Confirmed with Link: Walman and a 2nd Round Pick traded to SJ

[TheClap]

I guess I just don’t get this odd attachment to a guy like Walman around here.

After 12/31 last season, he scored a whopping 4 points and was not good at defense for the remainder of the season. Before this year, he had about 50 career points in just about 200 career games. And on top of that, was apparently a locker room issue AND did a stupid dance that I hate because f*** the Minnesota Vikings!

But now that he’s having an anomaly of a season, people want to use that as an excuse to”ah ha! Gotcha!” moment to criticize Yzerman?

We have enough information about Walman by this point to realize he’s having an outside of the mean season for himself. How many times have we seen this from NHL players where they have an awesome season, maybe 2 if they’re lucky, and then regress back to what they’d always been?

You're right. Jake Walman sucks and is a locker room cancer. I can't people are using his statistical anomaly of a year to criticize Yzerman.

On a completely unrelated note, who was it that signed this shitty locker room cancer to a 3 year $10.2 million deal and then had to gift wrap a 2nd round pick to unload the contract a year later so he could free up the cap space to overpay other shitty free agents? Surely the buffoon who did that deserves criticism.

 

[Redwing66]

I often think of last year, the passion and fun they had in some of those games. Walman doing his jig a couple times to magical wins - good thing the locker room has been scrubbed of that cancer so we can enjoy the product on the ice this year.

 

[Dotter]

On a completely unrelated note, who was it that signed this shitty locker room cancer to a 3 year $10.2 million deal and then had to gift wrap a 2nd round pick to unload the contract a year later so he could free up the cap space to overpay other shitty free agents? Surely the buffoon who did that deserves criticism.

We all had that crazy ex girlfriend; she acted sweet until she got her hooks in ya then turned into the next psycho on SNAPPED.

Walman, despite his amazing play, has already been healthied on a crappy SJS team. He's a ticking time bomb and Grier knows it.
It only cost a 2nd to cure us of cancer, and now we get to sleep good at night without having to keep one eye open on Crazy Sally. Set your DVR, the next episode of SNAPPED will be in California now.

 

[ricky0034]

We all had that crazy ex girlfriend; she acted sweet until she got her hooks in ya then turned into the next psycho on SNAPPED.

Walman, despite his amazing play, has already been healthied on a crappy SJS team. He's a ticking time bomb and Grier knows it.
It only cost a 2nd to cure us of cancer, and now we get to sleep good at night without having to keep one eye open on Crazy Sally. Set your DVR, the next episode of SNAPPED will be in California now.

is that why he's playing him 23 minutes a night?

 

[Dotter]

is that why he's playing him 23 minutes a night?

Wait for the "SNAPPED" part. Don't be fooled by the Ville Leino facade.

 

[ShanahanMan]

I often think of last year, the passion and fun they had in some of those games. Walman doing his jig a couple times to magical wins - good thing the locker room has been scrubbed of that cancer so we can enjoy the product on the ice this year.

Yeah thank god these disgusting displays of emotion have been wiped away. Way to go Steve!

 

[Oddbob]

As far as my opinion, I enjoyed watching Walman generate chances, even when the team was still losing. With his youth there was also hope he would keep getting better and be a big piece of the rebuild. Dumping that and a 2nd for nothing was Pejorative Slured. Since I was already having a lot of issues with Yzerman's moves up to that point, the Walman trade coupled with the Jack Campbell signing, really twisted the knife put me in the 'we need a new GM' camp. I think a lot of the other posters in this thread are probably of a similar mindset.

Walman wasn't generating that many chances for us. Lets not pretend the way he is playing this season was how last season was played by him here. I think he has a burr in his saddle right now over being traded and that is helping him do quite well. I also think he will cool off at some point this season and the bad play he had last season will return. Still lots of games left to go and SJ is quite bad, so plenty of time to have stuff go really bad.

 

[Oddbob]

Wait for the "SNAPPED" part. Don't be fooled by the Ville Leino facade.

I am fine with Walman gone, but can you stop with this Walman being this psycho of a person? He got healthy scratched this season for a simple misunderstanding and he was traded from here for maybe not being as hard a competitor as Steve Yzerman likes. He wasn't traded because he is some mind bending nutbar or something.

 

[AlwaysSunnyInDetroit]

maybe the future considerations were that grier would trade him back with a 2nd after walman got his shit together. DID ANYONE EVER THINK OF THAT???

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

I am fine with Walman gone, but can you stop with this Walman being this psycho of a person? He got healthy scratched this season for a simple misunderstanding and he was traded from here for maybe not being as hard a competitor as Steve Yzerman likes. He wasn't traded because he is some mind bending nutbar or something.

Not just Yzerman, seemed he wasn’t competitive enough for some of the guys in the room. When the captain says it publicly it is generally a decent sized issue.

Walman seems to be having his Jensen this is my last chance moment so good on him for getting on track and staying on track thus far this year. If he had been bad through these 30 games he would be on his way to being a really good AHL scoring vet Dman.

 

[HisNoodliness]

I guess I just don’t get this odd attachment to a guy like Walman around here.

After 12/31 last season, he scored a whopping 4 points and was not good at defense for the remainder of the season. Before this year, he had about 50 career points in just about 200 career games. And on top of that, was apparently a locker room issue AND did a stupid dance that I hate because f*** the Minnesota Vikings!

But now that he’s having an anomaly of a season, people want to use that as an excuse to”ah ha! Gotcha!” moment to criticize Yzerman?

We have enough information about Walman by this point to realize he’s having an outside of the mean season for himself. How many times have we seen this from NHL players where they have an awesome season, maybe 2 if they’re lucky, and then regress back to what they’d always been?

My problem with it is that Walman was hurt last year when his play declined. Early in the season and the year before, he was great for us. He had a history of playing well for us and was a reasonable candidate to bounce back. I wasn't hoping we'd get the apparently high quality first pairing defenseman San Jose has. I was hoping we'd get the somewhat risky second pair quality guy that can just barely survive being carried by Seider on the first pair.

Chiarot, Petry and Holl had no hope of being good this year. None of them can survive on the first pair. None of them can even survive on the second pair. Erik Gustafsson had almost no hope of being good this year. We actively and purposefully chose 4 guys that were obviously going to fail instead of Walman whom could have been good. We chose 4 AHL level defenseman over a guy that was likely to be at least a second pairing player. If we had given Walman a chance to bounce back, and still decided to move him when he inevitably did, we'd be looking at a first round pick+ in return for him.

We chose the worst time possible to move Walman. We paid to get rid of what should have been an asset. Our biggest hole on the team now and going forward is precisely in Walman's spot. We need a player exactly like him. When I consider viable trade targets for fixing our second pairing, Walman is honestly one of the best choices. He fits the age of our window going forward, he's relatively inexpensive, and he's great at rushing the puck out of the zone which we struggle with tremendously as a team.

If Yzerman had followed up the Walman trade by also getting rid of Chiarot, Petry and Holl and then replacing them with three good defenseman, I wouldn't care at all about Walman. Sometimes a guy doesn't fit the room, and sometimes the players you trade away have success elsewhere. I'm mad about the trade because there was no reasonable way to watch our team and think that getting rid of Walman should have been a priority. We have the worst second pairing in the league and we paid to get rid of a second pairing defenseman.

Trade Ben Chiarot instead and we're a playoff team right now. Trade Jeff Petry instead and we're a playoff team right now. Trade Justin Holl instead and we're a playoff team right now. That's the problem. It's not that getting rid of Walman is a huge deal. It's that we've gone out of our way at every decision point to assemble the worst group of defenseman that we can. That makes me afraid of what happens in UFA this year when we need a second pair defenseman and we're choosing between Chychrun and some guy named Fat Tony in my beer league. Our history indicates that Fat Tony will get the spot.

 

[HisNoodliness]

I guess I just don’t get this odd attachment to a guy like Walman around here.

After 12/31 last season, he scored a whopping 4 points and was not good at defense for the remainder of the season. Before this year, he had about 50 career points in just about 200 career games. And on top of that, was apparently a locker room issue AND did a stupid dance that I hate because f*** the Minnesota Vikings!

But now that he’s having an anomaly of a season, people want to use that as an excuse to”ah ha! Gotcha!” moment to criticize Yzerman?

We have enough information about Walman by this point to realize he’s having an outside of the mean season for himself. How many times have we seen this from NHL players where they have an awesome season, maybe 2 if they’re lucky, and then regress back to what they’d always been?

Chiarot, Petry and Holl had no hope of being good this year. None of them can survive on the first pair. None of them can even survive on the second pair. Erik Gustafsson had almost no hope of being good this year. We actively and purposefully chose 4 guys that were obviously going to fail instead of Walman whom could have been good. We chose 4 AHL level defenseman over a guy that was likely to be at least a second pairing player.

Trade Ben Chiarot instead and we're a playoff team right now. Trade Jeff Petry instead and we're a playoff team right now. Trade Justin Holl instead and we're a playoff team right now. That's the problem. It's not that getting rid of Walman is a huge deal. It's that we've gone out of our way at every decision point to assemble the worst group of defenseman that we can. That makes me afraid of what happens in UFA this year when we need a second pair defenseman and we're choosing between Chychrun and some guy named Fat Tony in my beer league. Our history indicates that Fat Tony will get the spot.

Also the idea that this is some "gotcha" benefit of hindsight criticism because of Walman's bounce back is ridiculous. I don't want to criticize Yzerman. I love the man. He is responsible for some of my childhood's best memories. I don't want to point out that he keeps bringing in bad defenseman. I want him to bring in good defenseman. And I saw all of this coming well in advance. Scroll to the first page of this thread. Here's how I reacted the day of to trading Walman:

Yeah based upon on-ice play, this is inexplicable. Even if I tell myself "Yzerman hates Walman and wanted him gone no matter what" there's no way that this makes sense. We should be trading Walman for a 2nd +, not Walman + 2nd for FC if we want to trade him. If we're not about to find out that he's a meth head or a sexual predator, and everyone in the league knows, I have no explanation.

To elaborate further, I don't think the piss poor play of our other defenseman was that unpredictable either.
Here were my reactions from 2022 to signing Chiarot:

"I'm ready to offer a 2023 2nd to get this off the books right now. Absolutely terrible, horrendous, just awful"

"Literally every time I've ever noticed Chiarot he has stood out in a bad way. I wouldn't have signed a 2*2 let alone a 4*4"

"The Lightning are my second team. We used to cheer when Chiarot would step on the ice in the finals because it meant either a shift spent entirely in Montreal's end or a penalty."

I especially like how prescient the "it meant... a shift spent entirely in Montreal's end..." Turned out to be as Ben has lived in our end since arriving on this team.

I'm too lazy but I could do the same for Petry and Holl. The point is that it wasn't hard to see this coming. Walman, Chiarot, Petry and Holl are playing exactly as anyone should have expected them to. That's because Walman is good at hockey. Chiarot, Petry and Holl are bad at hockey. It's really that simple.

I just don't understand how after getting to watch these players as part of our own organization, management gets it wrong when I (and half the people on here) got it right having only taken a cursory glance at these players on visiting teams. Have we fired the pro scouts that are making these choices? I haven't heard that. We need to before we're looking at a 6x6 for Fat Tony

 

[TheClap]

Not just Yzerman, seemed he wasn’t competitive enough for some of the guys in the room. When the captain says it publicly it is generally a decent sized issue.

Walman seems to be having his Jensen this is my last chance moment so good on him for getting on track and staying on track thus far this year. If he had bad through these 30 games he would be on his way to being a really good AHL scoring vet Dman.

The irony of course being the rest of this team appears to be exhibiting minimal effort on an almost nightly basis.

 

[Dotter]

I am fine with Walman gone, but can you stop with this Walman being this psycho of a person? He got healthy scratched this season for a simple misunderstanding and he was traded from here for maybe not being as hard a competitor as Steve Yzerman likes. He wasn't traded because he is some mind bending nutbar or something.

I don't know if Wally is a psycho or not, but I do you know you don't trade a fantastic PMD scoring dmen attached with a 2nd unless there is something seriously wrong - and Yzerman wasn't hiding the fact with his trade partner. We will never know the real reasons. We can only speculate, but I'd wage the farm that it is much worse than Walman Slappies are willing to admit.

What we do know is Walman skated on thin ice and submerged, not just with upper management, but with the locker room. He is trying to doggy paddle his way to safety because he knows his career is on the verge of drowning. So good on him for trying to turn it around, but I imagine whatever his malfunction is, his DNA will force it to revert back to his old ways. -- Hopefully I am wrong for his sake.

Grier seems to have no patience with him either as he already healthied him. Perhaps to send a message that he ain't playing games. Or maybe Walman is lying about what really happened with him and SJS. Either way it is not a good look and reinforces the understanding why Yzerman would hastily exile him.

This thread is already 55 pages of bickering over Walman. Can't imagine what kind of distraction he had in the locker room with his teammates. D.R.A.M.A has no place in the locker room. Look no further than NYR now.

 

[Dotter]

It really is funny how smearing Walman is the go to here, all at the service of protecting their delusions of how well the beloved player now GM is doing.

And then somehow don't realize that smearing Walman also reflects extremely poorly on that GM's decision making.

I mean where ever Walman goes he seems to get healthied and eventually not wanted. Hell, Yzerman had to give up a 2nd to rid of him. Walman is on his what.... 3rd NHL team?

I'll give you Yzerman made a mistake signing him, then fixed his mistake by giving up Tampa's 2nd round as a throw in on a trade he won to rid him of that burden and free up cap space. BOOM!

Making minor mistakes as a GM is nothing when you can easily correct it and still come out ahead. Jesse Kisskin is putting up almost a PPG in Liiga and is a PPG in International-Jr. He just turned 19.

Got rid of cancer
Upgraded prospect

mid 2nd rounder = wash.

Are you going to give credit when credit is due?

 

[JediOrderPizza]

The way I just look at it, is he was never going to do that here. I think if he was still on the team he would still be having a hard time with us. Some guys just need a change and good for him.

I know everyone brings up the Buffalo castaways because they have won cups and such. But does anyone think Reinhart scores 57 goals if he was still a Sabre? I'm gonna go with a big no.

Guys get moved somewhere else and blossom, it happens. Now blow up this thread already lol.

 

[Coach Reggie Dunlop]

The locker room cancer who didn’t want to compete that has 20 pts as a dman on another team while this team flounders and they put half ass efforts in almost every game. If Walman was a Locker room cancer than half of these bums earning paychecks and going through the motions are just as bad. Just admit yzerman made a horrible trade and move on, enough of these stupid justifications.

 

[JediOrderPizza]

The locker room cancer who didn’t want to compete that has 20 pts as a dman on another team while this team flounders and they put half ass efforts in almost every game. If Walman was a Locker room cancer than half of these bums earning paychecks and going through the motions are just as bad. Just admit yzerman made a horrible trade and move on, enough of these stupid justifications.

I think it was a bad trade and most I have seen here have said that. I just don't really give a shit, and don't think most of us will in 2 years.

I also see two scenarios here, Walman doesn't have a great season next year and again we don't care. Or two he has another good year and is up for a new contract for when he is 30. Do you wanna pay him 7-8mil?

I wouldn't.

 

[TheClap]

I mean where ever Walman goes he seems to get healthied and eventually not wanted. Hell, Yzerman had to give up a 2nd to rid of him. Walman is on his what.... 3rd NHL team?

I'll give you Yzerman made a mistake signing him, then fixed his mistake by giving up Tampa's 2nd round as a throw in on a trade he won to rid him of that burden and free up cap space. BOOM!

Making minor mistakes as a GM is nothing when you can easily correct it and still come out ahead. Jesse Kisskin is putting up almost a PPG in Liiga and is a PPG in International-Jr. He just turned 19.

Got rid of cancer
Upgraded prospect

mid 2nd rounder = wash.

Are you going to give credit when credit is due?

Am I going to give Steve Yzerman credit for signing a cancer to a 3 year contract extension, then needing to attach a mid 2nd rounder to unload him a year later, instead of just releasing the cancer and eating the cap hit, so he can sign more bad contracts to be in year 6 of rebuild with no cap mobility?

Of course. He gets all the credit in the world for that.

 

[TheClap]

The way I just look at it, is he was never going to do that here. I think if he was still on the team he would still be having a hard time with us. Some guys just need a change and good for him.

I know everyone brings up the Buffalo castaways because they have won cups and such. But does anyone think Reinhart scores 57 goals if he was still a Sabre? I'm gonna go with a big no.

Guys get moved somewhere else and blossom, it happens. Now blow up this thread already lol.

"He was never going to do that here" is not the indictment on a player you think it is. It'd be one thing if the Wings were Cup contenders, but they are far from that. Everyone recognizes Reinhart wouldn't do that in Buffalo because we know what kind of organization Buffalo is.

Seeing Walman succeed elsewhere while this team looks lifeless night after night is an even bigger indictment on the Wings coaching staff, front office, and on ice leadership.

We didn't get rid of a cancer, the cancer kicked Walman out. We are the Sabres.

 

[Zetterberg4Captain]

I will say the teams effort and compete level sure has taken off now that the disease known as Walman has been lanced...phew

Imagine bring traded away or unsigned by x3 teams as the indication of being a locker room cancer...sure glad we have no such guys anymore

 

[HoweFan]

Maybe we should give Steve a pat on the back for getting rid of Perron, Fabbri, and Sprong. Look up their stats

 

[RedHawkDown]

I’m going to begin to question Larkin’s leadership as well given that the team gives no f***s every night and he’s supposed to be the captain motivating people. Ok yoh got rid of supposed cancer walman, where’s the buy in that he supposedly wasn’t exhibiting?

 

[JediOrderPizza]

"He was never going to do that here" is not the indictment on a player you think it is. It'd be one thing if the Wings were Cup contenders, but they are far from that. Everyone recognizes Reinhart wouldn't do that in Buffalo because we know what kind of organization Buffalo is.

Seeing Walman succeed elsewhere while this team looks lifeless night after night is an even bigger indictment on the Wings coaching staff, front office, and on ice leadership.

We didn't get rid of a cancer, the cancer kicked Walman out. We are the Sabres.

It wasn't mean to be, we have seen him on this team and system not look great. He would obviously be behind Mo and Ed, having a plug thrust upon him whomever that would've been playing dump and change hockey. I think most of us would welcome a coaching change, I think there is even more there for Mo and others.

Not exactly Buffalo until we trade Larkin.

 

[Nemesis Prime]

I’m going to begin to question Larkin’s leadership as well given that the team gives no f***s every night and he’s supposed to be the captain motivating people. Ok yoh got rid of supposed cancer walman, where’s the buy in that he supposedly wasn’t exhibiting?

our captain sucks and should have been traded years ago