Speculation: Jackets open for business, 4th overall available for right deal

[WannabeFinn]

Just for fun, and assuming Montreal views Demidov, Levshunov and Lindstrom as DEFINITELY better (and better fits) than anybody they could draft at pick number 5 :

to Columbus Blue Jackets
5th overall pick
Samuel Montembeault (3y @ $3.15m)
Jordan Harris (1y @ $1.4m RFA)
( retain $1.62m on Merzlikins )
TOTAL CAP = $6.17m (+ Jiricek to AHL, remove Jiricek cap from roster)
CAP CHANGE = open $0.1484m in cap

to Montreal Canadiens
4th overall pick
Elvis Merzlikins (30% retained) (3y @ $3.78m)
maybe Columbus adds like a 4th or 5th or 6th rounder too ? no ?
TOTAL CAP = $3.78m (+ Struble to NHL, add Struble cap to roster)
CAP CHANGE = add $0.0975m in cap


Columbus will trade Montembeault between now and next summer so that Greaves has an NHL spot and doesn't need to be waived or have 3 goalies on roster. Perhaps they trade him right away to Detroit for Husso (with or without retention) and a pick.

MONTREAL - Merzlikins + Primeau
COLUMBUS - Montembeault + Tarasov ( + Greaves callup )

or

MONTREAL - Merzlikins + Primeau
COLUMBUS - Tarasov + Husso ( + Greaves callup )
DETROIT - Montembeault + Lyon ( + Cossa callup )

Columbus eats 30% of Elvis’s contract and moves down from a prime draft spot, and adds a mid-rounder, for the luxury of blocking Jiricek and Greaves from the NHL roster with subpar players? Curious

 

[JohnnyJacket13]

Shesterkin
straight up

CBJ gets known elite talent
if he doesn't extend you flip for a haul
but you have a chance to retain and buid

Rs gamble Garand under Quick will work sufficiently
4OA helps recover from prior win now rental wastes

Igor’s a great goalie. But I don’t think upgrading in net and then committing 10-12M long term at the cost of pick #4 would be very wise. Also doesn’t address the glaring issues we have on defense and down the middle.

 

[lanceuppercut75]

Columbus eats 30% of Elvis’s contract and moves down from a prime draft spot, and adds a mid-rounder, for the luxury of blocking Jiricek and Greaves from the NHL roster with subpar players? Curious

Jiricek :
My original lineup for CBJ next year had Jiricek penciled in at RD on the 2nd pairing, and Boqvist playing his offside with Gudbranson on the 3rd pair. However, Columbus fans have advised me that Jiricek isn't QUITE ready yet, and would benefit from at least 0.5 years in the AHL, assuming that he isn't called up to the NHL due to injuries. Therefore, I think they keep Boqvist until the deadline or next offseason, or, they move Boqvist but bring in a different RD on a 1 year contract. Then, next summer, they leave a spot open for Jiricek to play full time NHL.

Werenski - Severson
(Provorov --> kid 2025) - (Boqvist --> Jiricek 2025)
Harris - Gudbranson
(Bean / UFA)
a LD kid forcing his way onto the team moves Harris to 7D and Bean/UFA to 8D.

Merzlikins :
Elvis is a 3 year goalie contact that's hard to move. Swapping that for Montembeault is an upgraded player, but also, it's a 3 year contract that's much easier to move by comparison. So I would describe it as either neutral or "slightly closer to opening up a spot for Greaves", seeing as how Montembeault would be easier to move going forward. Also like I mentioned, they could just make this trade and then immediately trade Montembeault 5 minutes later. Husso + 3rd + 5th for Montembeault, and Detroit retains as much as Columbus demands that they retain. Or maybe they get a 2nd instead of 3rd + 5th. Husso is a 1 year contract that expires the same offseason that Greaves loses his waiver exemption, so it doesn't block Greaves at all. Let him play a LOT of games in the AHL this year and come up during injuries. Then he replaces Husso next year.

EDIT - also, Montembeault was underrated this year. Ask the Montreal fans. He was not "subpar". He was good. He just didn't get any recognition for it outside of Montreal.

 

[ismelofhockey]

Just for fun, and assuming Montreal views Demidov, Levshunov and Lindstrom as DEFINITELY better (and better fits) than anybody they could draft at pick number 5 :

to Columbus Blue Jackets
5th overall pick
Samuel Montembeault (3y @ $3.15m)
Jordan Harris (1y @ $1.4m RFA)
( retain $1.62m on Merzlikins )
TOTAL CAP = $6.17m (+ Jiricek to AHL, remove Jiricek cap from roster)
CAP CHANGE = open $0.1484m in cap

to Montreal Canadiens
4th overall pick
Elvis Merzlikins (30% retained) (3y @ $3.78m)
maybe Columbus adds like a 4th or 5th or 6th rounder too ? no ?
TOTAL CAP = $3.78m (+ Struble to NHL, add Struble cap to roster)
CAP CHANGE = add $0.0975m in cap

Personally, I have ZERO interest in this deal. Montambeault is worth way more than this IMO. I don't see much value in moving up from 5th to 4th, especially if it costs us our number 1 goaltender. Not appealing for even a microsecond..

 

[Avs2022]

Avs trade Byram, Compher, Jost, and Nishushkin for the 4th overall. Solid deal.

 

[Schennanigans]

Avs trade Byram, Compher, Jost, and Nishushkin for the 4th overall. Solid deal.

Did you forget you guys already traded Byram…

 

[JaegerDice]

Jiricek + 4OA for 2OA

 

[TerminatorBlue]

Jordan Kyrou + 1st(16th overall)

For
Patrick Laine + 1st (4th overall)

 

[Crazy8oooo]

Avs trade Byram, Compher, Jost, and Nishushkin for the 4th overall. Solid deal.

Are the AVS somehow rolling back the Byram trade to allow this one to happen?

 

[lanceuppercut75]

Jiricek + 4OA for 2OA

If Columbus knows Jiricek isn't worth the hype and are extremely extremely confident that Levshunov (or Demidov) will be a superstar then... maybe? I don't know. Even if that was the case, you could probably convince Chicago to add a 2nd rounder or something like that and squeeze more value out of this deal.

I can't imagine that the Jackets are THAT low on Jiricek and THAT high on Demidov / Levshunov though...

 

[n8]

4th OA for Niklas Sundstrom, Dan Cloutier, 1st, 3rd

 

[majormajor]

Shesterkin
straight up

CBJ gets known elite talent
if he doesn't extend you flip for a haul
but you have a chance to retain and buid

Rs gamble Garand under Quick will work sufficiently
4OA helps recover from prior win now rental wastes

If the Jackets can have agreement with Shesterkin on an extension, then sure. I wish you were the GM.

If Columbus knows Jiricek isn't worth the hype and are extremely extremely confident that Levshunov (or Demidov) will be a superstar then... maybe? I don't know. Even if that was the case, you could probably convince Chicago to add a 2nd rounder or something like that and squeeze more value out of this deal.

I can't imagine that the Jackets are THAT low on Jiricek and THAT high on Demidov / Levshunov though...

It must be a joke. Jiricek is better than Levshunov. The Jackets can keep him and take one of their favorites at #4, they don't need #2.

 

[JaegerDice]

If Columbus knows Jiricek isn't worth the hype and are extremely extremely confident that Levshunov (or Demidov) will be a superstar then... maybe? I don't know. Even if that was the case, you could probably convince Chicago to add a 2nd rounder or something like that and squeeze more value out of this deal.

I can't imagine that the Jackets are THAT low on Jiricek and THAT high on Demidov / Levshunov though...

Pretty much, yeah.

I dont know how they value Jiricek vs Levshunov or Demidov, but I know that I like Jiricek better than either, lol

 

[lanceuppercut75]

Jordan Kyrou + 1st(16th overall)

For
Patrick Laine + 1st (4th overall)

Columbus says no.

They don't NEED to trade Laine this offseason. It just has to happen soon-ish. Even if it HAD to happen this summer, there are a number of teams that they could work something out with where they didn't have to give up a top 5 draft pick. Kyrou is a very talented player, but he doesn't penalty kill, isn't big, isn't physical, and has a large cap hit for a lot of years. Columbus has a LOT of not-big not-physical scoring wingers, and wouldn't be looking to add another one, even if they traded out Laine. Maybe they would add one if it was more a cap dump thing to facilitate moving Laine.... but that wouldn't be a contract that runs that long, and wouldn't involve giving up a top 5 pick.

 

[BlackAdam]

Every year a gm with a top 5 pick says, our pick is available for the right offer and come draft day, the pick stays.

 

[Grand Admiral Thrawn]

Man people write anything on twitter these days.

 

[Scintillating10]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1803794330991096132

Habs if Demidov still available at 4

 

[Avs2022]

Are the AVS somehow rolling back the Byram trade to allow this one to happen?

I think this one went over you lol.

Did you forget you guys already traded Byram…

Yeah, and 2 of the other 3.

 

[Schennanigans]

I think this one went over you lol.


Yeah, and 2 of the other 3.

Maybe time to hand in your fan card.

 

[Albatros]

4th + Laine for Draisaitl + 31st/32nd.

 

[1865]

Time for everyone to vastly underrate the value of a top 4 pick.

7 years of cheap control.

Think superstar. Think your 1C, your superstar winger, or your best dman. with term. Think Elias Pettersson, Brady Tkachuk,

Or, think a proven STUD with bargain control. think Wyatt Johnson, Matthew Boldy

Or think Patrick, Kaako, Yakupov, Turcotte, Kotkaniemi, Puljujari... Top 5 picks are valuable of course, but they're not the guaranteed hit that HF makes them out to be.

 

[dirtydanglez]

maybe 4th overall+ for brady tkachuk.

 

[bernmeister]

Igor’s a great goalie. But I don’t think upgrading in net and then committing 10-12M long term at the cost of pick #4 would be very wise. Also doesn’t address the glaring issues we have on defense and down the middle.

A reasonable response
Setting aside, to be fair, he's not merely "a great goalie", but possibly the best,
what this boils down to is what gets you the most bang for the buck, to use the pick to more fully rebuild, or to get immediate improvement. Obv, if you can do both, you go there, but I don't see the market gives you a clear choice there.

An upgrade in net of this magnitude is the fastest way to best improve end results overnight. Agreed, it does not in one fell swoop resolve all probs.

You may have to pick your poison.
Will a team like Habs pay enough to offer a high pick w/add and move up?
And even if yes, timeline before benefit of that is realized?

As to paying top guy top $, that comes w/the territory and either you respect that or not, in which case you invite settling for lesser Gs who may or may not cut the mustard sufficiently well to win at NHL level.

 

[bernmeister]

If the Jackets can have agreement with Shesterkin on an extension, then sure. I wish you were the GM.
....

1. No prob seeing if he agrees to just take the $ and go to a good franchise.
But even if not, he is making what, an insane 5.6-ishh? this yr?!!!!
You do take the risk he doesn't get injured, but barring that you can def get a haul as a rental, and that would likely be a contender who suffers critical injury and then overpays to save season

2. bold: you are too kind, thanks. I would love that too.

 

[majormajor]

1. No prob seeing if he agrees to just take the $ and go to a good franchise.
But even if not, he is making what, an insane 5.6-ishh? this yr?!!!!
You do take the risk he doesn't get injured, but barring that you can def get a haul as a rental, and that would likely be a contender who suffers critical injury and then overpays to save season

2. bold: you are too kind, thanks. I would love that too.

It's simply not a rental situation. #4OA picks are never in play for that. It would require an extension.