The Free Agency/Trades Thread (Proposals, Speculation, Rumors) IV

[AtlantaWhaler]

Last Post:

Now I know a GM is going to deny deny deny, but Poile has gone on record as of yesterday saying that Jones is staying put.

[fieldset=Nashville Post]To all those waiting and watching for the Nashville Predators to trade defenseman Seth Jones for a high-scoring forward or two, David Poile has a message.

“That’s not happening,” the general manager told the Nashville Post on Thursday.

.....


“He gets better all the time,” Poile said. “He’s very focused. I can’t think of how I’d want him to prepare any better. The defensive part of his game is probably a little ahead of the offensive part of the game but he’s being put in a lot of situations like the power play where he’s going to get more opportunities to improve in that area.

“I think Seth is going to be just a terrific defenseman. I see continual improvement for several years to come.”

Just don’t expect to see him in anything other than a Predators’ uniform.


http://nashvillepost.com/blogs/post...de_not_part_of_predators_plans_for_seth_jones

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[KreamofAskarov]

Last Post:

I would say the same thing. I think Poile wants to hold on to Jones but I also feel like he might be getting some pressure to do a deal too.

 

[hockey diva]

Poile needs to get over his mancrush on Jones and do what is best for the team.

 

[NoNecksCurse]

please quit getting your hopes up by listening to eklund.

I'm in favor of moving jones for ryjo but I do think jones will turn out to be a #1 defenseman for most of his career.

 

[glenngineer]

Poile needs to get over his mancrush on Jones and do what is best for the team.

If hanging on to Jones is more beneficial to the team than Poile is doing his job.

People talk about man crushes and while Poile obviously likes the kid he knows a thing or two about defensemen over the years. Forwards not so much but I will trust his judgement on our defensemen.

 

[NSH615]

If hanging on to Jones is more beneficial to the team than Poile is doing his job.

People talk about man crushes and while Poile obviously likes the kid he knows a thing or two about defensemen over the years. Forwards not so much but I will trust his judgement on our defensemen.

Sometimes you just have to pay the price to improve the team in your weak areas even if the price hurts. In this case we have an abundance of talent on the blueline, but Poile thinks it is best to hold on and do nothing like always. We've seen this story time and time again. I guess we could just instead sell off everything and go full rebuild to get our center instead of trade.

 

[NoNecksCurse]

a lot of y'all act like our defense is stacked. our pipeline for defenseman is non existent. trading jones leaves a bottom pairing of jackman - granberg or whoever getting limited minutes and being a possible dumpster fire on ice. our top 4 would feature weber, josi, ekholm, and Ellis. weber isn't a spring chicken anymore and I've always had my issues with Ellis' size... we would be rolling with these 4 for the foreseeable future and we better hope and pray injuries don't hit that top 4 cause whew it could get ugly at the bridge. i can see why poile is hesitant to ship out a defenseman who is almost a guarantee to be able to play top minutes for the rest of his career at a minimum on his athletic abilities alone. poile may piss me off to great heights sometimes but I'm trusting his judgement on this one.

 

[Drake744]

please quit getting your hopes up by listening to eklund.

I'm in favor of moving jones for ryjo but I do think jones will turn out to be a #1 defenseman for most of his career.

I don't get my hopes up by listening to Eklund. I do get my hopes up though when Eklund is just one in a line of many others to speculate that something here could go down.

 

[NoNecksCurse]

not to mention we could get lucky (ok a miracle could happen) and we could sign a center on the free agent market.. i hate this perspective but it may enter DP's mind

 

[NoNecksCurse]

I don't get my hopes up by listening to Eklund. I do get my hopes up though when Eklund is just one in a line of many others to speculate that something here could go down.

what's the one in a line of many? I've seen one credible source mention it and i believe from what I seen it was just a "it could be a good fit" quote.. not that there had been concrete discussions. not trying to be a pain, I just haven't seen a line of people reporting ryjo to NSH

 

[AtlantaWhaler]

Has Vingan chimed in on any of this? I glazed over his twitter and didn't see anything.

 

[glenngineer]

Sometimes you just have to pay the price to improve the team in your weak areas even if the price hurts. In this case we have an abundance of talent on the blueline, but Poile thinks it is best to hold on and do nothing like always. We've seen this story time and time again. I guess we could just instead sell off everything and go full rebuild to get our center instead of trade.

I'm not saying he shouldn't make a move but people use words like man crushes and it's laughable. I know you're wanting us to make a move. We've had this discussion countless times already. Poile should deal from a position of strength to improve the team. It's obvious our D is the strength. While Jones seems to be the popular piece to move in many people's minds, Poile has one chance to make this kind of trade. It's not like he can go back a few years later and say, give me Jones back, I screwed up. Poile has to be absolutely sure he's getting exactly what he wants in a number 1 center to fit Laviolette's system. Some are for RyJo, some are for RNH around here. Others have mentioned Duchene. To me the only one that makes sense for us is the one who's more than likely not available.

I watch games where we lose in OT where Ellis and Fisher get crossed up and no on makes it back and then Ellis again against Carolina where he lets his guy walk in and I think this league is gearing towards guys who can skate and really move out there. I cringe to think that we move a piece that fits this new NHL so much better and hold on to a piece like Ellis and I just think it's going to burn us long term, especially if it's for the guys we're rumored to be after. If Poile can bring in a RyJo without moving Jones I am all for it. If he moves Jones I think we'll be kicking ourselves for the next 10 years wondering why we did what we did.

Something I also go to thinking about a few minutes ago, things you can't teach players. Size, speed, offensive creativeness, leadership/intangibles and the how to read the game in front of you. You can teach guys how to play D as it's more of a willingness to commit but you can't teach a kid how to make his shot better or to be much faster than he already is or instinct or to be 6" taller than he already is. Most kids come in to the NHL and their skill set is just that. They can improve to some degree but it's not always going to be monumental.

Ellis is what he is, a heady defenseman with a big shot. He tries to play bigger than he is and I commend him for that. I think he's a solid second pairing guy. He's a team guy. He has basically topped out at what he's going to be for us. There's nothing wrong with that as you need players of that ilk. It just scares me to death to think of guys that play in our division that he will have to go up against on a nightly basis and then I think of Jones in those defensive situations and I don't seem to cringe as much. I don't worry about his defensive game growing and getting better.

I don't know. We need a number 1 center. That's clear as day to all of us. How we get that number 1 center is anyone's guess at this point.

 

[Drake744]

what's the one in a line of many? I've seen one credible source mention it and i believe from what I seen it was just a "it could be a good fit" quote.. not that there had been concrete discussions. not trying to be a pain, I just haven't seen a line of people reporting ryjo to NSH

No one is "reporting" it will happen. I don't understand why people think Eklund "reports" what will happen. He's never done that. He just shares the information that he hears from sources and relays it onto his site. Things rarely come to fruition because there is tons of **** that gets talked about between teams that never happens. That's the nature of the beast. I understand that because people put too much stock into his information that they think is supposed to predict player movement, and when it doesn't actually happen often, it's easy for people to think it's BS but I give him a little credibility. I absolutely believe that Eklund has sources and does hear things that many others don't, so I don't completely ignore things he says. Do I take what he says as gospel? No way. But I don't treat him as someone telling us who's going where, I treat him as someone who publishes rumblings we have no access to.

 

[Scoresberg]

Yeah, I don't know if Poile's going to land a #1C this season but for sure as hell I can say that this team is going nowhere with Ribeiro as our #1C. He can wait for the right moment as long as he wants and waste the years when Rinne and Weber can carry us to the end (2-4 yrs). This RyJo situation isn't going to present itself again for years.

Glenn, if he had the chance to land RyJo without moving Jones he would've pulled the trigger weeks ago.

 

[Infinite Jest]

If Jones isn't traded, and I don't think he will be (though I'm in favor), we're likely looking at almost the exact same lineup for next year, only with less cap space and more real dollars being spent and our old top 2 Cs another year older. Hooray.

 

[nomorekids]

Has Vingan chimed in on any of this? I glazed over his twitter and didn't see anything.

No, but he(and Cooper before him) really don't. They have a privileged level of access to the team that could easily be yanked back if the team felt they were jeopardizing negotiations by letting details slip to the media. Vingan goes as far as to specifically tell people in his mailbag segment NOT to ask about trades\rumors.

 

[preds1]

Our current top 4 is locked up long term. There are negatives, but they're solid as a whole.
If we pass on a Ryjo deal, and turn around and give Jones $5M+ or lose him to an OS, I may have to drop a bad word or two on this site.

 

[drwpreds]

If Jones isn't traded, and I don't think he will be (though I'm in favor), we're likely looking at almost the exact same lineup for next year, only with less cap space and more real dollars being spent and our old top 2 Cs another year older. Hooray.

There is just no way to know that right now. What if we get lucky and Kamenev, Fiala, and Vesey all are here and flourishing next year?? That would change our outlook dramatically. Not to mention potential offseason moves.

 

[AtlantaWhaler]

So...I'll play the Devil's Advocate here. RyJo only has one last year of RFA. What if he's not interested in staying? All the sudden, this offseason we find ourselves in arbitration with RyJo for one last year and we lost Jones.

 

[nomorekids]

There is just no way to know that right now. What if we get lucky and Kamenev, Fiala, and Vesey all are here and flourishing next year?? That would change our outlook dramatically. Not to mention potential offseason moves.

To be fair, we were banking on Steve Moses and Kevin Fiala to provide an offensive boost this year, and used that as justification to skip out on the FA market last summer. That approach is risky in itself

 

[nomorekids]

So...I'll play the Devil's Advocate here. RyJo only has one last year of RFA. What if he's not interested in staying? All the sudden, this offseason we find ourselves in arbitration with RyJo for one last year and we lost Jones.

...or Jones gets to that point, refusing to sign anything but a short term bridge deal, and we squirreled away "future franchise d-man" Seth Jones, only to see him bolt?

 

[AtlantaWhaler]

...or Jones gets to that point, refusing to sign anything but a short term bridge deal, and we squirreled away "future franchise d-man" Seth Jones, only to see him bolt?

Isn't Jones an RFA for like 4 more years? Doesn't he have Nashville roots?

 

[Drake744]

Yeah, I don't know if Poile's going to land a #1C this season but for sure as hell I can say that this team is going nowhere with Ribeiro as our #1C. He can wait for the right moment as long as he wants and waste the years when Rinne and Weber can carry us to the end (2-4 yrs). This RyJo situation isn't going to present itself again for years.

Glenn, if he had the chance to land RyJo without moving Jones he would've pulled the trigger weeks ago.

Yeah, but I think if he's continually refusing to offer Jones in a deal, it would definitely take a while to wear a team down to think about taking his offer. I think deep down Poile is willing to trade Jones if he absolutely has to, I just don't know if he sees this as the scenario in which he does. But, if he's continuing to include someone like Ellis instead in trade offers and CBJ is still listening (or whoever else), then I'm not sure he's had the chance to make the deal quite yet without Jones involved. He may be slowly making progress that way though.

Isn't Jones an RFA for like 4 more years? Doesn't he have Nashville roots?

His dad is from West Tennessee. He is an RFA for the next 4 years but one could still think he would leave if able so he could play closer to a top pair. And by "if able" I mean a team desperate for him throws an absurd amount of money at him via offer sheet and we couldn't match. I don't think it would turn out that way, but it's a valid concern.

 

[nomorekids]

Isn't Jones an RFA for like 4 more years? Doesn't he have Nashville roots?

He is an RFA but he could conceivably take another RFA deal short term that would make him arbitration eligible...see Weber, Shea.

He has "TN roots" in that his dad was born here, but he himself was born in Texas and raised in Colorado.

 

[AtlantaWhaler]

He is an RFA but he could conceivably take another RFA deal short term that would make him arbitration eligible...see Weber, Shea.

He has "TN roots" in that his dad was born here, but he himself was born in Texas and raised in Colorado.

Him being an RFA for that much longer makes Jones a much smaller risk.