Player Discussion: The Elvis Thread

[KJ Dangler]

Except that's not what is being reported regarding the goaltender position here.

That’s exactly what it’s saying .. it’s refuting the notion we are sitting tight with Elvis / Jet. Isn’t that how confirmation bias works in grey area statements ?

In all seriousness , when Porty usually puts a blurb like this , there is movement occurring

 

[Long Live Lyle]

That’s exactly what it’s saying .. it’s refuting the notion we are sitting tight with Elvis / Jet

“There’s a sense” is different than “Waddell hasn’t said anything publicly, but I’ve been told the plan is…”

I actually like Porty and think he’s a pretty good reporter, but it’s not like it’s unknown that he sometimes holds on to a narrative for a really long time whether it comes to fruition or not, and can sometimes blend his reporting together with opinion/guesses.

 

[KJ Dangler]

“There’s a sense” is different than “Waddell hasn’t said anything publicly, but I’ve been told the plan is…”

I actually like Porty and think he’s a pretty good reporter, but it’s not like it’s unknown that he sometimes holds on to a narrative for a really long time whether it comes to fruition or not, and can sometimes blend his reporting together with opinion/guesses.

I think there is a sense is (an update)responding back to the initial reporting there would be no buy out , and rumors we may sit tight with the goalies we have . That’s how I interpreted it .

 

[cbjthrowaway]

I'm not saying this is what happened, but I can confirm that this is definitely how "I've been asking around and no one has definitively told me no" works.

As DSL quoted,

I’m pretty sure “off the record” doesn’t entail reporting that “I’ve got a secret but I can’t tell you” but he might have asked and wasn’t given an “absolutely not” answer.

so it's either:

1. portzline hearing from non-CBJ sources that the jackets are trying to make moves in net, but he can't get them to confirm, OR
2. portzline asked the FO if they're looking to make a change in net, and they didn't say no but also didn't refute it

i assume that if they were actually committed to elvis/greaves/tarasov, they'd have just told him that they weren't looking to make moves. so them not saying no is more of a "we hope we can make moves but may not be able to" thing.

 

[cbjthrowaway]

I think there is a sense is (an update)responding back to the initial reporting there would be no buy out , and rumors we may sit tight with the goalies we have . That’s how I interpreted it .

i'm still 1000% convinced that Plan A is trading him and Plan B is a buyout. no need to show their cards before they need to play them or publicly do that to the player, especially since i'm pretty sure elvis lives here year-round.

the buyout window doesn't even open until 48h after the finals, and it doesn't close until the end of june. if they don't have a trade by then, they'll come to another resolution.

a buyout would be the most likely of those options, but elvis wouldn't get all of the money owed to him. maybe it's a "if you report to cleveland we'll buy you out next summer and you'll get more money; if you refuse we'll terminate your contract" kind of thing.

 

[Long Live Lyle]

I think there is a sense is (an update)responding back to the initial reporting there would be no buy out , and rumors we may sit tight with the goalies we have . That’s how I interpreted it .

I mean maybe. At the same time, he wrote the following on April 23 (the week after the season ended and after Waddell’s exit interview comment s): “With the numbers he put up this season — once again among the worst in the league in save percentage and goals-against average — and with the late-season, on-ice temper tantrums, it’s hard to imagine the Blue Jackets bringing back Elvis Merzlikins.”

He also had a Sunday Gathering before that on April 6 while the season was ongoing with the headline: “Goaltending overhaul is a must-do this summer”

I’m just saying, again while I like Porty, he often has a hard-time letting go of certain narratives. Maybe he’s actually heard something new, but when he writes something like those things it’s clear he’s letting a bit of opinion in there.

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

so it's either:

1. portzline hearing from non-CBJ sources that the jackets are trying to make moves in net, but he can't get them to confirm, OR
2. portzline asked the FO if they're looking to make a change in net, and they didn't say no but also didn't refute it

i assume that if they were actually committed to elvis/greaves/tarasov, they'd have just told him that they weren't looking to make moves. so them not saying no is more of a "we hope we can make moves but may not be able to" thing.

Or it's "we're always looking for ways to make our team better."

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

That’s exactly what it’s saying .. it’s refuting the notion we are sitting tight with Elvis / Jet. Isn’t that how confirmation bias works in grey area statements ?

In all seriousness , when Porty usually puts a blurb like this , there is movement occurring

It's not refuting anything. It's making two non-definitive statements based on "coy" and "sense."

 

[Iron Balls McGinty]

so it's either:

1. portzline hearing from non-CBJ sources that the jackets are trying to make moves in net, but he can't get them to confirm, OR
2. portzline asked the FO if they're looking to make a change in net, and they didn't say no but also didn't refute it

i assume that if they were actually committed to elvis/greaves/tarasov, they'd have just told him that they weren't looking to make moves. so them not saying no is more of a "we hope we can make moves but may not be able to" thing.

In all fairness, they should only be a handful of players on the roster they should be fully committed to and be unwilling to move.

Fantilli, Marchenko, Monahan, Werenski, and probably Olivier (just because of the toughness he brings and knowing how much DW values him) are the untouchables.

KJ, Voronkov, Jenner, and Mateychuk (I kind of put him between these 2 lists) are in the 2nd tier where they'd prefer to not move them but if an amazing deal comes up to win now its not out of the question.

Anyone else on the roster is fair game for a clear upgrade to the roster. I'd move any goalie on the roster if it was in a move to make the team better. it's kind of redundant to say they'd love upgrade in goal if they could. It would be dumb to NOT think that unless you have a future HOF, Vezina winner in goal.

 

[Iron Balls McGinty]

In all seriousness , when Porty usually puts a blurb like this , there is movement occurring

And he's quietly been beating the subtle Elvis has to go bits like this for a couple of years in his writing and he's still here as of today.

There will be a time when Elvis is not here for any reason and somehow it will turn into Porty called it.

 

[cbjthrowaway]

And he's quietly been beating the subtle Elvis has to go bits like this for a couple of years in his writing and he's still here as of today.

why did aaron portzline make elvis play so bad??? is he stupid???

 

[CBJWerenski8]

 

[Iron Balls McGinty]

why did aaron portzline make elvis play so bad??? is he stupid???

Nobody can question the highs and lows of play on the ice. He’s been subtly beating that drum for other reasons that he never goes into detail on with little comments and bits and it continued into this season even though everybody on the team has said he was a great teammate.

I’ve just seen multiple random small comments in his writing that make me think he’s got a personal problem with Elvis. I really like his writing as a whole and think he’s great but I just don’t see him make similar comments about others. It shouldn’t be a “secret” we need better performance from multiple players, not just the goaltenders.

We want to upgrade if we find a better player great. We should do that for every position when possible. I’ve also never heard anyone claim anyone was the unquestioned starter next season.

 

[Cyclones Rock]

There won't be a trade market for Elvis, imo. It's time to cut bait and suck up the buyout. The buyout window is such that it won't allow for him to be the "bad asset" in a trade. Keeping him on for yet another year in hope of unloading him doesn't make too much sense. This past season was his "do or die" year based on what Waddell said and he needs to stick with his guns and move on from Merzlekins.

A team which appears on the cusp for showing its upside can't afford to keep him around anymore.

It's probably too risky to expect Greaves to carry a 50-60 game load although he might be able to do it effectively. Tarasov isn't a viable candidate for back up, imo.

If the FO can't secure a half decent goalie this off season, I'll view it as a massive failure on their part.

 

[JacketFanInFL]

There won't be a trade market for Elvis, imo. It's time to cut bait and suck up the buyout. The buyout window is such that it won't allow for him to be the "bad asset" in a trade. Keeping him on for yet another year in hope of unloading him doesn't make too much sense. This past season was his "do or die" year based on what Waddell said and he needs to stick with his guns and move on from Merzlekins.

A team which appears on the cusp for showing its upside can't afford to keep him around anymore.

It's probably too risky to expect Greaves to carry a 50-60 game load although he might be able to do it effectively. Tarasov isn't a viable candidate for back up, imo.

If the FO can't secure a half decent goalie this off season, I'll view it as a massive failure on their part.

Greaves played far better with the same roster, when it counted the most. He's the clear cut number 1 goalie for this team. Agree that it is time to cut bait on Elvis and buy him out. Hope is a terrible strategy and DW doesn't mess around. Definitely need a veteran 1B or backup.

 

[majormajor]

I’ve just seen multiple random small comments in his writing that make me think he’s got a personal problem with Elvis. I really like his writing as a whole and think he’s great but I just don’t see him make similar comments about others.

Okay, let's do a comparison. Let's take another Blue Jacket that has aggravated PTSD from the cannon, a history of off and on trade requests, and a nasty public feud between their wife and some members of the fanbase who supposedly made death threats. Then we'll see how often Porty covers whether that player will be moved.

There's more history there with Elvis too, I'm not wasting my time digging this up again just so you can conveniently forget it next time you want to pretend there isn't a significant contentious history here.

There won't be a trade market for Elvis, imo. It's time to cut bait and suck up the buyout. The buyout window is such that it won't allow for him to be the "bad asset" in a trade. Keeping him on for yet another year in hope of unloading him doesn't make too much sense. This past season was his "do or die" year based on what Waddell said and he needs to stick with his guns and move on from Merzlekins.

A team which appears on the cusp for showing its upside can't afford to keep him around anymore.

It's probably too risky to expect Greaves to carry a 50-60 game load although he might be able to do it effectively. Tarasov isn't a viable candidate for back up, imo.

If the FO can't secure a half decent goalie this off season, I'll view it as a massive failure on their part.

Elvis wasn't that bad. .500 and not the Bettman .500 - he went 26-21-5.

So not only do I think there would be trade opportunities with retention, I think if we keep him he might be a viable tandem or backup. All of that assuming he's a good teammate now, which seems to be the vibe from his teammates.

 

[Cyclones Rock]

Elvis wasn't that bad. .500 and not the Bettman .500 - he went 26-21-5.

So not only do I think there would be trade opportunities with retention, I think if we keep him he might be a viable tandem or backup. All of that assuming he's a good teammate now, which seems to be the vibe from his teammates.

I'm just of the mind that there are better options that will be available for the CBJ this off season. It's a "been there, done that, got the t shirt" with him and it's not good enough to bring him back. His numbers were pretty bad. A .892 save percentage-his 3rd straight sub .900 year. Not acceptable to me-and hopefully management. While Greaves only played 20% of the minutes Elvis did, the fact that he had a .938 save percentage shows me that Elvis cost the team dearly in goals against. Obviously not the full difference between save percentages, but a fair portion of that.

I doubt that Elvis will attract too much attention from other teams or that he'd require much less than 50% retention or a bad asset coming the CBJ way. If he's bought out, I'm sure some team will give him a one year "show me" deal. He's not worth keeping around as a trade asset.

It's time to move on.

 

[majormajor]

I'm just of the mind that there are better options that will be available for the CBJ this off season. It's a "been there, done that, got the t shirt" with him and it's not good enough to bring him back. His numbers were pretty bad. A .892 save percentage-his 3rd straight sub .900 year. Not acceptable to me-and hopefully management. While Greaves only played 20% of the minutes Elvis did, the fact that he had a .938 save percentage shows me that Elvis cost the team dearly in goals against. Obviously not the full difference between save percentages, but a fair portion of that.

I doubt that Elvis will attract too much attention from other teams or that he'd require much less than 50% retention or a bad asset coming the CBJ way. If he's bought out, I'm sure some team will give him a one year "show me" deal. He's not worth keeping around as a trade asset.

It's time to move on.

Greaves was sensational, that's all credit to Jet and no discredit to anyone else.

I think a change of scenery with Elvis would be good but I don't think you can make a good argument to pay four years of buyout costs to move from a .500 goalie to another question mark goalie. .892 isn't good but it's not bad either (these days), and it looks like not enough good goalies are making it to free agency, they're all locked up.

 

[Cyclones Rock]

Greaves was sensational, that's all credit to Jet and no discredit to anyone else.

I think a change of scenery with Elvis would be good but I don't think you can make a good argument to pay four years of buyout costs to move from a .500 goalie to another question mark goalie. .892 isn't good but it's not bad either (these days), and it looks like not enough good goalies are making it to free agency, they're all locked up.

With Elvis, I'll roll the dice on the "grass is greener on the other side" possibility.

You've mentioned retention with him and the difference between a 33% retention (just tossing that number out) and a buyout doesn't move the needle for me.

 

[Iron Balls McGinty]

Okay, let's do a comparison. Let's take another Blue Jacket that has aggravated PTSD from the cannon, a history of off and on trade requests, and a nasty public feud between their wife and some members of the fanbase who supposedly made death threats. Then we'll see how often Porty covers whether that player will be moved.

There's more history there with Elvis too, I'm not wasting my time digging this up again just so you can conveniently forget it next time you want to pretend there isn't a significant contentious history here.

ok, you don't like the guy, we get it. Maybe not as bad as Bus but still you hold grudge too.

I don't conveniently forget sh*t. I just have a different viewpoint than you.

You said more than enough when you said "supposedly" like that stuff doesn't or didn't actually happen. And I'm not going down the road of trade requests. You don't know the truth of what truly happened any more than I do but you've convinced yourself that your opinion is the only right one. In reality the real truth is not yours, it's not mine. It's somewhere in the middle.

 

[majormajor]

ok, you don't like the guy, we get it. Maybe not as bad as Bus but still you hold grudge too.

I don't conveniently forget sh*t. I just have a different viewpoint than you.

You said more than enough when you said "supposedly" like that stuff doesn't or didn't actually happen. And I'm not going down the road of trade requests. You don't know the truth of what truly happened any more than I do but you've convinced yourself that your opinion is the only right one. In reality the real truth is not yours, it's not mine. It's somewhere in the middle.

Not at all true. I don't have anything against Elvis. I'm rooting for the guy and from the conversations today I think he is actually underrated.

I have a problem with people alleging that Porty is creating this as a story, when we have years and years of reasons for why Elvis and the team might want to part ways. "In reality the truth" is that it's a perfectly legitimate topic for him to cover.

 

[Iron Balls McGinty]

Not at all true. I don't have anything against Elvis. I'm rooting for the guy and from the conversations today I think he is actually underrated.

I have a problem with people alleging that Porty is creating this as a story, when we have years and years of reasons for why Elvis and the team might want to part ways. "In reality the truth" is that it's a perfectly legitimate topic for him to cover.

I think Porty has a way of allowing people here create the story themselves with a random open ended sentence that never goes into detail. His in depth reporting is great but people pull out one broad sentence where people create their own novel in their head. When it comes to Elvis he's always planted these "little seeds" that have gotten people making up their own opinions and stories in their head and continued this narrative.

Case in point was the passing sentence about how they'd love to upgrade in goal even though nobody would say so in his last story. I think that we should obviously and always be looking for upgrades everywhere but without providing more information all kinds of speculation occurs. It wasn't even the main purpose of the article but people are talking more about that 1 sentence and rehashing old drama than anything else in the article.

I still don't believe that Elvis is the piece of sh*t human being here like to paint him out to be and I've been down this road before that I feel like Jarmo is the one who created locker room drama with players in public. Jarmo is gone and the public locker room soap opera disappeared.

 

[cbjthrowaway]

.892 isn't good but it's not bad either (these days)

depends on how you define bad, i guess. bottom third of the league? so "not that bad" would be anything in the 34th-50th percentile then?

there were 73 goalies who played 10+ games last year. elvis ranked:

• 52nd in sv% (.892) – 29th percentile
• 64th in GSAA (-12.1) – 14th percentile

firmly in bad territory for me.

and it looks like not enough good goalies are making it to free agency, they're all locked up.

guys above the 33rd percentile in GSAA last year who could be available this summer either via UFA or trade, in ascending order:

• jonathan quick
• ville husso
• james reimer
• alex lyon
• dan vladar
• calvin pickard
• cam talbot
• jordan binnington
• anton forsberg
• joel hofer
• jakub dobes
• scott wedgewood
• jake allen
• eric comrie
• john gibson
• casey desmith

jet greaves was in the 89th percentile for both GSAA (which is wild since it's a cumulative stat and he only played 11 games) and save percentage.

there may be perceived risk to buying out elvis + betting on jet, but i don't think they need to go hunting for a star in net. they can get a reasonably-priced goalie like forsberg or a budget option like lyon/vladar and end up with overall cost efficiency in net even factoring in dead money for elvis.

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

betting on jet

b-b-b-b-b-betting on the jet

 

[Long Live Lyle]

I’ve made this point before, but I just think a buyout is not the right move given where this team’s at from BOTH a Cup window AND a contract perspective. Generally, I think our Cup window looks like 2027-2031 or so. I don’t think it’s next season.

Fantilli and Sillinger will have new deals in 2026-27. Fantilli’s will be substantially more.

Marchenko will at least double and quite possibly nearly triple his salary when his new deal starts in 2027-28. Kent Johnson will quadruple his current salary in 2027-28. Mateychuk will be off his ELC starting in 2027-28.

Werenski will make more in his new deal starting in 2028-29.

I just don’t think having nearly $2M in dead money in each of 2027-28 and 2028-29 is wise for this club, just so you can replace Elvis with 35-year-old Jake Allen for the same amount of total money in 2025-26 and 2026-27. From a hockey perspective. I don’t know enough about the locker room to say.

Trading Elvis and/or getting a legitimate starter via trade could possibly make sense, but would of course depend on the retention/returns on either/both deals.