You’re forgetting Voronkov who’s better than both Sillinger and Jiricek
True, I did forget. I liked Sillinger + Jiricek for Dobson so much that my brain stopped functioning.
You’re forgetting Voronkov who’s better than both Sillinger and Jiricek
not even close...As I’m hearing more and more from the NYI fans these two might become available and the team is heading into a rebuild, while Columbus seems to have been going in circles collecting picks and prospects, I think it’s time to make a splash and acquire star talent what will rejuvenate the franchise and finish the rebuild.
Columbus trades its best defensive prospect in Jiricek as there’s reports of his rep team and CBJ management having some disagreement regarding his ice time.
Jackets also add a mid 6 center / winger Cole Sillinger who fits really well into the Isles gritty style and the biggest addition of all, no pun intended - the young 6’5 power forward Dmitry Voronkov who possesses both grit and skill. It’s extremely hard to give up on him but the emergence of Olivier should help healing the hole in our bottom 6.
Finally, Columbus adds a 3rd round pick as a sweetener.
Jackets get a dream first pairing of Dobson and Werenski and a great center for KJ and Fantilli making the top 6 of
Marchenko - Monahan - Chinakhov
KJ - Barzal - Fantilli
David Jiricek RHD
Cole Sillinger C/W
Dmitry Voronkov RW
CBJ 3rd round pick
Matt Barzal C
Noah Dobson RHD
the perception of sillinger is skewed by his sophomore season (as a 19-year-old) where he had an impossibly low shooting percentage and really struggled. he bounced back well enough last year and looks a lot better this year.
based on my viewings this year, he looks like a long-term 2C who is maybe more of a plus 3C on a really deep team. but he's shown this year that he can take tough matchups, play PK + PP, and even play wing when asked.
jiricek is still just 20, and was the AHL rookie of the year at 18. he's coming up in rumors for a reason, but I don't think it has anything to do with his long-term projection. seems to me like waddell still wants to make some big changes, and jiricek is the best tool to utilize for that.
generally speaking, when a team decides to do a tear-down, they get much better overall returns by dealing their stars separately.
if both guys became available, I'd be very keen on trying to push for both of them. but I think it would have to be something like:
so, two young roster players with high draft pedigrees at premium positions, a good complimentary prospect, a potential top-10 pick and another late 1st. that's what I assume it would take to make a full tear-down appealing for NYI.
- CBJ gets
- Barzal
- Dobson (extended)
- NYI gets
- Jiricek
- one of Sillinger / Voronkov
- one of Dumais / Del Bel Belluz
- 2025 CBJ 1st round pick (with protections)
- whatever 1st round pick they end up getting for provorov
on the flip side, though, maybe I'm overvaluing those pieces because if Dobson gets something like $9m x 8 years that'd be about $126m in future commitments off the NYI books. cap space is a valuable commodity.
to OP's point, Voronkov is probably a much more valuable piece in NHL front offices than he is with the general public. he's 6'5, 240 pounds, mean, can play center, has good scoring touch and shockingly good hands/playmaking instincts. and he's still young + cheap on top of that.
This is mostly because of the fact that Jackets players are relatively unknown for outsiders. Voronkov was 7th in rookie scoring last season (on par with Knies) along with his unique size and skill. Sillinger is young but already an NHL regular with many games and Jiricek is still one of the best defensive prospects in the game