Rich

TSN free agent tracker reporting that Justin Williams just signed with Washington .. 2 years ... no term reported yet. That ship has sailed.

That is a pretty general statement to make. Last time I checked Evander Kane was Canadian. Poison players are human nature and come in all nationalities. Lots of Russians that are not poison. For a while there has been a flight risk to the KHL, which I think was a bigger reason teams shied away from them, but with the messed up economy in Russia, the risk is less. Specific to Burmi, yes there has been rumours that he isn't great in the locker room. I think the Jets room is pretty strong though and can handle him. Even given character issues, there is no way I'd take O'Dell over Burmi. There are much better NHL players we have in our system over O'Dell.

Are you serious with this statement? Serious in the sense that Slater, Frolik and ODell were our 'depth' guys last year - all of them filled in when injuries hit I could have said no 'proven' depth... ODell was borderline but he could play. After ODell not many call-up options last year. Armia, Copp, Ehlers, Lipon... lot of question marks - be surprised if Chevy doesn't pick up one or two more, maybe even sign Slater to a 1 year O'Dell only managed 11 games with us last year and 30 the year before. Wouldn't really call that proven either and his NHL games with us was going down not up. It was pretty obvious he wasn't going to get much more of a chance here to play in the NHL. O'Dell signed a one year 2-way deal with Ottawa, his home team. To me that means they pretty much see him as a fringe NHLer at best, with maybe the feel good story of getting a home town boy into the lineup. ODell was injured for a good chunk of last year. Not saying that ODell is the key to a Stanley Cup win... just saying that Chevy is going all in with his 'draft develop' model Right now, I'd take ODell over Burmistrov... maybe he'll prove me wrong. I'd take Burmi over O'Dell every day of the week and twice on Sundays. Not even a contest. O'Dell is not a loss. He is a free agent AHLer who signed with his home town team. 25 years old and a grand total of 41 NHL games played. Like I said, ODell alone, not a big deal - Frolik, Slater, ODell not a big deal to start the season but if two starters go down... Ladd-Little-Stafford Ehlers-Scheifele-Wheeler Perrault-Lowry-Burmistrov Thorburn-Copp-Peluso Lipon-Armia Pretty sure Chevy signs a couple UFAs Completely agree there are more signings to come. But O'Dell is not a loss whatsoever. Never mind the comment on Burmi.... Burmi's KHL numbers are not exactly awe-inspiring... we'll see what Maurice can do His KHL numbers are meaningless when you make a statement like saying you would prefer O'Dell over Burmistrov, which would have to mean that you consider O'Dell a better player. Burmi's points per game in the NHL almost double O'Dell's. Never mind the much larger sample size or the fact that Burmi logs time on both the PK and PP while O'Dell does neither. Burmi also doubles O'Dells time on ice per game, and before you use the time on ice as an excuse for lower point numbers, don't. O'Dell didn't get more ice time for the simple fact that he is at best a 4th line plug.

Are you serious with this statement? Serious in the sense that Slater, Frolik and ODell were our 'depth' guys last year - all of them filled in when injuries hit I could have said no 'proven' depth... ODell was borderline but he could play. After ODell not many call-up options last year. Armia, Copp, Ehlers, Lipon... lot of question marks - be surprised if Chevy doesn't pick up one or two more, maybe even sign Slater to a 1 year O'Dell only managed 11 games with us last year and 30 the year before. Wouldn't really call that proven either and his NHL games with us was going down not up. It was pretty obvious he wasn't going to get much more of a chance here to play in the NHL. O'Dell signed a one year 2-way deal with Ottawa, his home team. To me that means they pretty much see him as a fringe NHLer at best, with maybe the feel good story of getting a home town boy into the lineup. ODell was injured for a good chunk of last year. Not saying that ODell is the key to a Stanley Cup win... just saying that Chevy is going all in with his 'draft develop' model Right now, I'd take ODell over Burmistrov... maybe he'll prove me wrong. I'd take Burmi over O'Dell every day of the week and twice on Sundays. Not even a contest. O'Dell is not a loss. He is a free agent AHLer who signed with his home town team. 25 years old and a grand total of 41 NHL games played. Like I said, ODell alone, not a big deal - Frolik, Slater, ODell not a big deal to start the season but if two starters go down... Ladd-Little-Stafford Ehlers-Scheifele-Wheeler Perrault-Lowry-Burmistrov Thorburn-Copp-Peluso Lipon-Armia Pretty sure Chevy signs a couple UFAs Completely agree there are more signings to come. But O'Dell is not a loss whatsoever. Never mind the comment on Burmi....

Are you serious with this statement? Serious in the sense that Slater, Frolik and ODell were our 'depth' guys last year - all of them filled in when injuries hit I could have said no 'proven' depth... ODell was borderline but he could play. After ODell not many call-up options last year. Armia, Copp, Ehlers, Lipon... lot of question marks - be surprised if Chevy doesn't pick up one or two more, maybe even sign Slater to a 1 year O'Dell only managed 11 games with us last year and 30 the year before. Wouldn't really call that proven either and his NHL games with us was going down not up. It was pretty obvious he wasn't going to get much more of a chance here to play in the NHL. O'Dell signed a one year 2-way deal with Ottawa, his home team. To me that means they pretty much see him as a fringe NHLer at best, with maybe the feel good story of getting a home town boy into the lineup. ODell was injured for a good chunk of last year. Not saying that ODell is the key to a Stanley Cup win... just saying that Chevy is going all in with his 'draft develop' model Right now, I'd take ODell over Burmistrov... maybe he'll prove me wrong. I'd take Burmi over O'Dell every day of the week and twice on Sundays. Not even a contest. O'Dell is not a loss. He is a free agent AHLer who signed with his home town team. 25 years old and a grand total of 41 NHL games played.

Are you serious with this statement? Serious in the sense that Slater, Frolik and ODell were our 'depth' guys last year - all of them filled in when injuries hit I could have said no 'proven' depth... ODell was borderline but he could play. After ODell not many call-up options last year. Armia, Copp, Ehlers, Lipon... lot of question marks - be surprised if Chevy doesn't pick up one or two more, maybe even sign Slater to a 1 year O'Dell only managed 11 games with us last year and 30 the year before. Wouldn't really call that proven either and his NHL games with us was going down not up. It was pretty obvious he wasn't going to get much more of a chance here to play in the NHL. O'Dell signed a one year 2-way deal with Ottawa, his home town. To me that means they pretty much see him as a fringe NHLer at best, with maybe the feel good story of getting a home town boy into the lineup.

Arizona sign Vermette for 2 years $3.75M AAV. Not a bad deal for Arizona, trade him since yo aren't in the playoffs, get a 1st round draft pick, then sign Vermette back for next season.

Are you serious with this statement?

Trade an elite, unique, 'puts bums in seats' type player in his prime for a player who probably isn't in his prime. Does not compute. Where did I say I want to trade him for a player who isn't in his prime? You are probably getting a good 3rd line forward (maybe 2nd), a prospect, and a pick. Either way we need the depth on forward more than a D-man right now. Unfortunately we also need roster players more than we need prospects right now. But you can always package up prospects in a trade. But if Buff's camp is standing pat on wanting a 6 - 7 year deal, than the Jets have a choice to make: A - Sign him to that deal and likely regret it for the last 3 - 4 years as an ageing Buff deteriorates fast. B - Trade him C - Keep him next year and lose him in free agency Given those options, I would be fine with either B or C. I would absolutely hate it if we gave Buff, a 260+ pound man with a history of not being in the best of shape and working out, a deal that would take him to 36+ years of age making 7+ million dollars (probably higher), regardless of how unique he is or how many bums he puts into a guaranteed sold out arena. I never said you personally want him traded. i was reacting to your speculation, hence the bolded part. Also, I keep reading about his fitness. I don't have the exact stats on me, but he seemed to be able to play a higher amount of minutes for us this past season. Ironically he was being criticized for taking too long of shifts. We're both guessing on which route he takes as he gets older. You assume his history will dictate that, fair enough. I assume he's a competitor and will commit to being fit at the level he needs to be a impact player. So you would be fine committing $7 - 8M annually for 7 - 8 years? Good question. If I was GM, I would try to sign him to a three to four year deal 24-32 million. Has his agent formally asked for an 7-8 year deal? If so, no I would not sign him for that long. I'd be fine with that term and dollar value as well. But there have been rumblings that he will be looking for longer. Could just be media speculation though.

Trade an elite, unique, 'puts bums in seats' type player in his prime for a player who probably isn't in his prime. Does not compute. Where did I say I want to trade him for a player who isn't in his prime? You are probably getting a good 3rd line forward (maybe 2nd), a prospect, and a pick. Either way we need the depth on forward more than a D-man right now. Unfortunately we also need roster players more than we need prospects right now. But you can always package up prospects in a trade. But if Buff's camp is standing pat on wanting a 6 - 7 year deal, than the Jets have a choice to make: A - Sign him to that deal and likely regret it for the last 3 - 4 years as an ageing Buff deteriorates fast. B - Trade him C - Keep him next year and lose him in free agency Given those options, I would be fine with either B or C. I would absolutely hate it if we gave Buff, a 260+ pound man with a history of not being in the best of shape and working out, a deal that would take him to 36+ years of age making 7+ million dollars (probably higher), regardless of how unique he is or how many bums he puts into a guaranteed sold out arena. I never said you personally want him traded. i was reacting to your speculation, hence the bolded part. Also, I keep reading about his fitness. I don't have the exact stats on me, but he seemed to be able to play a higher amount of minutes for us this past season. Ironically he was being criticized for taking too long of shifts. We're both guessing on which route he takes as he gets older. You assume his history will dictate that, fair enough. I assume he's a competitor and will commit to being fit at the level he needs to be a impact player. And he puts bums in seats in other arenas as well. And he will still do that if he plays for another team. It isn't the Jets job to fill others teams arenas. Their job is to utilize their cap and budget to play the best team they can.

Trade an elite, unique, 'puts bums in seats' type player in his prime for a player who probably isn't in his prime. Does not compute. Where did I say I want to trade him for a player who isn't in his prime? You are probably getting a good 3rd line forward (maybe 2nd), a prospect, and a pick. Either way we need the depth on forward more than a D-man right now. Unfortunately we also need roster players more than we need prospects right now. But you can always package up prospects in a trade. But if Buff's camp is standing pat on wanting a 6 - 7 year deal, than the Jets have a choice to make: A - Sign him to that deal and likely regret it for the last 3 - 4 years as an ageing Buff deteriorates fast. B - Trade him C - Keep him next year and lose him in free agency Given those options, I would be fine with either B or C. I would absolutely hate it if we gave Buff, a 260+ pound man with a history of not being in the best of shape and working out, a deal that would take him to 36+ years of age making 7+ million dollars (probably higher), regardless of how unique he is or how many bums he puts into a guaranteed sold out arena. I never said you personally want him traded. i was reacting to your speculation, hence the bolded part. Also, I keep reading about his fitness. I don't have the exact stats on me, but he seemed to be able to play a higher amount of minutes for us this past season. Ironically he was being criticized for taking too long of shifts. We're both guessing on which route he takes as he gets older. You assume his history will dictate that, fair enough. I assume he's a competitor and will commit to being fit at the level he needs to be a impact player. So you would be fine committing $7 - 8M annually for 7 - 8 years?

Reasonable deal for Beleskey. Depends how he plays. Lots of term for him. Nearly four million....and a no trade? Overpay Yeah, I thought someone was going to give him a higher AAV. It isn't a crippling amount cap wise though, especially in the later years of that deal. Given his season best of 32 points, I'm glad he didn't sign with the Jets.

Reasonable deal for Beleskey.

Trade an elite, unique, 'puts bums in seats' type player in his prime for a player who probably isn't in his prime. Does not compute. Where did I say I want to trade him for a player who isn't in his prime? You are probably getting a good 3rd line forward (maybe 2nd), a prospect, and a pick. Either way we need the depth on forward more than a D-man right now. Unfortunately we also need roster players more than we need prospects right now. But you can always package up prospects in a trade. But if Buff's camp is standing pat on wanting a 6 - 7 year deal, than the Jets have a choice to make: A - Sign him to that deal and likely regret it for the last 3 - 4 years as an ageing Buff deteriorates fast. B - Trade him C - Keep him next year and lose him in free agency Given those options, I would be fine with either B or C. I would absolutely hate it if we gave Buff, a 260+ pound man with a history of not being in the best of shape and working out, a deal that would take him to 36+ years of age making 7+ million dollars (probably higher), regardless of how unique he is or how many bums he puts into a guaranteed sold out arena.

Will Boston be the team to overpay Beleskey? If they do sign him, hope it is a reasonable contract. They've already made enough blunders this off season.

Yeah was listening to the press conference and thats what it sounded like he was about to say. Might have been higher AAV with less term.

I can see Buff potentially being traded because of the depth on D. No way Ladd is traded before the season starts even if doesn't sign. Our forward depth isn't there to do it. And depending what is coming back, if we trade both and take $10M out of our lineup we are in danger of not reaching the cap floor.

Figure they both need some seasoning yet. At Petans size he needs to how he can play against men in the AHL. I think Lemieux still has a year of junior left. He was only last years draft.

Everyone keeps saying we have to trade a player because losing them in free agency is the worst thing ever. If this were true why would any other team trade for them?

If they re-up both Ladd and buff then you can $15m or so to that next year. Might be saving space. Reupping both is likely only a net increase of 7. But I agree they are keeping space open to sign existing players.

I've heard it is around 1.6M per year.

Once the contract is signed and registered it could be any team, agent, or even NHL staffers.

If the Jets do trade Buff they could easily keep a couple of million to expand possible teams to a cap contender and sweeten the return.

If they don't make any other big signings they are going to be one of the lower cap teams at around $55 - $58M. Floor is $51M

Stuck in the NHL forum today!