Rich

I seem to remember there being TVs in the upper deck of the old Winnipeg Arena to allow people to see what was happening in blind spots with the poor site lines. And this was before big screen TVs, these were like old style square TVs.

Yikes ... I hope the Jets don't do these long term contracts that bring a player into his late 30s. A 7 year contract shouldn't end later then when a player is 35. After that you can evaluate where they are and if they have declined with age.

Budaj is a UFA next year, and while I am sure he wasn't thrilled at going down to the AHL, word is he has been a great teammate and mentor to Connor Hellebuyck

True enough but some professional athletes take it more of a challenge to win it back not throw in the towel and say they wan't to play elsewhere. In this particular case though, I'm not sure where Pavelec sits with this as I don't have enough information. Agreed, it is pretty hard to guess what has happened without knowing what has gone on behind closed doors and what discussions Maurice has had or not had with Pavelec.

I'm pretty sure most players don't worry about screening the goalie when they are out past the blue line.

Of course he does. He has lost his starting job here. What professional athlete would be happy with being replaced.

Split off from the IGF thread

I found that part interesting as well. Got the impression that if the team had not shown the progress it did after Maurice took over last season that a lot of those guys you mention would have indeed been traded last season. Would have to think Buff and Ladd were up there because their contracts were expiring sooner then the rest, so a decision would have been made on them.

I know everyone is quick to say trade a player who isn’t going to re-sign here, because we need the assets and all of that, and that is what we have kind of been trained to think with the draft and develop message that has been sent by the organization since getting here. But I am curious; at what point do we consider ourselves a contender? When do we become a buyer? If another team trades a 1st rounder, a prospect, and a roster player for Buff, that means that the other team thinks Buff is worth it to them for that one year. I’m not at all suggesting that the Jets are in that position today. We are still a bubble playoff team, and not a team that needs that one piece to put them over the top to contend for the cup. But will the perception and expectation ever be that we are there? Or because of the market we are in, and a budget team, will we always place a premium and draft picks and prospects?

www.nhlnumbers.com is a good substitute for capgeek for now. The presentation isn't as nice, but the numbers are there. Apparently they had an agreement where they got a lot of their data from capgeek, so who knows how valid that website will be after this summer when new contracts are signed. Be interesting to see if they can continue to get the info. As to trading Buff... I'm glad Chevy gets the big bucks to make those decisions. There is a lot of information that we don't have that will feed into it. What the Jets budget on salary actually is for one. I’ve also heard that True North has said that when the time is right, they would kick in more money to compete / build a winner. Is that time now? Would they up their internal cap for Buff? How much does the Canadian dollar affect this decision? What salary will Ladd demand, and which of the two would you rather pick (this is more of a value per dollar decision I would think), assuming you wouldn’t be able to afford both. If you do trade Buff, does that make re-signing Ladd less likely because he wants to go to a team that is ready to compete. What are the projections for re-signing Scheifele / Trouba / Hutchinson and other RFAs that are coming due in the next year or two? How does Morrissey play into the defensive picture? Do he and the addition of Myers make Buff more expendable then other years. Even if you decide that you can’t or won’t re-sign Buff, is keeping him around for one more year to push into and deeper into the playoffs for the experience of all your other players worth more to the team then prospects and draft picks who are at least 3 years out for impacting your team. Does making the playoffs or not making the playoffs this year affect this decision? It really is a very fluid situation with compelling arguments on both sides of the fence. At this point, I’m not even sure which side I fall on.

I really don't think if it will draw 10,000 plus. They'd have to open the upper deck for that and the Moose only ever did that for playoffs. A lot of the Moose core ticket base have Jets tickets now, and I can't see a lot of them getting tickets to both. It is a huge time investment aside from the financial cost. I think they can be successful for a year or two, but I don't think they will even draw what the Moose did when the Jets weren't here.

Had a mini pack with the Moose so used to go to about 10 games per year. The Moose were huge with kids and families. A family of four could actually afford to go to a game. That is one of the biggest differences I've noticed between the Jets and Moose. The percentage of kids in the stands. Throw in the affiliation with the Jets and I think they could do okay for a couple of years. I don't think they will draw as high as when the Jets weren't here.

Many posts have been deleted in this thread, mostly to delete a few "root" posts that many people quoted. If I missed any, then they will be deleted as I find them.

NHL wanted it after Grey Cup, Bombers wanted it later. According to the Bombers, this wasn't the reason the game was delayed, this is apparently s a result of a consultant's report they got last week, so they didn't know the extent of the defects or the suggested course of action when the outdoor classic was being negotiated. This was in the free press article http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/football/bombers/295009101.html?cx_navSource=d-top-image As to your other post about the nit picking. That is an outline, and I'm guessing the details would be available when they go to court where the onus is on them to prove each of those points, so that is why some of it won't make sense to you. And if those things were the only thing wrong with the stadium, they probably wouldn't be suing. But since they have extensive costs because of the drainage issues, it only makes sense to throw it all in there as it strengthens their argument about negligence somewhere.

You read some of the old articles that were brought up yesterday on how design deficiencies were identified early, but the message from senior stakeholders was to keep going no matter what. That they couldn't afford to wait to address those things due to the old stadium not being able to be serviceable for lengthy delays and the rising cost of steel and you think that maybe that wasn't all the contractors fault, that senior stakeholders signed off on some issues to save time. Then you read that list, and a lot of it sounds like pure negligence. You wonder how some of those issues even passed inspection. Either way, this is going to be a lengthy and ugly court battle, with a lot of he said she said and passing blame.

The general contractor, architect and engineering firm are all national companies.Don't let reality get in the way of a good political discussion.Exactly. Logic and facts aren't welcome on these forums. Speculation and rumors are where it's at. Funny, I've never deleted a post because they contained logic and facts. I would say they are welcome.

Seem to recall they both were on CHI when they won. So Ladd has 2? Yes, Ladd has won with both Carolina and Chicago. The win with Carolina was his rookie season.

Just got this email from the Bombers and Wade (not to me personally, I imagine season ticket lists)

Haven't seen any tweets on starging goalie yet.

I agree Pavelec hasn't turned out, it doesn't mean it was a bad deal. I judge a "bad deal" based on what we gave up to get it and what the long term impact the contract has to the club. We gave up nothing to get Pavelec so no big deal there, he was already our property. Unlike Setoguchi where we gave up a 2nd round pick for a year of useless play. As for the long term impact of the deal, I don't think it has hurt the Jets either as I described in my original post. You could argue that using that money we gave Pavelec on a different player and paying an AHL goalie less might have helped the team (I'd still argue an AHL goalie starting would be worse then Pavelec), but at some point you still need to budget to pay a starting goalie a starting goalie salary, and the team really wasn't ready to really compete until this year anyway. We gave up nothing to sign him, he has a reasonable contract that doesn't hurt the club long term, and at the time that we signed him there was a good chance that he was going to actually turn into a good starting goalie. Things don't always work out, but his contract hasn't hurt the club.

And the Pavelec contract. Chevy must have been drunk when he negotiated that. I actually have no problem with Pavelec's contract. It might be a year longer then I'd like, but a cap hit of $3.9M is reasonable for a starting goalie, which is what he was when it was signed. And the Jets really had no other options when he was signed. They weren't going to trade for a starting goalie with where they were in their program, and there was still a chance / belief that Pavelec may turn into something more. We've got Pavelec under contract for 2 more years after this one. Hutchinson is signed for 1 more year after this one for 600k (575k cap hit). So it doesn't matter for next year. Even if you can't trade Pavelec over the next year, you can still manage that transition year as Hutch will still be an RFA. I believe because of Hutch's age, you won't be able to give him a bridge deal as I believe he will only have 1 year of RFA left before being a UFA, hence why Pavelec's contract might be one year too long. But, even if you can't dump Pavelec for a bag of pucks, you can still manage the two of them for that one year after Hutch gets a raise. It isn't at all an anchor of a contract like others out there. I still believe it was the right move at the time they signed Pavelec.

I think the only mistake I've seen Chevy make with trades is trading for Setoguchi. Been very happy with most of his deals.

Must mean that Wheeler is still playing hurt, and they want to limit his ice time or ease him into the game. Much like the did with Frolik a while back (or was that last year?)

I actually watched curling on TV long before I started playing. Started playing in my early 30's and still do today. We dont play in a highly competitive league, and once the game is done honestly don't care if we had won or lost. But it is a nice way to get you out on a regular basis during the cold months, throw some rocks, drink a few beers, and catch up with friends.