Prospect Info: (C) David Gustafsson (2018, 60th overall pick)

[Gil Fisher]

I appreciate that some skills be develop better on the big ice in a Euro league, but I think Gus would better develop on the small ice in the AHL.

 

[Mortimer Snerd]

He is a candidate to slide his 1 st year ELC......I think the Jets see him as a Usefull player and want him to start his 3 year ELC next year. Give him lots of NHL expierience around the team showing how hard he has to work..... and NHL lifestyle and sen him back to Sweden for the WJC in December playing less than 10 games and keeping his low cost 3 year ELC starting next year.

Yes, but what does his ELC sliding have to do with having him rot in the PB?

This is just ridiculous now.

 

[Mortimer Snerd]

From all the interviews if heard of Chevy and Maurice I’m confident Gus is only here in the short term to learn from the NHL guys. They’ve done this over the years a few times already.

To learn what?

 

[KingBogo]

Yes, but what does his ELC sliding have to do with having him rot in the PB?

This is just ridiculous now.

IMO rot is a poor choice of words. 10 days in the PB isn't going to rot a 19 y/o. An argument can be made on how long the benefits of being with the team are out weighted by not playing games in Sweden. I still think the Jets are very reluctant to lose him for the full season by sending him back but aren't able to have him play for the Moose where they would like to have him. I've asked before but no one responded, is there a mechanize to buy out his contract in Sweden and have him play for the Moose this season?

 

[Mortimer Snerd]

Ves is a very different cat. I look at other examples like Toby, Klingberg, Heiskanen and the list goes on. It’s pretty easy on this case to find guys to support either side of this argument. The AHL is fine but I “personally” think it’s is a bit overrated as a place for young Euro’s to develop.

The AHL may be a bit overrated as a place for young Euros to develop but there is no comparable alternative. The Euro leagues are not development leagues. They don't use NA ice, they don't operate in NA culture or language.

But all of that is irrelevant here. There is no choice between a Euro league and the AHL. The choice is between playing hockey somewhere and not playing at all where he is. Even practice has to have been very limited. The Jets have played 7 games in 11 days and traveled the rest of the time. Have they had even 1 full practice since the season started?

Then consider that he is sitting in the PB so that Letestu can play.

 

[Mortimer Snerd]

IMO rot is a poor choice of words. 10 days in the PB isn't going to rot a 19 y/o. An argument can be made on how long the benefits of being with the team are out weighted by not playing games in Sweden. I still think the Jets are very reluctant to lose him for the full season by sending him back but aren't able to have him play for the Moose where they would like to have him. I've asked before but no one responded, is there a mechanize to buy out his contract in Sweden and have him play for the Moose this season?

I'm sticking with rot. 11 days of rotting in the PB will not fully rot a player but it is still 11 days of rotting.

I don't know why the Moose are not an option. But if they are not then the Jets don't have a mechanism that avoids losing him for the year other than having him take a year out of hockey, which is what they are doing.

Why do you think losing him for the year is such an unattractive prospect for the Jets? It isn't as though the Jets don't have other players who are more NHL ready than Gus. It isn't like he has kicked the door down. It isn't as though they need him in the lineup, or for injury replacement. All he is doing is hanging around and watching games form the PB. I can't see any purpose to what they are doing no matter how hard I might try.

 

[ps241]

The AHL may be a bit overrated as a place for young Euros to develop but there is no comparable alternative. The Euro leagues are not development leagues. They don't use NA ice, they don't operate in NA culture or language.

But all of that is irrelevant here. There is no choice between a Euro league and the AHL. The choice is between playing hockey somewhere and not playing at all where he is. Even practice has to have been very limited. The Jets have played 7 games in 11 days and traveled the rest of the time. Have they had even 1 full practice since the season started?

Then consider that he is sitting in the PB so that Letestu can play.

agreed

we can debate what league optimizes development but there is no debate when it comes to press box vs game action. A major factor is that the 19 year old season is a massive year in any prospects development path.

 

[BoneDocUK]

agreed

we can debate what league optimizes development but there is no debate when it comes to press box vs game action. A major factor is that the 19 year old season is a massive year in any prospects development path.

Agreed. And we've seen this year in year out from PoMo. Grizzled vet over young player with upside, movement only when forced. I get the reasons -- vet as a known quantity, can figure out the system, plays badly but predictably, etc., but when it makes the team worse AND stifles development, what's the point?

 

[KingBogo]

I'm sticking with rot. 11 days of rotting in the PB will not fully rot a player but it is still 11 days of rotting.

I don't know why the Moose are not an option. But if they are not then the Jets don't have a mechanism that avoids losing him for the year other than having him take a year out of hockey, which is what they are doing.

Why do you think losing him for the year is such an unattractive prospect for the Jets? It isn't as though the Jets don't have other players who are more NHL ready than Gus. It isn't like he has kicked the door down. It isn't as though they need him in the lineup, or for injury replacement. All he is doing is hanging around and watching games form the PB. I can't see any purpose to what they are doing no matter how hard I might try.

I think they would prefer him on the Moose because he plays a more prototypical NA style game and they want to develop him as a center within the system. If they have to lose him I think they first would like him to spent time watching the team, being in meetings and working with coaches on what they want him to work on. It just seems to me they really don't want to lose this kid back to Sweden.

 

[GaryPoppins]

All of this is poor roster management, my friends. Maurice and his deployment is sub-par at best and Chevy is just as guilty letting this happen.

Both are absolutely on the hot seat.

 

[Mortimer Snerd]

I think they would prefer him on the Moose because he plays a more prototypical NA style game and they want to develop him as a center within the system. If they have to lose him I think they first would like him to spent time watching the team, being in meetings and working with coaches on what they want him to work on. It just seems to me they really don't want to lose this kid back to Sweden.

Yeah, I get it - but how strong can their aversion to Sweden be? If it is that strong then take the steps necessary to send him to the Moose. (I think they need to buy out his Euro contract, or something like that.)

Take 15 minutes. Tell him what they want him to work on (skating). Tell him to write it down. Send him on his way. The value of this business of being with the team might have been OK for 2-3 days. Beyond that is just nonsensical.

But, and this is the big thing - if they are going to keep him - play him, at worst he is a lot better than Letestu!!!!!!!!

 

[MrBoJangelz71]

All of this is poor roster management, my friends. Maurice and his deployment is sub-par at best and Chevy is just as guilty letting this happen.

Both are absolutely on the hot seat.

We are sitting at 4-3, not 0 -7. Pump on the dramatic a bit

Its poor management yes but it aint getting anyone fired

 

[MrBoJangelz71]

There is no excusable reason for having Letestu or Bourque in over this kid, and poor on Maurice for doing so. Hope he starts him next game.

 

[TS Quint]

I'm sticking with rot. 11 days of rotting in the PB will not fully rot a player but it is still 11 days of rotting.

I don't know why the Moose are not an option. But if they are not then the Jets don't have a mechanism that avoids losing him for the year other than having him take a year out of hockey, which is what they are doing.

Why do you think losing him for the year is such an unattractive prospect for the Jets? It isn't as though the Jets don't have other players who are more NHL ready than Gus. It isn't like he has kicked the door down. It isn't as though they need him in the lineup, or for injury replacement. All he is doing is hanging around and watching games form the PB. I can't see any purpose to what they are doing no matter how hard I might try.

Imagine what Scheifele could have been without his rotten development.

If you want to be a NHL player the AHL is the best place to develop. First, the international ice is a different game all together. The space you can hide in the O Zone to begin with isnt a realistic game to play in the NHL. You dont have the space to skate 5 feet from the face off dot and turn to the boards and hang out while the defense has to defend the scoring areas of the ice.

The smaller ice teaches players to work with less space and time. You learn your team's system and get to play with your future teammates. This isnt a close call as to where to develop NHL player.

 

[KingBogo]

Yeah, I get it - but how strong can their aversion to Sweden be? If it is that strong then take the steps necessary to send him to the Moose. (I think they need to buy out his Euro contract, or something like that.)

Take 15 minutes. Tell him what they want him to work on (skating). Tell him to write it down. Send him on his way. The value of this business of being with the team might have been OK for 2-3 days. Beyond that is just nonsensical.

But, and this is the big thing - if they are going to keep him - play him, at worst he is a lot better than Letestu!!!!!!!!

I betcha Gus doesn't think he is rotting. If you asked him he just might tell the last 2 weeks have been the best in his life. He got to spend the better part of a week in New York City on a NHL roster and all that came with that. He might feel a huge gratitude to the organization. And its not like the player development guys aren't having a say in how they are handling him. I did a quick check of his Swedish team and they had a week between games over last week so at most he has missed a handful of games by sticking around over if he had been sent back.

I like to see him in over Letestu as well, but like I mentioned before I don't yell and scream about roster decisions. Being mad about who is in and who is out sucks the fun out of games for me. I prefer to speculate on why a decision is made over resorting to the fall back that everyone is a mindless idiot argument.

 

[Mortimer Snerd]

Imagine what Scheifele could have been without his rotten development.

If you want to be a NHL player the AHL is the best place to develop. First, the international ice is a different game all together. The space you can hide in the O Zone to begin with isnt a realistic game to play in the NHL. You dont have the space to skate 5 feet from the face off dot and turn to the boards and hang out while the defense has to defend the scoring areas of the ice.

The smaller ice teaches players to work with less space and time. You learn your team's system and get to play with your future teammates. This isnt a close call as to where to develop NHL player.

Don't know why you are bringing up Scheifele. He wasn't press boxed and he wasn't developed in the AHL either.

No argument from me on the AHL being the better development environment compared to the Euro leagues. But Gus isn't in a Euro league. He is in an NHL press box, which is no kind of a place for development.

 

[TS Quint]

Don't know why you are bringing up Scheifele. He wasn't press boxed and he wasn't developed in the AHL either.

No argument from me on the AHL being the better development environment compared to the Euro leagues. But Gus isn't in a Euro league. He is in an NHL press box, which is no kind of a place for development.

Didn't Scheifele hang out in Winnipeg until the WJC not playing instead of going back to Barrie?

 

[Mortimer Snerd]

I betcha Gus doesn't think he is rotting. If you asked him he just might tell the last 2 weeks have been the best in his life. He got to spend the better part of a week in New York City on a NHL roster and all that came with that. He might feel a huge gratitude to the organization. And its not like the player development guys aren't having a say in how they are handling him. I did a quick check of his Swedish team and they had a week between games over last week so at most he has missed a handful of games by sticking around over if he had been sent back.

I like to see him in over Letestu as well, but like I mentioned before I don't yell and scream about roster decisions. Being mad about who is in and who is out sucks the fun out of games for me. I prefer to speculate on why a decision is made over resorting to the fall back that everyone is a mindless idiot argument.

With his Swedish team having a week between games they might actually be practicing. I doubt he is even getting that with the Jets. Have they had any full practices since the season began? When? How? It has been play, travel, play. There have even been 2 b2b's already, in 11 days.

Speculating on why a decision was made is one thing. But carried too far, it very easily transitions to imagining excuses to justify whatever the team may be doing. Or defending the poor reasoning behind poor decisions.

 

[KingBogo]

With his Swedish team having a week between games they might actually be practicing. I doubt he is even getting that with the Jets. Have they had any full practices since the season began? When? How? It has been play, travel, play. There have even been 2 b2b's already, in 11 days.

Speculating on why a decision was made is one thing. But carried too far, it very easily transitions to imagining excuses to justify whatever the team may be doing. Or defending the poor reasoning behind poor decisions.

I don't know what their reasoning is but to me the most likely explanation is they are very reluctant to send him back to Sweden. Could be they were very unhappy with how KV developed last season and don't want to lose developmental control over another top prospect. Maybe they have parked him on the roster while they are negotiating his release with his Swedish team so that he can be sent to the Moose? I think it is likely we will see some sort of resolution soon.

 

[Mortimer Snerd]

Didn't Scheifele hang out in Winnipeg until the WJC not playing instead of going back to Barrie?

This is the first time I've heard of that one. He got in 7 games before being sent back. He was clearly not ready. It is possible that he spent a game or two in the PB during that time as well, IDK.

In that D+1 season he played 45 games with Barrie. That is within the normal range for a Jr player who participates in the WJC so I don't think he could have spent much more time with the Jets than the time for the 7 games. Same thing for D+2. He played 47 Jr games + 4 NHL + WJC.

 

[Mortimer Snerd]

I don't know what their reasoning is but to me the most likely explanation is they are very reluctant to send him back to Sweden. Could be they were very unhappy with how KV developed last season and don't want to lose developmental control over another top prospect. Maybe they have parked him on the roster while they are negotiating his release with his Swedish team so that he can be sent to the Moose? I think it is likely we will see some sort of resolution soon.

It has to be something around that KB - but it doesn't make sense. Just how strongly can they possibly object to the SHL to justify not playing at all? It isn't like the SHL has a history of wrecking players. Also, it is the SHL as opposed to KV going to the KHL.

Then - if they are going to keep him - play him ffs! He is better than Letestu, pure and simple. And he is not NHL ready himself. He was good in pre-season but not that good.

Alternatively - send him to the Moose. I am not sufficiently up on the arrangement between the NHL and the Euro leagues to know the exact mechanism, but I'm sure there is one. The KHL is different because there is no cooperation agreement between the NHL and the KHL. And KV had a Euro escape clause in his contract. I haven't heard of any such thing for Gus. CF doesn't mention any special clauses.

Surely this can't go on much longer.

 

[KingBogo]

It has to be something around that KB - but it doesn't make sense. Just how strongly can they possibly object to the SHL to justify not playing at all? It isn't like the SHL has a history of wrecking players. Also, it is the SHL as opposed to KV going to the KHL.

Then - if they are going to keep him - play him ffs! He is better than Letestu, pure and simple. And he is not NHL ready himself. He was good in pre-season but not that good.

Alternatively - send him to the Moose. I am not sufficiently up on the arrangement between the NHL and the Euro leagues to know the exact mechanism, but I'm sure there is one. The KHL is different because there is no cooperation agreement between the NHL and the KHL. And KV had a Euro escape clause in his contract. I haven't heard of any such thing for Gus. CF doesn't mention any special clauses.

Surely this can't go on much longer.

First off I agree I'd prefer to see him play over Letestu. In terms of Gus' contract status I've asked a few times if there are any contract experts out there to give an opinion. My understanding is a 1st round pick can be sent to the AHL and over ride a contract to one of the European leagues not counting the KHL, while a 2nd round or later pick has to go back to their European team if they are not on the NHL roster. I don't know if a NHL team can buy out a contract for a later round pick and then assign them to the AHL. I would assume this is possible and speculate that is what is currently happening and Gus is caught in a bit of limbo. But as I said this is just speculation based on what we can observe from the outside.

 

[AKAChip]

We are sitting at 4-3, not 0 -7. Pump on the dramatic a bit

Its poor management yes but it aint getting anyone fired

The combined record of Jet’ opponents so far is 10-16-2. While I can’t say for certain, it’s hard to imagine any team having an easier schedule than that. Their wins have come against three teams with a combined one win between them and the Penguins who are current decimated.

 

[Arthur Fonzarelli]

I betcha Gus doesn't think he is rotting. If you asked him he just might tell the last 2 weeks have been the best in his life. He got to spend the better part of a week in New York City on a NHL roster and all that came with that. He might feel a huge gratitude to the organization. And its not like the player development guys aren't having a say in how they are handling him. I did a quick check of his Swedish team and they had a week between games over last week so at most he has missed a handful of games by sticking around over if he had been sent back.

I like to see him in over Letestu as well, but like I mentioned before I don't yell and scream about roster decisions. Being mad about who is in and who is out sucks the fun out of games for me. I prefer to speculate on why a decision is made over resorting to the fall back that everyone is a mindless idiot argument.

Totally agree. I'm sure he's very happy at the moment. Not only did he make an NHL roster at 19, but he's also pocketed $52,742 and makes $4,000 every day he "rots" in the press box. In 4 more days he'll have made his entire AHL annual salary.

It wouldn't surprise me if the Jets have dangled this cash in front of him to lure him into staying in Winnipeg for the year. Clearly the Jets are weak at centre ice and having him nearby could have advantages should another injury occur.

Personally, the only advantage for Gus to play for HV71 is he'd make 4 times what he'd make on the Moose. This present situation compensates him, allows him to watch NHL hockey live for the first time in his life & then take what he's learned and apply in it the AHL.

I think he'll make his NHL debut sometime in the next week, experience first hand how fast the game is, and in all likelihood get assigned to the Moose once Little returns from IR.

 

[GaryPoppins]

We are sitting at 4-3, not 0 -7. Pump on the dramatic a bit

Its poor management yes but it aint getting anyone fired

Why is anyone on the Jets devoid of responsibility? Loyal to a fault. Knew Trouba's situation for years and played a game of chicken and lost. Spent major assets on short term fixes for a position that's needed bolstering for years(2C).

We've played weak competition and 2 of our wins could have easily gone the other way. This team is a lottery team as constructed, a fall from grace two years ago.