There’s no scenario where he won’t be protected. It’s either Ritchie or Frederic. My guess is he signs another short term deal at lesser money after his contract is up next season. It’s certainly possible he could be traded, but I have no clue what his market is. The real tricky thing is that if Hall re-signs, Jake has no future here long-term. He can’t really play RW and he won’t be a top 6 forward. This isn’t Chiarelli where he bent over backwards to extend and overpay nearly every bottom 6 forward. Outside of Coyle, Sweeney hasn’t really done that. Another thing is what happens with Ritchie? If he asks for too much money I could see him being dealt because Sweeney won’t want 2 enigmas on his 3rd line making north of $3.5M, with Coyle and his NMC thrown in for good measure.
I’d rather see if Arizona is stupid enough to give us Garland for DeBrusk and a 2nd.
I think what happens with Jake is dependent upon what Jake does come playoff time.
Honestly it doesn’t look good for Patrick at all. If it weren’t for him being a 2nd overall pick I doubt there would even be a discussion about this. He’s a minus 30 on the year and has 4 goals and 5 assists. Jake on the other hand has played around 10 fewer games, is a plus 1, and still out scored him although not by much. I’d rather keep Jake.
I didn`t look at the stat sheet but I would wager Jake played tops 14 mins last night? But pretty much every one of those shifts he played with a purpose and that`s what he and the rest of the boys have to do
