Also, since this Tangradi contract is now gone, can we retire the narrative that just because Cheveldayoff signed a contract then it's precious to him, or he has too much pride to dump it, that there's an institutional issue with decision-making,
et c.?
I'll try and address some of these things piece by piece.
1) I think the roster player for roster player isn't important, but there's no doubting we have one of the least active GMs in the league. Holland is renowned for not making roster moves, but that probably has something to do with the fact he is running a perennial playoff team. Jim Nil may eventually start doing the same after a flurry of activity to improve his team, he may begin to sit back and let the team improve over time. The difference is this team has no success to build on. Sitting on our hands sounds like a recipe for disaster and even the GMs known for sitting on their hands like Holland make player for player trades.
I fully realize that there has been a below-average amount of activity in the Jets' front office, but I think the organization is slowly improving*, thus I don't see it as a failure.
So the fact that people are picking nits over whether this counts as a trade including one current NHL roster player on each side as though that is any sort of measure of success or failure--and not merely anecdotal cherry-picking by those who want to support their historical-levels-of-inactivity "argument"--is, uh, comical.
2) I don't know how much faith Chevy had in Taylor either, but the proof is in the pudding and the proof is that Danny Taylor is a good AHL goalie. Period. His entire career shows this.
I don't really know Taylor at all, but I'll take your word that it's a lateral move. On to of the ability to play goal in the AHL, there have been suggestions coming from the Canadiens' fans on the main board that Budaj is an above average mentor who can be credited with some small portion of Price's success. I don't know how much I believe it, but it certainly
could be a thing.
In any case, you certainly make a good, well-supported point, but I think this deal is minor enough for me not to worry about it. Do they want Budaj to be Mr. Miyagi to the big guy? Were they trying to 'make an example' of Tangradi, as I saw it phrased somewhere in these pages? Did they just want a more
hilarious AHL team, goal-scoring-be-damned? Do they actually really like Holland? I think the consequences are so minimal that I'm not going to fret over it.
Then again, maybe I'm just having trouble associating "Eric Tangradi" and "goal-scoring" to begin with...
3) You can't say Chevy wanted to get rid of Tangradi's salary when we just made a deal to acquire much more salary than we gave away. That doesn't make sense. So far Chevy's career has shown he can't judge goalies very well. Although it seems those he hired as junior scouts can.
The Jets aren't a cap team and aren't at their internal budget, so they'd be comparing relative value, not dollars. It's possible that the Jets feel like they get more than twice as much out of Budaj for for $1.4m than Tangradi for $700k and I would still consider that dumping Tangradi and his salary.
There's also a chance that Budaj gets claimed, in which case they're off the hook for Tangradi's one-way deal cleanly (I have to imagine that they're at least okay with it going either way, or they'd have got Montreal to waive him first).
4) Kovalchuk officially "retired" from the NHL making them able to ditch his contract completely. The new CBA has addressed this though and teams now have to watch out for their players who retire before their long term contract is up or else they'll be hit with a very sizeable cap penalty.
I thought those penalties were only for contracts signed at--or was it extending to?--35 years old or later. Did they expand that rule to include everyone in the 2013 CBA?
*(Possible yet realistic) 2015/16 Jets Depth Chart:
LW|C|RW|LD|RD|G
Ladd|Little|Frolik|Enstrom|Trouba|Pavelec
Kane|Scheifele|Wheeler|Morrissey|Bogosian|Hutchinson
Petan|Perreault|Byfuglien|Stuart|Postma|Hellebuyck
Lowry|Burmistrov|Thorburn|Clitsome|Kitchton|Olkinuora
Klingberg|O'Dell|Lipon|Ellerby||
|||||
Lodge|Copp|Kosmachuck|Kostalek|Glover|Comrie [AHL eligible '16/'17]
Kraskovsky|Olsen|De Leo|Poolman|Karlstrom|
Not all may think that's a better NHL roster than 2011/12--I do--but I don't think anyone can convince me that there are fewer movable pieces of value in that depth chart than any roster between 2011 and today. I'm sure the trade fetishists will get their day.
