up and not lose anyone to waivers. I am not saying this is what the Jackets should do. It is my fault for doing a thought exercise in a place where thinking is scarce.

You are also setting a terrible precedent for future free agents who we'd be interested in signing. It would be a disaster to waive a dude who you just signed to a 8 year deal after he put up nearly the exact same numbers with us as he did with his prior team. It's just terrible business. He'd have every reason to complain and other players would listen

 

[VT]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1842226297079988680

and injuries...

 

[majormajor]

i know people want to avoid it because two young players together isn't ideal, but tbh i think the best way to arrange the pairs is to just put mateychuk and jiricek together. their games compliment each other quite well and their best performance of the preseason came when they were playing together.

against a much stronger blues lineup the other night, they were above 70% CF (72.22 for jiricek, 82.05 for mateychuk) at 5v5.

not saying it'll stay that way the whole season, but it's absolutely worth a trial run.

Mateychuk has been pretty much that good every game.

75% xG (best on the club) and 5-0 in goals (best on the club). No goals against all pre-season.

I agree it would be good for Jiricek. But also good for any of our D to play with Mateychuk.

The guy to waive if we want to keep Jiricek up and not lose anyone is Severson. I doubt it will happen.

Severson looked like a solid #3 in the second half last year.

Anyways the bad veteran guy you'd waive to keep your younger players would be JJ. Just about everyone on the Jackets has good goal outcomes in pre-season. Most are positive. JJ has been outscored 10-2, by a country mile the worst on the team.

 

[AnonCommentary]

Porty on Jenner and Vronk

“But neither player is expected to be available for next Thursday’s season opener against the Minnesota Wild and perhaps beyond, according to a team source. This is a massive blow for the Blue Jackets, who can ill-afford a wave of injuries like that ones that helped ruin the last two seasons.”

 

[ThirdPeriodTurtle]

Porty on Jenner and Vronk

“But neither player is expected to be available for next Thursday’s season opener against the Minnesota Wild and perhaps beyond, according to a team source. This is a massive blow for the Blue Jackets, who can ill-afford a wave of injuries like that ones that helped ruin the last two seasons.”

I mean there's teams and fans who lament "every year we lose somebody to injury", like Buffalo just seemingly lost somebody in the first game again... but uh, two prominent players... and one in practice? Vronk at least was a preseason game...

Hopefully Chinny is ok at least.

Gosh.

 

[VT]

Management should start thinking about an exorcist.

 

[koteka]

Management should start thinking about an exorcist.

The new regime kept a lot of people around this season to evaluate them. They are going to some things a lot of us already know.

 

[Seedtype]

Talk about crushing any optimism for the start of the season, heh.

 

[VT]

The new regime kept a lot of people around this season to evaluate them. They are going to some things a lot of us already know.

I don't know how any of them could have influenced Voronkov's collision, Jenner's fall, Brindley's broken finger, and Marchenko's high stick that injured Chinachov, and we can only hope that at least he'll be okay.

 

[Seedtype]

Hey, maybe these will be the only serious injuries all season.

*Starts furiously knocking on wood*

 

[CBJx614]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1842384343857070151

 

[Cujorulesdtown9]

How are we falling apart before game 1?
Injuries already, hope voronkov isnt out long term.

I had hope in Tarasov, but he is bottoming out now, so we get to sit here hoping elvis finds his game again because he will be the default starter with jet getting sent down id imagine soon.

I dont think Jiricek makes the main roster, hes just not showing he belongs.

Its certainly gonna be a season.

 

[thebus88]

Porty on Jenner and Vronk

“But neither player is expected to be available for next Thursday’s season opener against the Minnesota Wild and perhaps beyond, according to a team source. This is a massive blow for the Blue Jackets, who can ill-afford a wave of injuries like that ones that helped ruin the last two seasons.”

Other than Werenski being involved, Jenner-Voronkov is probably the worst 2 player injury combo you could put together.

So much for that center depth. I’ll be interested in seeing who gets called up. Malatesta should be a no brainer.

 

[spintheblackcircle]

Management should start thinking about an exorcist.

It's definitely not helping to have the AEP Tower that close to where an electric chair was

 

[tunnelvision]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1840407681510613109

Wasn't this their NHL practice group when Evason stated their roster is "pretty set"?

Since Jenner, Voronkov, Danforth and Brindley will be out for a while, how would you reassemble the F lineup for opening night, assuming the center group + Monahan-Marchenko and Kuraly-Olivier combos are fixed?

I would put Chinakhov to 1LW and KJ to 2RW. 3rd line wings could be filled by AHL guys, waiver claims and/or veterans acquired via trade.

Chinakhov - Monahan - Marchenko
JVR - Fantilli - Johnson
??? - Sillinger - ???
??? - Kuraly - Olivier

 

[MoeBartoli]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1842558614835282059

Looks like there will be only one Sillinger on the roster.

 

[LJ7]

I have some thoughts on how to construct the lineup, and comments on player skillsets that is best done via trying to project lines I would like to see. Losing Voronkov, Brindley, and potentially Jenner for a while turned a top 9 that looked nearly robust to one that is difficult to pencil down but by trying to pick up the pieces I am able to lay out how I currently see the team.

It is hard to project lines without knowing how long Jenner will be out, and without the mystery veteran forward that will be added - but there are a few things I am looking for in our lineup:

* Firstly I would like to see Marchenko on a line that plays fast and pries defensive players away from him. He is not the absolute best at creating plays/space from nothing, but when presented with some room he is excellent at taking advantage of it.

https://x.com/i/web/status/1841902417409147289

To me a Johnson-Fantilli-Marchenko line sets all three of those individuals up for success. All three thrive at a fast pace and benefit from what the others like to do. Fantilli drives the net which creates space for the other two, and will have more space to do so from Johnson and Marchenko both being threats on the puck.

There are other ways to set Marchenko up to have room, even Chinakhov/Johnson-Monahan-Marchenko would do the trick better than the preseason first line. I prefer Johnson here, the puck sticks to him better than it does to Chinakhov.

Johnson was our best forward in the preseason, he looks ready to excel on whatever line he is put on. He had a Chinakhov-esque physical improvement offseason, going from avoiding contact entirely to initiating it along the boards. He is 6'1 and broad shouldered, I am glad he worked to add muscle and use that to his advantage rather than still playing like the kid who hit puberty late. A neat wrinkle is that he and Sillinger practiced and studied together over the offseason. A Johnson-Sillinger option would be a nice boost for Sillinger and offers more lineup flexibility with the unpredictability of availability in the NHL.

* I wanted a Voronkov-Fantilli-Chinakhov line. They would be very difficult to handle physically, a big and fast line that has enough playmaking between the three (Voronkov is one of the best passers on the team). Without that possibility I think (if healthy) Jenner would do well in Voronkov's place here. Jenner-Fantilli-Chinakhov seems like a recipe for loose puck net front goals for Jenner. Fast and chaotic, hard to track. I would also like to commend Yegor Chinakhov again for his physical preparedness and year over year improvement athletically. I really respect what he has done off the ice. He took himself from a poor athlete who was shaky on his skates to a strong, fast, quick athlete out there at the highest level of the sport.

* The bottom 6 is left to starve now pending whoever we pick up to supplement it. Sillinger looked decent in pre season, my projected lineup leaves him without much to work with though. JVR-Sillinger-Pyythia is what I am left with. I debated between Olivier and Pyythia here, but Pyythia won out by providing more much-needed speed on this line. This is where losing Voronkov and Brindley starts to really hurt.

* The fourth line will just be the usual ______-Kuraly-Olivier unit. Olivier seems to be improving every season, low key Jarmo masterclass. Not much else to add.

EDIT my optimism has been dashed

https://x.com/i/web/status/1842575176837533965

Johnson-Fantilli-Marchenko
JVR-Monahan-Chinakhov
Pyythia-Sillinger-LDBB (sub 10 min TOI/game)
Malatesta-Kuraly-Olivier

On one hand sucks I went through thinking out this post without knowing Jenner was IR bound, but if I knew I probably would not have went through then effort in the first place lol.

--------------------

As for the defense, my only strong feelings are that Mateychuk has to be part of the lineup. I think he is our second best defenseman right now. I would line the defensive pairs up like this:

Werenski-Severson
Werenski looked really good in the preseason, extremely threatening and got wherever he wanted to with the puck. He may be poised to have his best season.

Mateychuk-Jiricek
Christiansen or Harris with Mateychuk if the Jiricek-must-play-in-the-NHL because Allan Walsh knows best mandate is ignored or miraculously lifted, but otherwise this is the best way to use Jiricek, put him on a pairing that will be sheltered by default due to age with the best D partner he could have here besides Werenski.

Provorov-Gudbranson
Coach comfort "defensive lockdown" pairing, 2 veterans that are physically strong.

Starting the season with Jiricek and without Mateychuk is a head scratcher, but I don't think that would stand the test of time if it goes how I expect it would on ice for Jiricek in Columbus and Mateychuk in Cleveland.

 

[Youngguns1380]

Any way you cut it, if you had the slightest optimism it has been dashed with the normal rash of injuries for the Bluejackets. C’mon ‘25 draft.

 

[CBJx614]

Any way you cut it, if you had the slightest optimism it has been dashed with the normal rash of injuries for the Bluejackets. C’mon ‘25 draft.

For making the playoffs yes, but I still have optimism that some of the young guys can stay healthy and have some breakout seasons. Guys like KJ, Fantilli and Chinny could be primed for big minutes and a big season

 

[OldGoaltender]

For making the playoffs yes, but I still have optimism that some of the young guys can stay healthy and have some breakout seasons. Guys like KJ, Fantilli and Chinny could be primed for big minutes and a big season

Exactly. Get some very needed experience and what it takes to be top tier in the NHL, and we have several players who can reach that expectation.