Confirmed with Link: CBJ sign Erik Gudbranson (D) 4 years 4 million AAV

[LoneFunyan]

The fact that he said out loud they were surprised Gaudreau wanted to come here reinforces the point that even they don't believe top FAs want to come here.

He is cap screwed right now because he gave Kuraly 2x AAV than a 4th line center is worth and he gave Gudbranson 2x as much AAV as he's worth.

Maybe he can manage it, maybe he can't. But this is a mess of his own making.

Although I see your point, I don't know that I agree. Gaudreau was strongly rumored to be headed for NY or NJ, so being surprised he'd come here is probably less about "why do you want to come here" and more about "we thought you wanted to go there".

I have my own concerns about both cap and roster (for which I am being roundly ridiculed and mocked in other threads) but but sometimes good things are good things.

 

[LoneFunyan]

I didn't have "D&S continues to whine about Kekalainen depsite the Gaudreau signing" in the betting pool this morning, but I really should've.

Come on, hon. You're reaching like crazy. This has all the hallmarks of someone having seen the Gudbranson signing, thinking "FINALLY, this FINALLY can prove to others what I've known about this fool ALL ALONG" and then upon that being massively undercut by the Gaudreau signing desperately trying to preserve that moment of anticipated triumph by flailing about going "NO NO NO YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND IT DOESN'T COUNT HE STILL SUCKS".

Give it up for once. No, the Gudbranson contract is not a good one. But, like all those other mistakes Kekalainen has made that you've fixated on and ranted about for so long, it is properly massively overshadowed by what he's gotten so very very right.

I was on the fire Jarmo bandwagon for a while. I still maintain that his drafting in the "superstar" rounds has been problematic, and I don't like how he's handled some other things.

But things have turned around so fast, and appear to be so much better than it would be reasonable to anticipate, it's pretty hard to continue to find fault.

 

[LoneFunyan]

The Gaudreau signing was great. It sounds like it had almost nothing to do with what Jarmo did.

It doesn't excuse the fact that we're now in cap hell (at least, if we want to keep Laine) precisely because Jarmo overpaid other free agents. Mismanaging your cap does screw you over at some point. That point is now.

It's possible that he wiggles his way out of it (LTIR or trading a veteran forward), but every team in the league can pull up CapFriendly and see we have no leverage.

I'm definitely more hopeful about the next 2-3 years than I was 24 hours ago. But Jarmo could have batted 1.000 yesterday simply by not signing Gudbranson (or even signing him to ~1/2 the cap hit he gave him).

So lemme ask you this.

Say Gaudreau goes somewhere else.
And say it leaks out that he was deep into negotiations with us.
And say we walked away from those negotiations because we dug in on not wanting Gudbrandson.

How would we feel about Jarmo in that case?

 

[Xoggz22]

The fact that he said out loud they were surprised Gaudreau wanted to come here reinforces the point that even they don't believe top FAs want to come here.

He is cap screwed right now because he gave Kuraly 2x AAV than a 4th line center is worth and he gave Gudbranson 2x as much AAV as he's worth.

Maybe he can manage it, maybe he can't. But this is a mess of his own making.

Absolutely not accurate. All signs pointed to him going to NJD, NYI or PHI. The surprise was that he WASN'T actually going to one them them, not that he wanted to come to Columbus. I think you are being a bit disingenuous here.

As for the rest... Kuraly is a bottom 6C and worth every penny. His contract has no impact on the CAP. Easily moved if needed (which it isn't). I won't argue with the Gudbranson deal being a bit high/long. I didn't like the 4th year on the deal but this team can live with it. If by cap screwed you mean this year, sure we have to move a contract but I wouldnt' call that cap screwed even with signing Laine. Gus and Jake are gone one way or another in a year or two (likely Gus moved this year to get cap compliant) and the bulk of the talent on the team is either RFA/ELC talent or already signed. Gavrikov won't break the bank and the only way Roslovic gets a significant raise is if (hoping when) he shows the 2nd half of last year was a glimpse and not a fluke.

The cap is expected (no guarantee) to take a significant jump in 2025 as well (that would be 3 years into Gudbranson's deal and a time we'll be looking at signing others to longer term deals). I'm not going to tell you how to feel but, in my opinion, your stance may be a bit strong and jaded in this case. I certainly willing to risk I'm wrong but I don't think there is any far reaching issue here.

 

[Long Live Lyle]

Yes, I'd rather Jake Bean than a 30-year-old Erik Gudbranson at 4x4.

CBJ isn't cap-strapped now. You don't know what our cap situation will look like in 2025. You don't know if there's another major free agent we could've/would've signed 2 or 3 years from now that we will be prevented from signing, or a future trade we would've been able to make to acquire a high-salary guy for picks/prospects from a rebuilding team in 2-3 years that we won't be able to complete, because we won't have the space due to this contract.

Posted just hours before the Gaurdreau signing. Ended up playing out slightly differently, but the Gudbransson issue came home to roost much, much earlier than I was anticipating.

He better be his Calgary version at least three years of this contract.

 

[yogibear]

A month after and i still can’t understand why Columbus gave 16 millions to Gudbranson. This guy was so horrible with the Sens in 20-21.

Columbus shoud have taken over Zaitzev for much cheaper. Both are useless on a bad team.

 

[MissADD]

A month after and i still can’t understand why Columbus gave 16 millions to Gudbranson. This guy was so horrible with the Sens in 20-21.

Columbus shoud have taken over Zaitzev for much cheaper. Both are useless on a bad team.

A) It seemed to be the going rate for big right handed D this off season.
B) While I don't like the 4x4, its not as detrimental as the cap should go up huge in year 3 of his deal I believe
C) The Jackets needed his type of defensemen. Gavrikov was the only real physical defensmen they had last season. Peeke can be that, but he is still young, so he needs a bit more to gain consistency.

I didn't like the deal at 1st, but the more I sit on it, the more ok I become with it. It isn't a good deal, but it isn't the worst deal ever.

 

[LJ7]

A month after and i still can’t understand why Columbus gave 16 millions to Gudbranson. This guy was so horrible with the Sens in 20-21.

Columbus shoud have taken over Zaitzev for much cheaper. Both are useless on a bad team.

Terrible contact but it helped a nonzero amount to land Gaudreau at least. I'm just hoping he can play like he did for the Flames. Apparently he wasn't awful there but that was a great environment for him to play in for his contract year. Still a shame it's 4x4

 

[CBJWerenski8]

A month after and i still can’t understand why Columbus gave 16 millions to Gudbranson. This guy was so horrible with the Sens in 20-21.

Columbus shoud have taken over Zaitzev for much cheaper. Both are useless on a bad team.

Because the jackets were one of the weakest teams in the league last year. They also have an extremely small defensive core. Gudbranson might be overpaid by a lot; but his style of game is something we definitely needed.

 

[stevo61]

A month after and i still can’t understand why Columbus gave 16 millions to Gudbranson. This guy was so horrible with the Sens in 20-21.

Columbus shoud have taken over Zaitzev for much cheaper. Both are useless on a bad team.

Atleast Gudbranson brings something to the team. Zaitsev is just bad, sorry Jarmo didnt take your teams terrible contract

 

[yogibear]

Atleast Gudbranson brings something to the team. Zaitsev is just bad, sorry Jarmo didnt take your teams terrible contract

Yes, Zaitzev is bad.
But if you get the version of Gud that we seen here, you’ll regret sooner than later. He’s big but slow. Plus, he was often in trouble and/or overwhelmed. I don’t recall that he played a very physical game that much for us, which was very disappointing. He was a total bust. He reminded me of a certain Jared Cowen…

 

[stevo61]

Yes, Zaitzev is bad.
But if you get the version of Gud that we seen here, you’ll regret sooner than later. He’s big but slow. Plus, he was often in trouble and/or overwhelmed. I don’t recall that he played a very physical game that much for us, which was very disappointing. He was a total bust. He reminded me of a certain Jared Cowen…

And he was a beast for Calgary in a limited role. Certain players do different things in different situations. Hes a 3rd pair guy who can PK, be physical and fight when needed. Noone is expecting him to carry the defense and be Werenski's partner. He may get a look there but he clearly does better in limited roles. It can be a pretty big plus for a player when the coach puts a player in a position to succeed like Sutter did with him last year or a better Columbus example would be Sam Gagner. The only 50 point season of his career was on the "4th line" of a Torterella coached team. He was protected 5v5 and got lots of PP time which used his strengths perfectly

 

[JacketsDavid]

A month after and i still can’t understand why Columbus gave 16 millions to Gudbranson. This guy was so horrible with the Sens in 20-21.

Columbus shoud have taken over Zaitzev for much cheaper. Both are useless on a bad team.

I was told by a pretty good source that it was a combo deal to get Johnny (same party that told me last year about Seth Jones to Chicago to play with his brother). Again I didn't ask any details in when it all came together (which I would love to know).
Think of it like this Johnny could have pretty easily got $10.5-11M per year if he wanted. Instead he took a discount ($9.75M) but he wanted his buddy and his enforcer.
I agree 100% it's an overpay but we needed a Heavyweight before getting Johnny, and he wanted some protection.

 

[Byrral]

I'm looking forward to seeing how bad this guy is. Last time I remember as many negative remarks towards an acquired player was when JJ got here.

 

[DougKnowsBest]

Literally 1.5 mill extra to fight all our fights and be a body guard.

as long as the dude understands hes getting paid to be a defensemen 2.5 and a body guard 1.5 and he doesnt back down because he’s overwhelmed like garikov.… it’s cool

 

[CBJx614]

Literally 1.5 mill extra to fight all our fights and be a body guard.

as long as the dude understands hes getting paid to be a defensemen 2.5 and a body guard 1.5 and he doesnt back down because he’s overwhelmed like garikov.… it’s cool

Look up his name on YouTube, it's literally nothing but fight clips and the occasional big hit.. I think he understands his role.

 

[LetsGOJackets!!]

The Gudbranson's and Gudreau's are best friends, and the hubbys like each other too. The one that will appreciate Guddy the most is Elvis - he hasn't seen a clear crease since he got drafted by Columbus. Guddy will fight.. but more than that he will keep the blue paint cleaner than it has been since we had Darryl Sydor - just my opinion but I am tired of hearing people trash this guy. We signed Johnny Hockey.. that fact alone has literally caused my family in Calgary to cry.. please stop complaining about Gudbranson's contract.

 

[VT]

I think there is the answer:

 

[Sdrawkcab321]

The Gudbranson's and Gudreau's are best friends, and the hubbys like each other too. The one that will appreciate Guddy the most is Elvis - he hasn't seen a clear crease since he got drafted by Columbus. Guddy will fight.. but more than that he will keep the blue paint cleaner than it has been since we had Darryl Sydor - just my opinion but I am tired of hearing people trash this guy. We signed Johnny Hockey.. that fact alone has literally caused my family in Calgary to cry.. please stop complaining about Gudbranson's contract.

Still not a reason to overpay him by about 3M. Just wait for the season to start and for gudbranson to show he’s not worth his deal and is nothing more than a 3rd line D man and all this cushy BS about off ice stuff will be out the window and the complaints will be justified.

 

[JacketsDavid]

Still not a reason to overpay him by about 3M. Just wait for the season to start and for gudbranson to show he’s not worth his deal and is nothing more than a 3rd line D man and all this cushy BS about off ice stuff will be out the window and the complaints will be justified.

Wait for the season to start and see johnny playing for the CBJ, I think it will be worth it...

 

[CBJx614]

Still not a reason to overpay him by about 3M. Just wait for the season to start and for gudbranson to show he’s not worth his deal and is nothing more than a 3rd line D man and all this cushy BS about off ice stuff will be out the window and the complaints will be justified.

Is he overpayed? Yeah. But the first time he drops someone like Wilson or Reeves the homecrowd will go absolutely nuts.

 

[koteka]

Still not a reason to overpay him by about 3M. Just wait for the season to start and for gudbranson to show he’s not worth his deal and is nothing more than a 3rd line D man and all this cushy BS about off ice stuff will be out the window and the complaints will be justified.

Gudbranson has been paid about $4 mill/season for most of his career. Two years ago he had a bad year and signed a 1 year $2 million contract as a result. Now, after a good season, he is back with a contract similar to what he made before. I don’t think he is overpaid by $3 million. Would I have preferred a 2 year $3 million contract for him? Yes. Is he over paid by a million or so? We’ll see. Is he a top line guy worthy of his craft position? No. Is he a large, hard hitting 2nd/3rd line guy who will eat minutes, have pointers for the young guys, and step up to protect the highly paid guys and the young guys we hope are the future of the franchise? Yes.

 

[Finner]

Let the man play before he is doomed to be overpayed shitstorm

 

[cslebn]

I think there is the answer:

Man Wilson wanted a piece of him badly there lol

 

[thebus88]

Still not a reason to overpay him by about 3M. Just wait for the season to start and for gudbranson to show he’s not worth his deal and is nothing more than a 3rd line D man and all this cushy BS about off ice stuff will be out the window and the complaints will be justified.

koteka spelled things out well.

People really seem to forget how bad our other defenseman actually are defensively.