Player Discussion: The Elvis Thread

[Iron Balls McGinty]

He's certainly had his chances and probably more chances than a lot of players would ever get but it certainly seems like Waddell values giving one more chance a bit more than making a bad deal or eating up a terrible buyout right now.

 

[Monstershockey]

I hope they improve the defence so that Elvis improves. The plus side to that, is Tarasov and Greaves could also end up being much better.

 

[CBJWerenski8]

But Waddell was surprisingly frank in a recent talk with The Athletic, making it clear that Merzlikins isn’t going anywhere.

“Let’s be honest, nobody is going to trade for that contract. Nobody,” Waddell said. “People say, ‘Well, why don’t you buy out the contract?’ It’s a six-year buyout, and there are years three, four, five and six, when you might need that cap space.

“So you’ve eliminated those two options.”

It’s going to be a long summer in Columbus, and Waddell still has plenty of conversations to hold with Blue Jackets front-office staffers, coaches and players. That is to say that it’s possible Waddell’s plans as of today may be altered after he gets a better view of the landscape.

But Waddell plans to give Merzlikins another chance to show the Blue Jackets organization that he can carry the load as a No. 1 goaltender, not just through his play but in his ability to handle a starter’s workload and carry himself like a leader on the club.

“Let’s put all the resources we can toward it,” Waddell said. “I don’t want to come across as criticizing anything that’s happened here before, because I don’t know what’s happened here before. But we all mesh differently.

“My approach is, ‘Let’s put all our time and effort into this.’ At the end of the day, we can say we did everything possible to put this in the right position. Two outcomes are possible: we succeed or we fail. If we succeed, we keep moving forward. If we fail, well, now we have to figure things out.


“It’s easier to say, ‘Just do this or that (trade or buyout).’ But those aren’t options.”

 

[majormajor]

What does "let's put all of our time and effort into this" mean exactly?

The trouble with investing that much into 30 year old erratic players is that you also have many young players who are more important to the future of the club, who are erratic now because of their age but can develop into something more consistent. I would like our head coach focused on them.

 

[KCbus]

I'm not Merziklins' biggest fan by any stretch of the imagination, but he's not hot garbage, either. Nor do I think there's a long line of teams eager to take on his contract. So I'm not surprised they don't plan on moving him before Waddell has a chance to put the little cup with pens and pencils on his desk. This team has plenty of problems, and it's going to be a long process. This isn't a "day one" problem.

 

[Cyclones Rock]

What does "let's put all of our time and effort into this" mean exactly?

The trouble with investing that much into 30 year old erratic players is that you also have many young players who are more important to the future of the club, who are erratic now because of their age but can develop into something more consistent. I would like our head coach focused on them.

It probably can be read to mean: "one last chance for Elvis".

JD is making a ridiculous amount of money. Jarmo will command a cool chunk of coin this season. Vincent and maybe Bobcock will be being paid. All for doing nothing.

Laine will probably take a retention percentage to dump.

It's probably an internal decision to just pull the plug on any more negative cash flow-in this case a buyout-that they can. I can't blame them. I'm sure Elvis will be on a very short leash and that a buyout will occur if things don't change with him this season.

Yes, I know what a "sunk cost" is. The problem is that the good ship Blue Jackets is sinking under their current sunk costs and ownership has (rightfully) pulled the plug on any more.

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

It probably can be read to mean: "one last chance for Elvis".

JD is making a ridiculous amount of money. Jarmo will command a cool chunk of coin this season. Vincent and maybe Bobcock will be being paid. All for doing nothing.

Laine will probably take a retention percentage to dump.

It's probably an internal decision to just pull the plug on any more negative cash flow-in this case a buyout-that they can. I can't blame them. I'm sure Elvis will be on a very short leash and that a buyout will occur if things don't change with him this season.

Yes, I know what a "sunk cost" is. The problem is that the good ship Blue Jackets is sinking under their current sunk costs and ownership has (rightfully) pulled the plug on any more.

If you're sinking do you really want to pull the plug?

 

[DarkandStormy]

The cap is heading to $90m+ soon. A buyout of Elvis isn't *that* expensive.

Maybe there is some truth to the Kypreos/Bourne rumors of a few days ago of CBJ wanting to cut payroll.

 

[Cyclones Rock]

If you're sinking do you really want to pull the plug?

Only if you're in the boat

 

[Iron Balls McGinty]

What does "let's put all of our time and effort into this" mean exactly?

The trouble with investing that much into 30 year old erratic players is that you also have many young players who are more important to the future of the club, who are erratic now because of their age but can develop into something more consistent. I would like our head coach focused on them.

It means, maybe just maybe the real problem was upper management and he believes he can fix it.

 

[tunnelvision]

What does "let's put all of our time and effort into this" mean exactly?

The trouble with investing that much into 30 year old erratic players is that you also have many young players who are more important to the future of the club, who are erratic now because of their age but can develop into something more consistent. I would like our head coach focused on them.

Since that was a follow-up from "trade or buyout aren't options" comment, I initially read it as "ownership doesn't want to buyout or take cap dumps/lose assets by trading him so let's just try to live with the problem the best we can and as long as we really need to". I could be wrong but I don't think that Waddell believes Elvis will likely fully bounce back statistically, mentally etc. and stop being an any kind of distraction for the team.

 

[Iron Balls McGinty]

Since that was a follow-up from "trade or buyout aren't options" comment, I initially read it as "ownership doesn't want to buyout or take cap dumps/lose assets by trading him so let's just try to live with the problem the best we can and as long as we really need to". I could be wrong but I don't think that Waddell believes Elvis will likely fully bounce back statistically, mentally etc. and stop being an any kind of distraction for the team.

I don't know that ownership cares that much with the roster. They might care for the money they are spending for various things but they do care enough to make changes in the team leadership.

I look at it this way because I agree and have agreed all this past season. Dropping Elvis now is much more detrimental than keeping him. He wasn't god awful horrible until after the whole 3rd string benching occurred.

Trading that contract with extensive retention or buying him out will hurt on the cap much more down the road when we want the team to be competitive. As Don himself said, you buy Elvis out now, years 3,4,5,6 of that buyout can really hurt the team's chances. Ride it out another year and see if you can fix it. If not, then buy him out where it is less painful.

Don might say he wants to be competitive this season but we need to be worried about being competitive 3,4,5,6 years down the road too.

 

[majormajor]

I don't know that ownership cares that much with the roster. They might care for the money they are spending for various things but they do care enough to make changes in the team leadership.

I look at it this way because I agree and have agreed all this past season. Dropping Elvis now is much more detrimental than keeping him. He wasn't god awful horrible until after the whole 3rd string benching occurred.

Trading that contract with extensive retention or buying him out will hurt on the cap much more down the road when we want the team to be competitive. As Don himself said, you buy Elvis out now, years 3,4,5,6 of that buyout can really hurt the team's chances. Ride it out another year and see if you can fix it. If not, then buy him out where it is less painful.

Don might say he wants to be competitive this season but we need to be worried about being competitive 3,4,5,6 years down the road too.

I'm sure we could do a trade with retention.

 

[NotWendell]

It means, maybe just maybe the real problem was upper management and he believes he can fix it.

And that could be the reason Bob was so eager to bolt out of here.

 

[Cyclones Rock]

I'm sure we could do a trade with retention.

I can't see it. His stats are bottom-of-the-barrel and his attitude and behavior is as well a lot of the time. You have speculated that the team doesn't want to play for him/that he's a locker room problem.

Even if he's at 50% "off" sticker, he's not the type of player another organization could realistically claim is going to fix whatever problems that they might have in net.

Elvis Merzlikins Hockey Stats and Profile at hockeydb.com

Statistics of Elvis Merzlikins, a hockey player from Riga, Latvia born Apr 13 1994 who was active from 2013 to 2025.

www.hockeydb.com

The last two years look like a player who has "lost it". If he's awful to start the season, you essentially bench him for the rest of the year and buy him out next off season. No reason to let him wreck the team on the ice this coming season is he's still terrible, but enough reasons not to go into a 6 year buyout scenario. You try the "hail mary" with him this year and take your medicine if it doesn't work next off season.

 

[majormajor]

I can't see it. His stats are bottom-of-the-barrel and his attitude and behavior is as well a lot of the time. You have speculated that the team doesn't want to play for him/that he's a locker room problem.

Even if he's at 50% "off" sticker, he's not the type of player another organization could realistically claim is going to fix whatever problems that they might have in net.

Elvis Merzlikins Hockey Stats and Profile at hockeydb.com

Statistics of Elvis Merzlikins, a hockey player from Riga, Latvia born Apr 13 1994 who was active from 2013 to 2025.

www.hockeydb.com

The last two years look like a player who has "lost it". If he's awful to start the season, you essentially bench him for the rest of the year and buy him out next off season. No reason to let him wreck the team on the ice this coming season is he's still terrible, but enough reasons not to go into a 6 year buyout scenario. You try the "hail mary" with him this year and take your medicine if it doesn't work next off season.

You're plain wrong on the stats. He finished with an .897 which is only a few ticks below league average, which is only .903 these days. And that's with the late season swoon our team took, he was around .903 for most of the year. If you sign a 1B goalie for $3m you don't expect better numbers than that. .897 is pretty much the median result for a goalie making that much, guys like DeSmith, Husso, Forsberg, and Georgiev.

There's nothing wrong with Elvis' performance at $3m per. It's the locker room issues that we need to move on from. Get a guy in net our players want to run through a brick wall for. As far as I know, Elvis would be less of an issue on a squad with a veteran room, unless there's something we don't know about.

 

[Cyclones Rock]

You're plain wrong on the stats.

NHL Stats

The official source for NHL Stats including skaters, goalies, teams stats and more.

www.nhl.com

Try again. You are wrong. Very wrong

For the past two seasons for goalies who have played 50 or more games, Elvis ranks dead last (53/53) in save percentage and (52/53) in GAA.

There's no hiding or playing around these numbers. Add in the "attitude" and he's not a trade candidate. Retention wouldn't make any difference. At least to a GM who didn't have a wish to be fired.

 

[majormajor]

NHL Stats

The official source for NHL Stats including skaters, goalies, teams stats and more.

www.nhl.com

Try again. You are wrong. Very wrong

For the past two seasons for goalies who have played 50 or more games, Elvis ranks dead last in save percentage and 53/53 in GAA.

You're of course adding in his obvious career worst season. Very transparent there bud.

Why don't we go even further back, if that's the way you want to play. His career average save percentage is .904, that's perfectly average.

 

[Cyclones Rock]

You're of course adding in his obvious career worst season. Very transparent there bud.

Why don't we go even further back, if that's the way you want to play. His career average save percentage is .904, that's perfectly average.

His last 2 seasons are the only real relevant ones. What happened 4 years ago is ancient (and irrelevant) history for a hockey player.

Anyway, the overarching point is that Waddell's strategy is the only sound one. It's magical thinking to posit Elvis being a worthwhile trade w/ retention candidate.

 

[majormajor]

His last 2 seasons are the only real relevant ones. What happened 4 years ago is ancient (and irrelevant) history for a hockey player.

Anyway, the overarching point is that Waddell's strategy is the only sound one. It's fantastical thinking to posit Elvis being a worthwhile trade or retention candidate.

Yes of course the negative outlier is the only data point that should count. Fits with your line of thinking on just about everything.

 

[Cyclones Rock]

Yes of course the negative outlier is the only data point that should count. Fits with your line of thinking on just about everything.

 

[NotWendell]

Yes of course the negative outlier is the only data point that should count. Fits with your line of thinking on just about everything.

I'm going to disagree. This is a results-based business. If this were a head coach with those results, it's not a stretch to expect him to be fired - or at the very least on the hot seat.

Even if he's our backup, we're stuck with Elvis this season.

 

[majormajor]

I'm going to disagree. This is a results-based business. If this were a head coach with those results, it's not a stretch to expect him to be fired - or at the very least on the hot seat.

Even if he's our backup, we're stuck with Elvis this season.

Disagree with what? I think he's worth half his current contract and needs to get off this team el-pronto.

 

[ColumbusTrill]

Disagree with what? I think he's worth half his current contract and needs to get off this team el-pronto.

Who is going to want him tho? Bad contract, questionable attitude, and average to below average numbers. Feel like we're stuck with him and teams would rather see him make a turnaround with us before making a trade vs hoping they can fix him now. Do believe Wadell + a veteran coach can get things in better shape than our previous regime.

 

[NotWendell]

Disagree with what? I think he's worth half his current contract and needs to get off this team el-pronto.

I disagree that his performance from 4 years ago means anything.