Confirmed Trade: [MIN/TBL] Pat Maroon (20% retained) and Max Cajkovic for 2024 7th round pick

[Kshahdoo]

Cajkovic was a PPG+ player in the CHL, and now he's just 0.66 PPG in ECHL. Does it mean ECHL >>> CHL?

 

[JTBF81]

They keep losing useful guys off their roster. It's part of the cycle of championship teams. Aside from Maroon, they're losing Killorn, Colton, and Cole. A top-six winger, a middle-six winger, and their 4D. With no real replacements coming in.

Yeah, I could see TB declining.

Except Maroon was basically a 12th/13th F by the end of last season, Cole was a 5/6 for them, and they have brought in replacements for everyone but Killorn, who was likely gone anyway and unable to be replaced at that price point. Tampa is also likely not quite finished, as they should have enough space for one additional middle 6 depth F. The primary core remains intact, so some great Tampa decline seems doubtful. The depth has taken a hit, but they should still be a playoff team and a very tough out as long as Vasy is back to form this year(the whole team also finally getting a longer off season for the first time in 4 seasons also should help). The only surprising departure was the team losing both Killorn and Colton, as most surrounding the team figured one would be kept. Losing Maroon, Cole, and Perry is far from catastrophic.

 

[HoseEmDown]

How's Cajkovic been faring. He was a 3rd round pick in 2019 but does anyone have more insight on him?

Had attitude issues in junior which is why he dropped to the 3rd round. Then he got injured after being drafted and never fully recovered. Lost some of his explosiveness and confidence and hasn't been able to get back to where he once was. Possibly could become an AHLer but more likely finishes out his ELC and then heads back to Europe.

Clearly they want to get back to being a faster, more pressure on the forecheck type of team. Maroon while effective just doesn't have the wheels anymore. Jeannot can easily take that enforcer role and is a much better skater for the system. He was injured after being acquired and tried to play through it but was clearly affecting him. If healthy will be a menace and can see him bank 20 goals.

 

[HawksDub89]

Damn Tampa is entering the post cup period. Going to be ok for a few years before being pretty bad

Yep. Hedman and Stamkos are close to seeing a decline. (Hedman already has)

I’m not sure how bad they’ll be, but the cup window is closing rapidly.

 

[Flat Ronnie]

Yep. Hedman and Stamkos are close to seeing a decline. (Hedman already has)

I’m not sure how bad they’ll be, but the cup window is closing rapidly.

Yes and no. They still have all their best players locked up. And most aren't that old. We'll see how the extra rest this year does them. On top of all that, I don't really see a team right now that has replaced them as the juggernaut they were a couple years ago - esspecially in the East. I think they can still play with anyone.

Stamkos
Kucherov
Point
Hagel
Paul
Vasy
Hedman
Cernak
Cirelli
Sergachev
(Jeannot)

 

[Rubi]

 

[57special]

Cajkovic was a PPG+ player in the CHL, and now he's just 0.66 PPG in ECHL. Does it mean ECHL >>> CHL?

ECHL is definitely a better league. A guy who know who played four years at a good NCAA program maintained that it was significantly better than college. As he put it, "They are grown men playing hockey full time for a living. Everyone is stronger, faster, smarter."

 

[DFC]

Yet he still out skated Jeanott. If all the noise is about speed Jeanott was on the ice numerous times with Maroon and PEB and Jeanott was the last forward in the zone. Maroon had some positives but if moving him was to clear room to sign Jeanott it’s all about trying to save face for acquiring Jeanott for a ransom. These type moves get GM’s fired.

Some of what you're saying here is flat-out ridiculous.

Jeannot is slower than advertised, but Maroon was easily the slowest guy on the team.

And I'm not sure how it's about saving face when Maroon is an aging 4th liner who's not getting any faster and is coming into his last years as an NHLer. He was an obvious choice to move. (Still love him; still sad to see him go.)

JBB deserves some criticism, and the Jeannot move is at the top of the list for sure, but he's in zero danger of getting fired. Years away from his seat even heating up.

 

[DFC]

Yep. Hedman and Stamkos are close to seeing a decline. (Hedman already has)

I’m not sure how bad they’ll be, but the cup window is closing rapidly.

Jury's out on Hedman. He was dealing with injuries that carried over from the previous year. A lot of the team probably was. But it's been a minute since we've seen top-form Hedman, so it's possible that age is starting to creep in too.

Stamkos might be seeing a decline too, but the reality is he was never a great playoff performer (2022 excluded, where he was awesome), so as long as he's providing some complementary scoring... well, that's kind of all we got from him in the playoffs anyway, so it's all we need moving forward.

 

[DFC]

Had attitude issues in junior which is why he dropped to the 3rd round. Then he got injured after being drafted and never fully recovered. Lost some of his explosiveness and confidence and hasn't been able to get back to where he once was. Possibly could become an AHLer but more likely finishes out his ELC and then heads back to Europe.

Clearly they want to get back to being a faster, more pressure on the forecheck type of team. Maroon while effective just doesn't have the wheels anymore. Jeannot can easily take that enforcer role and is a much better skater for the system. He was injured after being acquired and tried to play through it but was clearly affecting him. If healthy will be a menace and can see him bank 20 goals.

I think this is accurate. I saw him in Saint John a handful of times and he just never stood out the way future NHLers tend to stand out.

 

[Alex1234]

Tampa piling up 7 rounders like crazy

 

[Rschmitz]

Tampa piling up 7 rounders like crazy

Last ditch effort to entice Al Murray to stay

 

[Byrddog]

Some of what you're saying here is flat-out ridiculous.

Jeannot is slower than advertised, but Maroon was easily the slowest guy on the team.

And I'm not sure how it's about saving face when Maroon is an aging 4th liner who's not getting any faster and is coming into his last years as an NHLer. He was an obvious choice to move. (Still love him; still sad to see him go.)

JBB deserves some criticism, and the Jeannot move is at the top of the list for sure, but he's in zero danger of getting fired. Years away from his seat even heating up.

It’s pretty easy to see all you have to do is rewatch the section of games where Perry moved to the 3rd line when Jeanott was moved down to the 4th with Maroon and Bellmar. If one is willing to have an open mind you can find that .

Now as to saving face JBB totally screwed up the trade for Jeannot. Now I’m sure he got scouting reports and much of that had to be looking at Jeanotts stats from the previous year. Now he has to resign him to save face if Jeanott can somehow produce. As to Maroons worth I addressed that in another thread he was an informal leader on the team. The same could be said of Killorn. This will be missed. Now there is no argument that Maroon is getting older and slower but there is not that big of a difference there. Jeannot will go to arbitration and will likely be awarded 2.0 mil per so how does that help the team . JBB just retained 200k on Maroon even if Jeanott gets 1.8 the net is still 2 mil to keep him. Other than hopefully Sheary nothing he has done in this offseason has improved the team or helped the cap situation. If one is looking at a whole he is just hoping the bargain guys he brought in will all hit something that is just not going to happen. Someone pointed out there are only 8 players that are here from the 2019 season. I will not rehash the impact of the losing the entire Gourde line but the at was the start of the breaking up the band. Of course you want to pay your stars but this has snowballed into a pretty ineffective roster for next year. Just because your stats merit large raises you can not keep them all. Now I thought maybe JBB had sought to change his direction when he moved Mac’s salary out he just turned around and mishandled Point, Cernak, Cirelli, Sergi by giving them a short bridge and turned right around giving them raised for the long term contracts one year later in those four cases. That’s all JBB he should have extended them all coming out of there ELC’s to long term contracts at a smaller average, this still would not have prevented the cap mess but he could have come out 2 mil lighter ver the four contracts.

Now Jeanott is going to end up the last contract of the summer with no answer to replace Killorn on the 2nd line. Coop will not remove Cirelli from the 2nd and this will cost Stammer production in a year where it will be needed most. It will create Coop playing tic tac too with players and that’s where the wheels will fall off. There are 4 true top 6 guys left. Next year two of them are due new contracts. The common theme was Killer would take a home town discount I suspect that will be the same mantra for Stammer too. There is no reason for him to leave money on the table. If Hagel pots 25 this year and he sure better or this team will not even sniff at the playoffs. Hagel will require a healthy contract.

It’s no fun to watch a dominate team devolve but it is worse when the window could have been extended with some foresight and a willingness focus on depth rather than dumping the whole cart to retain the big dollar contracts. And turn the 3 million dollar guys into 1 million dollar replacements.

 

[DFC]

It’s pretty easy to see all you have to do is rewatch the section of games where Perry moved to the 3rd line when Jeanott was moved down to the 4th with Maroon and Bellmar. If one is willing to have an open mind you can find that .

Now as to saving face JBB totally screwed up the trade for Jeannot. Now I’m sure he got scouting reports and much of that had to be looking at Jeanotts stats from the previous year. Now he has to resign him to save face if Jeanott can somehow produce. As to Maroons worth I addressed that in another thread he was an informal leader on the team. The same could be said of Killorn. This will be missed. Now there is no argument that Maroon is getting older and slower but there is not that big of a difference there. Jeannot will go to arbitration and will likely be awarded 2.0 mil per so how does that help the team . JBB just retained 200k on Maroon even if Jeanott gets 1.8 the net is still 2 mil to keep him. Other than hopefully Sheary nothing he has done in this offseason has improved the team or helped the cap situation. If one is looking at a whole he is just hoping the bargain guys he brought in will all hit something that is just not going to happen. Someone pointed out there are only 8 players that are here from the 2019 season. I will not rehash the impact of the losing the entire Gourde line but the at was the start of the breaking up the band. Of course you want to pay your stars but this has snowballed into a pretty ineffective roster for next year. Just because your stats merit large raises you can not keep them all. Now I thought maybe JBB had sought to change his direction when he moved Mac’s salary out he just turned around and mishandled Point, Cernak, Cirelli, Sergi by giving them a short bridge and turned right around giving them raised for the long term contracts one year later in those four cases. That’s all JBB he should have extended them all coming out of there ELC’s to long term contracts at a smaller average, this still would not have prevented the cap mess but he could have come out 2 mil lighter ver the four contracts.

Now Jeanott is going to end up the last contract of the summer with no answer to replace Killorn on the 2nd line. Coop will not remove Cirelli from the 2nd and this will cost Stammer production in a year where it will be needed most. It will create Coop playing tic tac too with players and that’s where the wheels will fall off. There are 4 true top 6 guys left. Next year two of them are due new contracts. The common theme was Killer would take a home town discount I suspect that will be the same mantra for Stammer too. There is no reason for him to leave money on the table. If Hagel pots 25 this year and he sure better or this team will not even sniff at the playoffs. Hagel will require a healthy contract.

It’s no fun to watch a dominate team devolve but it is worse when the window could have been extended with some foresight and a willingness focus on depth rather than dumping the whole cart to retain the big dollar contracts. And turn the 3 million dollar guys into 1 million dollar replacements.

We won two cups. We had a roster that is almost impossible to put together for the first one, let alone keep together long-term. It's the nature of the beast. Guys went elsewhere to get paid big money for, largely, what they did in TB. Coleman, Goodrow, Palat, Killorn -- every one of those guys signed for money that it wan't reasonable to think TB could have matched. And it's unlikely any of them will justify their contract long-term. Success gets guys paid.

I think we overpaid Sergachev. I think Cirelli's deal will look pretty good by the end of it. But I mean, no GM in the league makes moves that the entire fanbase is happy with. JBB is no different. You're expecting him to make perfect-in-hindsight moves in order to keep a roster together that was barely realistic in the first place. Our 2020 team was historically good come playoff time. If that's the expectation every year, you're just asking to be disappointed.

 

[le_sean]

Yet he still out skated Jeanott. If all the noise is about speed Jeanott was on the ice numerous times with Maroon and PEB and Jeanott was the last forward in the zone. Maroon had some positives but if moving him was to clear room to sign Jeanott it’s all about trying to save face for acquiring Jeanott for a ransom. These type moves get GM’s fired.

Jeannot had a serious leg injury. It’s a miracle he even came back to play against the Leafs.

 

[Byrddog]

We won two cups. We had a roster that is almost impossible to put together for the first one, let alone keep together long-term. It's the nature of the beast. Guys went elsewhere to get paid big money for, largely, what they did in TB. Coleman, Goodrow, Palat, Killorn -- every one of those guys signed for money that it wan't reasonable to think TB could have matched. And it's unlikely any of them will justify their contract long-term. Success gets guys paid.

I think we overpaid Sergachev. I think Cirelli's deal will look pretty good by the end of it. But I mean, no GM in the league makes moves that the entire fanbase is happy with. JBB is no different. You're expecting him to make perfect-in-hindsight moves in order to keep a roster together that was barely realistic in the first place. Our 2020 team was historically good come playoff time. If that's the expectation every year, you're just asking to be disappointed.

No you’re missing the point. I expect him to cost control within the cap where he can retain depth players. There is no doubt the first cup was a situational success mainly because Shattenkirk was cheap, Bogo was cheap Yanni gad not got a huge raise and Coleman was way underpaid as well. But it losing that entire line only extended it one year more then more depth gone got to the cup final and the fatigue excuse appeared that loose to an inferior Leafs team in the first round. Granted alit if that was on Vasi but what if he had a competent back up all year?

Jeannot had a serious leg injury. It’s a miracle he even came back to play against the Leafs.

What I refer to is prior to the injury. But since you brought it up who thinks he will recover from that and be a faster skater????

 

[n8]

truly baffling comment in the ESPN article. They wrote that they traded Maroon so they could sign a league minimum player at $775k
AFTER retaining 20% on a $1M player. So their cap hit went from $1M -> $200k + 775k = 975k for a savings of 25k? and they gave up a prospect on top of that?

 

[Rschmitz]

truly baffling comment in the ESPN article. They wrote that they traded Maroon so they could sign a league minimum player at $775k
AFTER retaining 20% on a $1M player. So their cap hit went from $1M -> $200k + 775k = 975k for a savings of 25k? and they gave up a prospect on top of that?

Looks factually accurate to me

 

[Crunchrulz]

truly baffling comment in the ESPN article. They wrote that they traded Maroon so they could sign a league minimum player at $775k
AFTER retaining 20% on a $1M player. So their cap hit went from $1M -> $200k + 775k = 975k for a savings of 25k? and they gave up a prospect on top of that?

Cajkovic had no future with the organization.
Move gets Maroon closer to home, perhaps a way of Tampa Bay saying Thank You for the time he spent with them. Tampa's fourth line was providing leadership but was old and slow. There are other high cost vets who now need to step up in the leadership role, and the fourth line is the easiest to replace pieces of.

 

[DisgruntledHawkFan]

Cajkovic was a PPG+ player in the CHL, and now he's just 0.66 PPG in ECHL. Does it mean ECHL >>> CHL?

Of course. It's children against professional men.

 

[PromisedLand]

Damn Tampa is entering the post cup period. Going to be ok for a few years before being pretty bad

they got 3 SCF appearances and 2 cups out of it. In the cap world thats a reality. I think Tampa did pretty well for what they accomplished.

 

[Kshahdoo]

Of course. It's children against professional men.

Professional? Don't you get better money in McDonalds?

 

[MattM92]

They keep losing useful guys off their roster. It's part of the cycle of championship teams. Aside from Maroon, they're losing Killorn, Colton, and Cole. A top-six winger, a middle-six winger, and their 4D. With no real replacements coming in.

Yeah, I could see TB declining.

This is what really makes me laugh about all the idiots who are constantly saying "lol bubble cup 2020 hurrdurr". Tampa has gotten f***ed TWICE by the salary cap following championship seasons. 2004 Cup -> start of salary cap era and then 2020/2021 Cups -> stagnant cap that sees us having to shed our depth fast than we would have under normal cap growth.

 

[DisgruntledHawkFan]

Professional? Don't you get better money in McDonalds?

McDonald's doesn't pay your lodging or provide you with a furnished utilities paid apartment.

 

[Kshahdoo]

McDonald's doesn't pay your lodging or provide you with a furnished utilities paid apartment.

Ah...