The Unknown Poster

1. Austin Matthews (Leafs) 2. Patrick Laine (Jets) 3. Pierre Luc Dubois (Jackets) 4. Jesse Puljujarvi (Oilers) 5. Olli Juolevi. (Canucks) 6. Matthew Tkachuk (Flames) 7, Clayton Keller (Coyotes) 8. Alex Nylander (Buffalo) 9. Mikhail Sergachev (Habs) 10. Tyson Jost (Avs) 11. Logan Brown (Sens) 12. Michael McLeod (Devils) 13. Jake Bean (Carolina) 14. Charles Mcavoy (Bruins) 15. Luke Kunin (Wild) 16. Jacob Chychrun (Coyotes) 17. Dante Fabbro (Preds) 18. Logan Stanley (Jets) 19. Kieffer Bellows (Isles) 20. Dennis Cholowski (Detroit) 21. Julien Gauthier (Carolina) 22. German Rubtsov (Flyers) 23. Henrik Borgstrom (Panthers) 24. Max Jones (Ducks) 25. Riley Tufte (Stars) 26. Tage Thompson (Blues) 27. Brett Howden (Tampa) 28. Lucas Johansen (Caps) 29. Trent Frederic (Bruins) 30. Sam Steel (Ducks)

What an embarrassment to his team. If someone was willing to take him Buffalo should unload him

So how glad are we this guy is gone? Whoops wrong thread. Please delete

Was just going to post this. Hopefully we hear some more details just for fun.

Sorry - I re-quoted to make a specific point. No, I am not. I've repeatedly said whether Punk makes a difference is yet to be seen. And I said I thought the signing would be seen as a failure. But logic tells us that Dana felt Punk would draw. That's why he signed him. And Punk was a top guy within a very popular industry that shares fans with UFC. You're vastly underating the intent of UFC in this matter.

Brandon - you dont like wrestling. Or more accurately you do but dont like to admit it. So you're coming at this from a biased perspective. Do you think Dana signed Punk because he likes his haircut? Maybe he wants to spend time with AJ Lee? He signed him because of his celebrity within Wrestling. Period. Just because you dont consider him a celebrity doesnt mean the several million wrestling fans who watch it every week dont. The same fans, many of whom are not regular buyers of UFC PPV's but have bought PPV's in the past. Even Ballator signed Bobby Lashley partially because of his celebrity status within wrestling and hes far less known than Punk. A guy doesnt have to be THE biggest star in the world to have value. Its not a comparison between The Rock and everyone else. There are degrees of celebrity. Even in the article Sweep linked, it referred to lots of PR the signing got. Thats free marketing. Just because you're not a fan doesnt mean others arent. Punk is going to appeal to other people, just not you.

Werent they connected to rumors of big offers for Stamkos?

Not at all. Its just pointless when someone engaged in a discussion and then does the "taking my ball and going home" schtick. I enjoy discussion and debate. If anything, you take it too seriously as I wasnt the one that sulked. Regardless, it was a good discussion and I appreciate your perspective.

Someone must work for the company that printed up the name bars for the back of the jersey. Why is that person not leaking this?? Or do they order name bars for the top picks just in case? Remember when the Jets had a flashy logo unveiling scheduled and some delivery guy opened an unmarked box and saw the new logo and tweeted a photo? lol

I definitely agree that he wont move the needle a lot. But I wouldnt under-estimate his popularity. He was a really big star for a period of time. Sure, not Hogan or Rocky but he has a "cool" factor too. He's been involved in things like comics as well (Marvel hired him to write a comic that didnt do well if I recall). Sweep the Leg's link explains it quite well. And Dana's explanation is really a cover for "we signed a guy as a PR stunt to sell PPV's". Its like WWE using Mr T. Sure he has no business in a wrestling ring, but he generated headlines and buys.

CM Punk was very marketable two years ago. There is cross-over appeal between UFC and WWE. As I said before, UFC owes a big thank you to Vince for allowing TUF on after RAW. Vince didnt see it as competition and helped grow UFCs audience massively. As a fighter, Punk wasnt marketable. As a celebrity and athlete he was. Given the cross over appeal, UFC made the right call. It remains to be seen if Punk's name will pop a PPV number or not. But promoting his debut in front of as many wrestling fans who will be willing to buy UFC (ie. Brock fans) as possible is very smart. Its their best chance to draw buys from that audience. And I suspect they will draw some. Honestly, I rarely every watch UFC. In the modern age, the only UFC's I've watched (and bought) were Brock's. And even Im curious to see Punk fight. Usually traditional MMA fans want to see the wrestlers get beat up. In Punk's case a lot of wrestling fans want to see him get beat up too!

UFC needs marketable fighter, dont kid yourself. They are selling right now based on a high value and the risk they wont be able to sustain it. Like WWE, UFC is seeing value in bringing in "draws" for short term increases. Why are they bringing Brock back? Because Brock equals money. Makes sense really. If they didnt value the short term draw, they would never have paid what its taking to get Brock for one fight and make that deal with WWE. They didnt sign Punk for any reason other than an attempt to capitalize on his popularity.

I said to his assistant "If you put me through Ill assume that means JP. If you dont put me through then it's Laine". He didnt put me through. So it's Laine. Bank on it.

I sort of thought this too. Chevy talked of it being a transformative pick (or something like that)...with all the hype...I dont know.

Im calling Chevy right now to find out if this true. hang on...

The fear is that its scouts out-smarting themselves, trying to go against popular opinion to prove they are smarter than everyone else. I generally have faith in the Jets scouts and management though. If they pick JP its because they really believe he's the better player long term.

I believe Chevy said last week that they have their pick. thats why this sudden influx of speculation about them trading down or taking JP rings a bit hollow. If they had JP as their guy all along, they'd likely have talked to Columbus about swapping picks already.

Yeah you're probably right. That 4 D-men thing worries me, is all. Dont want to lose someone for nothing. And the issue is, why would a team trade for a D we might lose just so they could lose him too. It would have to be a team that wants the D-man in question and has the room to protect him.

Excellent news. But he's a strong possibility of being takent by Vegas I would think.

My feeling is, if the Jets take JP then I will have confidence in the Jets' evaluation of both and be happy. But if the Jets take Laine and JP ends up the better player, I wont be angry. if the Jets take JP and Laine ends up the better player, that would bug me. (Saw that explanation on twitter and it summed up my feelings). Winnipeg never does anything "sexy" and maybe Laine is the sexy pick. I want sexy. Hope it's Laine. But whatever. I also agree that its highly unlikely the Jets management and scouts have let it slip to people what the pick is. I guess you never know. But it would be unlikely. More likely someone gave an opinion and it gets hyped up. Just like Bob Mack's opinion and speculation gets repeated as fact.

Its not a terrible trade if the Trouba negotiations arent going well. Although I wonder if Edmonton would take pick 36 rather than 22 (or a throw-in forward). And I think it only happens because of the expansion draft. There is simply no way the Jets can lose any of their top D for nothing. But they have several forwards they could lose. Having "extra" forwards isnt an issue if you can package up 2 or 3 of them for a D. If the Jets picked #2 and #4 and lost Trouba, I wouldnt be surprised to see them be aggressive in getting a young D who is expansion draft exempt.

Exactly my point. They signed Punk at the height of his popularity. Unfortunately its taken a long time to get him into the octagon. But Brock's return gives UFC's the right audience to promote Punk to. If I had to predict, I'd say the deal ends up being an over-all failure because I think Punk will be one and done. However, should Punk win and continue fighting, then they can continue to make money off him. If he's one and done, I'd expect WWE to back up a brink's truck to Punk's home in an effort to bring him back, much to Hunter's chagrin.

If they want Laine.