Confirmed with Link: Jiricek, 2025 5th to Minnesota for Hunt, conditional 2025 1st, 2026 3rd and 4th, 2027 2nd

[Dead Coyote]

I'm actually pretty happy with this. I think it's pretty good. Hunt is 6 months older than Jiricek and has accomplished more and projects better currently to be better.

I have not been impressed with Jiricek at all in the AHL or NHL. If he puts it together great, but Ive never been a fan of going hard on guys who need to learn how to skate.

 

[Cheddarcheese]

I'm actually pretty happy with this. I think it's pretty good. Hunt is 6 months older than Jiricek and has accomplished more and projects better currently to be better.

I have not been impressed with Jiricek at all in the AHL or NHL. If he puts it together great, but Ive never been a fan of going hard on guys who need to learn how to skate.

Well said! It’s a fast game you gotta be able to skate all the star defensive man can skate!

 

[majormajor]

I've never been a Waddell guy. But Waddell has no pretense of being a scout, he had offers from half the league for our scouts to go through and this is the return they liked the most. That might say a lot about Hunt. Our amateur scouts knew him well from Moose Jaw.



So I'm not going to complain about Waddell passing on the best offer, they obviously went with their favorite. The one thing under Waddell's control is the timing - did he wait too long to make a trade? Did he go too soon? You can make an argument for either one if you want to.

 

[Aaaarrgghh]

I've never been a Waddell guy. But Waddell has no pretense of being a scout, he had offers from half the league for our scouts to go through and this is the return they liked the most. That might say a lot about Hunt. Our amateur scouts knew him well from Moose Jaw.



So I'm not going to complain about Waddell passing on the best offer, they obviously went with their favorite. The one thing under Waddell's control is the timing - did he wait too long to make a trade? Did he go too soon? You can make an argument for either one if you want to.

The two 1sts may have been Philadelphia offering Colorado's and Edmonton's picks. It's not obvious that that's a better offer.

 

[majormajor]

The two 1sts may have been Philadelphia offering Colorado's and Edmonton's picks. It's not obvious that that's a better offer.

I'm saying it's not the better offer if they preferred Hunt to another late 1st. The Wild 1st is likely also late so the comparison is between Hunt and another late 1st. I might prefer Hunt there too. It's not looking like a good draft.

 

[Aaaarrgghh]

I'm saying it's not the better offer if they preferred Hunt to another late 1st. The Wild 1st is likely also late so the comparison is between Hunt and another late 1st. I might prefer Hunt there too. It's not looking like a good draft.

Gotcha.

The most interesting part of this to me is the added draft capital. Assuming Columbus get another 1st from the inevitable Provorov trade, what should be done with what would then be three 1st round draft picks? I'd assume they're going to be looking for some kind of quantity-for-quality type of deal. But what exactly? Try to trade up? Try to get a young star?

The usual suspects mentioned, usually with a healthy degree of wishful thinking, are Brady Tkachuk, Noah Dobson and Evan Bouchard. But are there others? Are there any realistic trades to be made?

Furthermore, there are some interesting UFAs this off-season, with Rantanen and Marner possibly available.

 

[tunnelvision]

I'm not too happy about the return but it is what it is. At least Jiricek went to the other conference. I wish we could get a 2026 1st instead of 2025 one but with those conditions it appears to be virtually impossible. 2027 2nd may end up being the most valuable piece of the package coming back.

I have rather modest short-term expectations for Hunt. He could be in the competition for 3LD spot at some point but based on 2-3 NHL games I've seen in the last 11 months he certainly hasn't looked better than Christiansen or Mateychuk who are likely the other two LDs behind Werenski when Provorov has been moved.

Hunt is a solid skater but not particularly fast imo. I don't see much offensive skill or upside even though he saw some PP time last year in Wild. He lacks great vision in retrievals so in pressure he will need support to get pucks out of the zone smoothly. Comparison to Harris doesn't seem very inaccurate actually. He has the size and reach advantage but not sure how big of a difference that'll make ultimately.

 

[EspenK]

Obviously the Jackets had seen/had enough of Jiricek to send him packing. No great loss amnd while the return may not be to some folks expectation due to his draft status it seems reasonable giving his isues.

 

[koteka]

The question to be asked is will we now see a Hunt-Mateychuk pair in Cleveland and do they think Mateychuk is an eventual RD.

Maybe the future is
Werenski - Fabbro
Hunt - Mateychuk
somebody - Severson
Gudbranson

while a bunch of draft picks with decent size and good skating are given plenty of time to develop.

 

[NotTooWideArena]

I’m not sure I agree about mismanagement, but I definitely agree that between his agent and his on-ice performance, things weren’t looking good.

They drafted a kid with great physical tools at a position of need, figuring he could learn defensive awareness and improve his skating. Those two things didn’t happen, and he and his agent made it uncomfortable for the organization to keep him where he needed to be to improve. And Mateychuk’s development meant the position was no longer an issue, so it was time to get what they could for him.

Sure, I would rather have seen a stud player coming in return. And yes, draft choices can turn into vapor if not used properly. But there is still a lot of value in those picks coming to CBJ.

The new leadership continues cutting ties with the past, and that’s totally unsurprising.

 

[Doggy]

I'm not too happy about the return but it is what it is. At least Jiricek went to the other conference. I wish we could get a 2026 1st instead of 2025...

In the NFL it's not uncommon to trade away a current first rounder and get one the next year in return (plus something). I don't feel like that's really an NHL thing. If the pick is somewhere between 25-32 and a team sees a guy on the board they really like, maybe they try to move up to get him and GMDW can swing a trade getting us a 2026 1st rounder.

I really don't hate the trade. Ignoring the "pedigree" of a #6OA vs a third round pick because two years after drafting that is meaningless, especially to a new GM who didn't draft the player. Feels like we traded one d-man prospect that currently belongs in the AHL for another d-man prospect that currently belongs in the AHL. One has a much higher ceiling but feels like the other has a higher floor. We got the guy with the higher floor because yes I can see Jiricek back in Europe in a couple years if he isn't thriving in a top four role by the end of 2025-2026.

Plus we added 1st, 2nd and 3rd round picks. I know people say those are a waste but that's three more decent kicks at the can.

 

[CannonFire1]

We used our own 1st on Duchene and for the Expansion Draft protection. Where I'm going is every time they enter a draft with multiple 1st round picks and are talking about packaging them to move up or trade for a good player, they don't.

At this point it's become a bit of a running joke. 2013 they had 3 and used all 3. 2015 they had 2 and used both. 2021 they had 3 and used all 3. 2022 they had 2 and used both.

I get what you are saying, but none of those examples occurred under Don Waddell. We don't know how he will proceed. Also, I would argue for 2021 and 2022 we were in early stages of a rebuild and trading first round picks would have been unwise.

2015 is actually interesting in that we didn't enter the draft with multiple 1s, but packaged picks 34 and 68 to move back into the end of round 1 and take Gabriel Carlsson. Obviously that one didn't pan out, but they did attempt to "weaponize" draft capital. They recovered from that miss a bit by picking Gavrikov in round 6 and Nutivaara in round 7.

 

[KJ Dangler]

The question to be asked is will we now see a Hunt-Mateychuk pair in Cleveland and do they think Mateychuk is an eventual RD.

Maybe the future is
Werenski - Fabbro
Hunt - Mateychuk
somebody - Severson
Gudbranson

while a bunch of draft picks with decent size and good skating are given plenty of time to develop.

I think you are forgetting Luca Marelli who is a RD and dominating right now , Elick will be another to watch .

 

[stevo61]

I just like the irony of getting a guy who has bounced between the AHL/NHL and has as many games played this year as Jiricek. Minny ruining this kid

 

[DarkandStormy]

Meh, I'm fine with it. You can't hold onto every top 10 pick just because they were a top 10 pick. Murray, Wennberg, Milano, etc. are all recent examples of 1st round picks who they got horrendous value out of.

Maybe Waddell is actually selling high, not low here. Only time will tell. The shine certainly has worn off of Jiricek, though. I still think his ceiling is a poor man's Seth Jones but it's also entirely possible he never gets there.

 

[CBJWerenski8]

 

[KJ Dangler]

Thats all fine, she has no clue what was going on behind the scenes . Either his skating can’t be improved , or he’s not putting in the work needed , because he looks no different than last year to be honest . They basically held a spot in the top 4 when Mateychuk was night and day better , and he couldn’t seize the opportunity, because of his skating .

 

[Napoli]

Thank God we have this random to tell us everything was all good and nothing prompted this.

 

[CBJWerenski8]

 

[CBJWerenski8]

Thank God we have this random to tell us everything was all good and nothing prompted this.

You really think I’d link some random person on here? She’s not a random. She covers the Monsters.

 

[Iron Balls McGinty]

Thank God we have this random to tell us everything was all good and nothing prompted this.

She's not a random. She's a writer that does Monsters coverage.

 

[Fred Glover]

Random thoughts

A prerequisite for being a good player is that you have to skate, after all the game is played on ice. If Jiricek has issues skating after supposedly working hard on that in the off season then that is a red flag. Can he improve? Sure, but so can any player, including the player we got back in the trade. Potential means nothing you have to prove it
For those questioning whether Evason was really going into this with giving everyone a clean slate, Jiricek is exhibit A
He was told he was going to be in the top four, the team got rid of three defensive players, he practiced and played and still couldn’t crack the starting lineup
He thought he was better than he actually was and he has an agent who is an assclown who loves to be in the spotlight
Could they have waited? Absolutely
But they chose not to
I think that Evason wants players that can skate. Strike one against Jiricek
The players need to fit the system, Jiricek was a square peg trying to fit into a round hole, so Waddell decided to move on
From what I’ve seen so far this year the new management team has earned my trust
I’m over the moon over how they are playing, talk about exceeding expectations!
So I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt on this one, for the reasons I mentioned above I don’t fault them one bit
And if you think they could have gotten a better return, then name names in the trades they turned down, be specific and not give your opinion or speculation. Actually state the team and terms they refused. You can’t, neither can I so they get the benefit of the doubt from me

 

[OldGoaltender]

Many think that the offensive players are the ones that really need to be great skaters but it’s the defense including goalies. I don’t care how big or skilled you are but that’s where you are exposed the most, on defense.

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

Many think that the offensive players are the ones that really need to be great skaters but it’s the defense including goalies. I don’t care how big or skilled you are but that’s where you are exposed the most, on defense.

We know these things but we need to remind ourselves that being a good skater isn’t just about speed or even first step explosion. It’s about those things, but about a lot more, especially for defenders.

 

[Napoli]

You really think I’d link some random person on here? She’s not a random. She covers the Monsters.

Of course she does.

She still knows nothing of what she wrote to be 100% true. She's not in the locker room nor are they telling her anything.