Speculation: Armchair GM - 2023 Off-Season Thread

[Jive Pawnbroker]

Antti Raanta should be a relatively inexpensive UFA option who would add some stability in goal - what do you all think re: going after a goaltender in UFA?

 

[VT]

HF polls don't mean THAT much, but it's telling that Laine is nowhere to be found here, not even on the "to add" list: HFBoards Top 25 Wingers in the NHL - #9

One season can change everything. Besides, Laine is perceived negatively by fans due to his play in the Jets. Of course, that's his own fault.

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

Antti Raanta should be a relatively inexpensive UFA option who would add some stability in goal - what do you all think re: going after a goaltender in UFA?

Gotta get one from somewhere.

 

[Ice9]

Antti Raanta should be a relatively inexpensive UFA option who would add some stability in goal - what do you all think re: going after a goaltender in UFA?

Someone who isn't quite washed up and being put into this youth movement would really energize.

 

[thebus88]

One season can change everything. Besides, Laine is perceived negatively by fans due to his play in the Jets. Of course, that's his own fault.

My opinions of Laine have NOTHING to do with his time with Winnipeg, or anything 5+ years ago.

All I care about is his time and play with the CBJ, and there’s no coincidence that other than some of the very worst years just after expansion, that the Laine years have been the worst in franchise history.

I think many still are somewhat downplaying just HOW BAD the team has looked for the VAST majority of the last 3 years, and others are downplaying how much of an impact Laine has on the team playing, and simply being, just so bad.

Fascinating how we hear so much about those games that Laine played center, but, all those games with weakened lineups, and without Laine, where the team looked and played better without Laine consistently, gets passed over, forgotten, or looked at as “luck”.

I honestly wonder his TRUE trade value around the league. I think some would be blown away at his current 1 for 1 trade value. That said, I personally WOULD “dump” him for cap space, opening up a roster spot, getting his mindset and play style away from the team altogether, and possibly taking a shot at a LEGIT “two way” center with potential.

Laine+Peeke
Laine+Boqvist/Ceulemans/Svozil
Laine+Sillinger/Chinakhov/Marchenko

I don’t want to trade Sillinger/Chinakhov/Marchenko, as I essentially want to move Laine to “make room” for them, however, I already see a “logjam” of these same type of guys and it’s only going to get worse, imo.

Maybe Fantill, Texier, Sillinger, Marchenko bring enough “toughness” moving forward, high in the lineup, I’m not sure. Even Jenner, especially at his current age, isn’t really a “mean”, or extremely aggressive player, especially playing center and having to focus on defense. Throw in Johnson/Gaudreau, who are what they are, and the “top 9” has filled up quickly, with Voronkov as probably the only other option to jump in and add that “edge”. And while most seemingly expect him to jump in immediately and make a physical impact along with many believing he can play center also, I think the expectations should be tempered quite a bit, at least to start.

 

[CBJ goalie]

Funny we're speaking about players being injury prone, and Raanta's name comes up.....great goalie, be he can't stay healthy.

 

[CBJWerenski8]

 

[Marioesque]

HF polls don't mean THAT much, but it's telling that Laine is nowhere to be found here, not even on the "to add" list: HFBoards Top 25 Wingers in the NHL - #9

I said production, not perception. People's perception is all kinds of ***ked and can't be trusted at all but proven production is actual evidence and matters.

Especially in Laine's case the public narrative is so bent and has been since draft. He got a bad rep for challenging AM, nothing else.

It doesn't seem to matter if he leads the league when healthy, people will take the totals that are affected by injuries and straight up compare him to people with full seasons, not paying any attention to circumstances. They want to hate him so they'll justify it with anything.

Like this one effin genius who wants rid of Laine and thinks he's the worst, while Laine has been the best player in the team for 2 seasons in a row. Reality doesn't matter to people who are operating on pure feeling. You can show them with a timer that a car is faster around the track than others, but clowns like this will argue that the fastest car is determined by how they feel about it, not by clock.

Laine can have the best defensive numbers of the group and still be blamed for the teams poor performance. To some people everything Laine does is s**t, regardless of the reality of it. I am tired of the narrative and anyone still spreading it. Look at what he can do when healthy, that's the guy. Don't confuse his injuries with his level. Evaluate the production.

The attention span is like 2 minutes for people who fall for this. They forget the good if he's out if sight for a week.

 

[Marioesque]

My opinions of Laine have NOTHING to do with his time with Winnipeg, or anything 5+ years ago.

All I care about is his time and play with the CBJ, and there’s no coincidence that other than some of the very worst years just after expansion, that the Laine years have been the worst in franchise history.

Your opinions on Laine have nothing to do with his play and everything to do with your vision of what good hockey is, and it's a weird feelings based criteria that disagrees with reality on ice and on paper. It's against reality.

You'll correlate a causation, "look at how bad the team has been while.." and he's been the best player of the team. You're solving the problem from the wrong end my dude. You're wanting to remove the only part that works to fix what hasn't worked. It's completely backwards to someone who analyzes and solves problems for a living. You're all intuition, and you ignore evidence to arrive at your conclusions. To me that looks rationally lost. You don't get better as a team by selling the only player who comes out with positive impact on score. That's the exact opposite of how you should go about it. Fix/remove what DOESN’T work. Not the only player that's winning their match-up. Why do I need to explain this to adults?

 

[CBJWerenski8]

“(Fantilli) could make our (free agent) decisions a little bit harder now that we feel that we’re going to get a roster player for next year and we’ve already got quite a big number of (NHL roster players),” he said. “You can only have 23 on your roster, so we’re probably going to have to do something if we want to get into the UFA market.”

Don’t expect us to be active in UFA market (good imo)

 

[Ice9]

They're whistling through the graveyard if they think they don't need to bolster their goaltending crew...

 

[Johansen2Foligno]

Is Jarmo really going to let these guys walk for nothing??

 

[Marioesque]

Is Jarmo really going to let these guys walk for nothing??

What would we do with them?

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

What would we do with them?

Probably play them at defense in our organization.

 

[Sdrawkcab321]

Is Jarmo really going to let these guys walk for nothing??

Yes. And it’s probably the right thing to do

Probably play them at defense in our organization.

I don’t think there’s a roster spot for them year with severson signing and jirirck coming up

 

[Marioesque]

Probably play them at defense in our organization.

Well there's a log jam on defense so allowing it to dissolve a bit doesn't sound too bad.

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

You can have a player signed to a contract and play them elsewhere in your organization besides the NHL club?

 

[Cowumbus]

Duchene to Cbus E5

 

[Viqsi]

Duchene to Cbus E5

He's a winger now, not a center. The last time he played center even semi-effectively he was still in union blue.

 

[CBJWerenski8]

Duchene to Cbus E5

I know he doesn’t really play center there anymore but I don’t hate that idea if it’s at a lower cost and he still wants to give C a try

 

[Cowumbus]

I know he doesn’t really play center there anymore but I don’t hate that idea if it’s at a lower cost and he still wants to give C a try

Play him as the 3C!

 

[Marioesque]

You can have a player signed to a contract and play them elsewhere in your organization besides the NHL club?

There's a lot of prospects who need that ice time

 

[Sdrawkcab321]

We don’t have the money for duchene. Wheeler would be a nice vet addition though.

 

[CBJx614]

All of those guys are too expensive imo. Let the logjam figure itself out. Either guys are gonna get moved and we look to figure it out that way or we go into camp and start the season with what we have and make moves in the season if need be.

 

[Marioesque]

Wheeler would be a nice vet addition though.

Noooooo. I stopped watching the Jets because of him. Keep him away!