There's a lingering suspicion that that "kicking the door down" moment may be at the start of this year. That's most of what prompts it. Either way, though, that still suggests a "wait and see" approach.
(Also, Blankenburg is wonderful and awesome and doesn't deserve demotion but he just can't stay healthy...
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Fair enough i guess. And if Jiricek is ready, he's ready. I just don't think it'd be all that harmful to his development to let him get some more AHL games in while they figure out exactly what they have with this new mix of everything.
Peeke without the puck is fantastic. He shuts down plays and eats pucks like Savard did.
He's just really bad on breakouts, last year he was asked to do a lot of long tape to tape passes and he couldn't find them. He needs to be allowed to give it to his D partner or have a simple up the wall breakout. We weren't doing that last year and it killed his game, just as it would if say, Brandon Carlo was put in that position.
I think properly used he's a fine #4 D, the type a lot of teams could really use.
Have you seen Severson and Gudbranson's contracts? Then you've got Boqvist, Blankenburg, and Jiricek coming up at RD.
That might be our lineup ultimately - I'd be really curious to see a Provorov-Peeke pair and Babs has talked him up. But it's not really easy peasy to scratch Adam Boqvist or Blanks. We're not even sure if we'll be able to send Jiricek down if he takes a step this summer.
I don't really care too much about maximizing assets at this point late in the rebuild, so it's a good problem to have, but one of Boqvist or Peeke is likely to be sitting a lot and that will hurt the asset value.
I feel like this is where Peeke could end up being a real "Babcock guy". He's not going to be asked to make wild or super dynamic plays. Babcock loves a defenceman who can can just stick to the system and make the structured play. Peeke seems like a guy who could fit that like a glove.
IMO, Boqvist is the odd man out.
To me, this feels like the real answer. I just don't see a smallish, soft, powerplay specialist defenceman being part of Babcocks "core". I don't really know what you get in return for him...because that Boqvist sort of player isn't really in most coaches favourite realm.
I feel like CBJ are going to wait until Babs can work with everyone to see who he wants. I feel like Bean is the odd man out. If it is Peeke though I think a 2nd would suffice.
Peeke makes more sense but he just seems like a Babcock type player.
Yeah, definitely. I think Peeke is also the sort of player who can benefit from playing in a system like Babcock employs. Structured, simple, effective sort of play from the defencemen. Peeke has all the attributes to become a big favourite.
LD depth chart for next year will probably look something like this:
Werenski - established 1LD
Provorov - established 2LD
Bean - could be anything between 3LD and AHL D
Svozil - likely an AHL guy next year, but has 2LD upside
Christiansen - likely a career AHLer, 6/7D upside
Knazko - same as Christiansen
And in the pipeline there's of course a high-end prospect Mateychuk (2LD upside) who will be heading back to WHL for another year, and at least a couple solid B/C-level prospects (Makarov, Richard).
I don't know a lot about Rathbone and Truscott, but judging by a brief search I suspect they don't hold much more value than Christiansen and Knazko. I think the Jackets would be more interested to add a >6'1 LD with higher upside and better shut-down skills than any of the aforementioned 4 prospects seem to possess.
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Do you think would Allvin consider trading Vancouver's '24 1st (with protection) for Peeke and CBJ '24 2nd?
I don't think Vancouver is in any position to be trading that 1st, even with protection. Not unless they're getting back a lot more of a "sure thing" than Peeke. They've also already got Hronek who they just paid a big price for and Myers still around as RHD. So you'd basically have to be banking on the idea that he's gonna mesh with Hughes for it to even make any sense. I don't think that works at all.
This is interesting though, in that i could
actually see Columbus moving someone like Peeke for a similar caliber LHD though. RHD are generally coveted around the league and Peeke would have significant value for sure...but as much as CBJ have shored up the LHD situation with Werenski-Provorov...they could still probably upgrade on Bean in the 3rd spot. They might be in a weird position to swap a RHD like Peeke for a good LHD.
Eh, that's the thing. Last season he ran the PP better than Werenski ever has and showed that if he could stay healthy he's capable of scoring 20 goals.
This upcoming season is definitely a make or break season for him in union blue though, so it's definitely possible he's the odd man out of Jiricek shows he's truly ready in both ends on the ice next season.
I just don't know if running the PP is enough to keep Boqvist in the mix. The idea of a PP specialist defenceman is kind of dead. And it's not like Werenski sucks at it. He's more than good enough to quarterback a top powerplay unit.
