Caleb Jones recalled from Bakersfield UPDATE#2 Recalled from Bako 12/9/19

[walktheboulavard]

Pretty impressed with Jones so far; he's been flying under the radar, which is a good thing for a rookie playing 2nd pair on his off side. His possession numbers are solid and he's made some promising plays in each of his games so far.
Some noticeable plays he's made are one really impressive 100 foot stretch pass hitting Kassian to spring a 2 on 1. A great defensive play on Clifford out muscling him, gaining possession and exiting the zone, and one excellent stick check on Shae Theodore trying to take him wide.
With the exception of the LA game, in which most of the team played poorly, I think the kid's been holding his own.

 

[ImmuneEH]

Pretty impressed with Jones so far; he's been flying under the radar, which is a good thing for a rookie playing 2nd pair on his off side. His possession numbers are solid and he's made some promising plays in each of his games so far.
Some noticeable plays he's made are one really impressive 100 foot stretch pass hitting Kassian to spring a 2 on 1. A great defensive play on Clifford out muscling him, gaining possession and exiting the zone, and one excellent stick check on Shae Theodore trying to take him wide.
With the exception of the LA game, in which most of the team played poorly, I think the kid's been holding his own.

I wish we could just trade Russell and put Jones on 3LD.

 

[guymez]

Pretty impressed with Jones so far; he's been flying under the radar, which is a good thing for a rookie playing 2nd pair on his off side. His possession numbers are solid and he's made some promising plays in each of his games so far.
Some noticeable plays he's made are one really impressive 100 foot stretch pass hitting Kassian to spring a 2 on 1. A great defensive play on Clifford out muscling him, gaining possession and exiting the zone, and one excellent stick check on Shae Theodore trying to take him wide.
With the exception of the LA game, in which most of the team played poorly, I think the kid's been holding his own.

I agree.
I am a Jones supporter and his skating is so under rated IMO.
He isnt blazing fast but his mobility is really strong. He also has very good vision and passing which was on display with that Kassian pass in the LA game.
I think he has top 4 potential and the fact he can play both sides makes him a Russell replacement moving forward.

 

[walktheboulavard]

I agree.
I am a Jones supporter and his skating is so under rated IMO.
He isnt blazing fast but his mobility is really strong. He also has very good vision and passing which was on display with that Kassian pass in the LA game.
I think he has top 4 potential and the fact he can play both sides makes him a Russell replacement moving forward.

Yeah, and it looks like he's skill set allows him to be better suited to play on his off side compared to Russell.
It'll be interesting when Benning gets back, conventional wisdom suggests Jones is more likely to go down and Manning continues to ride the press box. We'll see how he plays today but having him in the line up might be more conducive to winning games. He was really good against fast team in Vegas and he affords the coach the flexibility to slide him as the 2nd pair right d when Larsson is struggling.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

Not the greatest showing by Jones in this recent call-up. Most of the time he was on the right side which likely didn't help his cause. IMO he showed some good in terms of keeping the line at times and making some good passes and plays. He's a player that could be a solution going forward or maybe the trade chip needed to get us some help at forward.

 

[LTIR]

I wish we could just trade Russell and put Jones on 3LD.

I guess we will just keep Russell for a bit then.

 

[Aerchon]

Not the greatest showing by Jones in this recent call-up. Most of the time he was on the right side which likely didn't help his cause. IMO he showed some good in terms of keeping the line at times and making some good passes and plays. He's a player that could be a solution going forward or maybe the trade chip needed to get us some help at forward.

Jones was bad in his first few games and was slowly getting better. He started playing with Klefbom but only in a bottom pairing capacity. While others rotated with Klefbom. Not an ideal situation rotating Klefbom's partner throughout the game.

I found his mistakes got fewer but by the same token his play didn't really see any big improvement either.

Imo he looked like a bottom pairing guy at best barely keeping his head above water in a top 4 role. Which was a big improvement from his previous top 4 stint.

The team, coincidentally or not, has looked worse with him on it.

Persson seemed significantly better in every way.

I hope that's the last we see Jones this year. He was not bad but also not good and I would much rather see Persson and Lagesson given a chance before he comes back. I think even Bouchard gets a crack before Jones gets another.

Set him back in Bako and let him develop in a bigger role. Hope he takes the offseason serious like Bear did and makes the team out of camp.

 

[Ninety7]

Thought he looked overwhelmed during his most recent stint here

 

[McDNicks17]

The NHL game just seems too fast for him.

Decision making wasn't great.

 

[guymez]

The NHL game just seems too fast for him.

Decision making wasn't great.

Its interesting to me that this recent small sample size on the bottom pairing seems to be more meaningful than the large sample size from last season. Last season Jones looked excellent with his time on the bottom pairing...right up until Hitch decided that Jones should get top 4 minutes and even top pairing minutes.
Predictably the trouble started for Jones and many posters took that opportunity to (wrongly) suggest that his game wasnt good enough for the NHL.

Honestly...I think that too many people just havent paid close enough attentention to this player. If they had then statements like the above wouldnt be made. The tools are there and if he wasnt so brutally misused last season he would be much further along this season.

I hope they just leave him in Bakersfield for the rest of the season so he has a chance to undo some of development regression from Hitchs bad decision making last year.

 

[McDNicks17]

Its interesting to me that this recent small sample size on the bottom pairing seems to be more meaningful than the large sample size from last season. Last season Jones looked excellent with his time on the bottom pairing...right up until Hitch decided that Jones should get top 4 minutes and even top pairing minutes.
Predictably the trouble started for Jones and many posters took that opportunity to (wrongly) suggest that his game wasnt good enough for the NHL.

Honestly...I think that too many people just havent paid close enough attentention to this player. If they had then statements like the above wouldnt be made. The tools are there and if he wasnt so brutally misused last season he would be much further along this season.

I hope they just leave him in Bakersfield for the rest of the season so he has a chance to undo some of development regression from Hitchs bad decision making last year.

Yikes. You obviously like the player. You don't have to accuse people who disagree of "not paying attention" or come up with delusional excuses to defend him.

 

[guymez]

Yikes. You obviously like the player. You don't have to accuse people who disagree of "not paying attention" or come up with delusional excuses to defend him.

Its got nothing to do with liking the player. It has to do with what I have seen from the player and taking into account his usage.

Usage matters a lot for Dmen..
If someone has actually watched Jones when he played the first half of last season then there is no way they can say that he isnt NHL ready.
There was a very clear change in usage a few games before Jones started to struggle.
Did you miss that?

Are you suggesting that what Hitch did last season didnt affect the player?

Dont mean to take it out on you but I just find it a little frustrating to see the same line parroted over and over without any consideration for the reality around how things played out.

 

[Cloned]

Jones needs a Bear-like offseason this summer to make the club next year. To be honest I think Bear is more of a natural for the game - just has "it", much like Draisaitl isn't blessed with the best skating ability but he just has a knack for being very very very good.

 

[McDNicks17]

Its got nothing to do with liking the player. It has to do with what I have seen from the player and taking into account his usage.

Usage matters a lot for Dmen..
If someone has actually watched Jones when he played the first half of last season then there is no way they can say that he isnt NHL ready.
There was a very clear change in usage a few games before Jones started to struggle.
Did you miss that?

Are you suggesting that what Hitch did last season didnt affect the player?

And if someone "actually watched" Jones this season, they would see he was making every decision basically a second late.

He played ~10 games in the top4 last year. You can't honestly think he needs an entire season in the AHL to "undo the regression".

 

[guymez]

And if someone "actually watched" Jones this season, they would see he was making every decision basically a second late.

He played ~10 games in the top4 last year. You can't honestly think he needs an entire season in the AHL to "undo the regression".

He played top 4 minutes and top paring minutes last season....he was absolutely fine until that change was made.
If he really struggled as bad as you suggested then why on earth would Hitch bump him up the roster and increase his level of difficulty?

I absolutely do think that it affected his development because you could see his confidence disappear.
I dont know how long it will take to undo that but I do think that its in his best interest to stay in Bakersfield for the rest of the season.
Hopefully that does the trick.

 

[McDNicks17]

He played top 4 minutes and top paring minutes last season....he was absolutely fine until that change was made.
If he really struggled as bad as you suggested then why on earth would Hitch bump him up the roster?

He played fine in the Benning role and then fell off a cliff when he was moved up the lineup. This year he wasn't even treading water in the Benning role.

You brought up small sample sizes, but you're basing your opinion(which apparently everyone else would agree with if they were "paying attention") on about six good games on the bottom pairing a year ago.

He didn't look NHL ready this year. That should obviously hold more weight than a handful of games last year.

 

[guymez]

He played fine in the Benning role and then fell off a cliff when he was moved up the lineup. This year he wasn't even treading water in the Benning role.

You brought up small sample sizes, but you're basing your opinion(which apparently everyone else would agree with if they were "paying attention") on about six good games on the bottom pairing a year ago.

He didn't look NHL ready this year. That should obviously hold more weight than a handful of games last year.

I think you need to revisit his usage from last season.

Rushing players is a bad idea...always.

What is the demarc for determining if a player has played enough games in a tough minute role to affect his development?

Or maybe you just dont like the player.

 

[McDNicks17]

I think you need to revisit his usage from last season.

Or maybe you just dont like the player.

He played six games before jumping up to 20 minutes.

It isn't hard to look up game logs.

 

[guymez]

He played six games before jumping up to 20 minutes.

It isn't hard to look up game logs.

So what is the demarc for determining if a player has played enough games in a tough minute role to affect his development?

Is it a set number?

 

[McDNicks17]

So what is the demarc for determining if a player has played enough games in a tough minute role to affect his development?

Is it a set number?

You'd have to prove that theory even exists before setting a number.

 

[guymez]

You'd have to prove that theory even exists before setting a number.

The point being is that every player is different and that it was bad judgement for Hitch to do what he did.

It pissed me off royally at the time because it was totally unnecessary and it clearly affected the player.

So while you may scoff at the idea that nothing happened to Jones that should have affected his development and that it will take more than a few months in the AHL for Jones to regain his confidence...thats fine.
As i said I dont know how long it will take but I think the player is worth investing in by leaving him down there for the rest of the season.

 

[McDNicks17]

The point being is that every player is different and that it was bad judgement for Hitch to do what he did.

It pissed me off royally at the time because it was totally unnecessary and it clearly affected the player.

So while you may scoff at the idea that it will take more than a few months in the AHL for Jones to regain his confidence thats fine.
As i said I dont know how long it will take but I think the player is worth investing in by leaving him down there for the rest of the season.

If every player is different, why would you assume you know that's the issue?

And he's played 52 games in the AHL since Hitch's "bad judgement". You really think he needs another 40-50?

 

[guymez]

He's played 52 games in the AHL since Hitch's "bad judgement". You really think he needs another 40-50?

Maybe...20-30 40. I dont know.
Do you know for sure it wont?

Are you suggesting that we give up on the player...the book has been written?
Thats how you are coming across....and thats what i am taking issue with more than anything.

There were a lot of posters on here ready to give up on Nurse last season and he is quite a bit older than Jones.
There is a player there IMO and I want to see the team take full advantage of that instead of thinking that the player just isnt NHL material based on 10+ games in a tough minute role and 9 games this season.
I mean what is worn with a little patience...especially when the team has the depth to allow for Jones to find his way.

Sorry...didnt mean to go after you specifically...yours was just the last post I read on here.

 

[McDNicks17]

Maybe...20-30 40. I dont know.
Do you know for sure it wont?

Are you suggesting that we give up on the player...the book has been written?
Thats how you are coming across.

There were a lot of posters on here ready to give up on Nurse last season and he is quite a bit older then Jones.

I'm suggesting what I said in the first post you quoted. It didn't look like he could handle the NHL this year.

There's better players that should be here instead of him. If he comes back up and does well, that's great. If not, that's how it goes with prospects sometimes.

 

[guymez]

I'm suggesting what I said in the first post you quoted. He didn't look ready for the NHL this year.

There's better players that should be here instead of him. If he comes back up and does well, that's great. If not, that's how it goes with prospects sometimes.

Now that you added 'this year' then I can agree with you.

I made an edit you might have missed...Sorry...didnt mean to go after you specifically...yours was just the last post I read on here that seemed to be giving up on the player by virtue of 9 games this year.

It tweaked me a bit because there seems to be a lot of that impatience on here.