Jared Boll

[niflheim]

 

[db2011]

Haha, this liberal likes that uppercut!

Any word on his meeting with the league?

 

[zelbell]

Haha, this liberal likes that uppercut!

Any word on his meeting with the league?

sounds like it wrapped up a little bit ago

should know the punishment, if there is any, later today Porty says

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

Haha, this liberal likes that uppercut!

Pfft. Brooklyn...

Any word on his meeting with the league?

Porty tweeted a couple hours ago that hearing was done and we'd likely know in a couple hours, so... clearly another case of Portzline being out of touch.

 

[Johansen2Foligno]

Second time he has drubbed Stoner this year

 

[db2011]

Pfft. Brooklyn...

sorry for a late bump of an often-despised thread, but, not being cut/paste or link savvy as some of you, until I could post from anywhere from my phone I wasn't able to respond to this "pfft" with

 

[DarkandStormy]

Portzline has to be trolling (or is terrible at his job. or both). From today's chat:

Portzline:
Until further notice, Boll is back next season. He's signed for $1.7M next year and the year after. (Pssst. Where have you heard rumors of a contract buyout? E5 me, bro!)

He was on the radio broadcast discussing the very possibility of that during the 2nd intermission of the last home game.

From Shawn Mitchell, PORTY'S FELLOW CO-WORKER, on April 11th (via http://bluejacketsxtra.dispatch.com/content/stories/2015/04/11/blue-jackets-notebook.html):

Boll’s struggles this season and his late-season absences have raised questions about his future with the Blue Jackets, including whether he might be a candidate for a contract buyout.

Later in that same chat, Portzline:

"You're paying Boll $1.7M per year, and it's impossible to see a role for him (as it stands) for next season."

 

[Johansen2Foligno]

I bet you would be so happy major major

 

[Viqsi]

Portzline has to be trolling (or is terrible at his job. or both). From today's chat:

Portzline:
Until further notice, Boll is back next season. He's signed for $1.7M next year and the year after. (Pssst. Where have you heard rumors of a contract buyout? E5 me, bro!)

He was on the radio broadcast discussing the very possibility of that during the 2nd intermission of the last home game.

From Shawn Mitchell, PORTY'S FELLOW CO-WORKER, on April 11th (via http://bluejacketsxtra.dispatch.com/content/stories/2015/04/11/blue-jackets-notebook.html):

Boll’s struggles this season and his late-season absences have raised questions about his future with the Blue Jackets, including whether he might be a candidate for a contract buyout.

Later in that same chat, Portzline:

"You're paying Boll $1.7M per year, and it's impossible to see a role for him (as it stands) for next season."

Perhaps, unlike many here, Portzline is capable of recognizing the difference between "speculation" and "rumor"?

 

[niflheim]

hands away from our dear Hannibal!

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

Grantland piece on "enforcers". "Knuckles vs. Numbers" on the decline of the tough guy in the face of advanced stats. No new information in there for most of us but interesting (and sort of comical) nonetheless.

http://grantland.com/features/grantland-features-knuckles-vs-numbers/

 

[shmoopatties]

Penguins give enforcer Sestito tryout deal

http://dkonpittsburghsports.com/2015/08/26/pens-give-enforcer-sestito-tryout-deal/

“I understand the typical tough guy role isn’t there anymore. But, maybe I can deter people from taking runs at those guys, because I’m someone who can do some damage, who isn’t afraid of dropping the gloves.”

 

[Johansen2Foligno]

Penguins give enforcer Sestito tryout deal

http://dkonpittsburghsports.com/2015/08/26/pens-give-enforcer-sestito-tryout-deal/

“I understand the typical tough guy role isn’t there anymore. But, maybe I can deter people from taking runs at those guys, because I’m someone who can do some damage, who isn’t afraid of dropping the gloves.â€

Man, how many times has this guy been knocked in the head that he would say something like that?



Would really benefit Pittsburgh if they got someone like that. They have some top-tier talent they can't afford to get hurt.

 

[Arch City Zach]

I remember Sestito's 9 game run he had with us, seemed to do very well and then came the demotion and that was the end of him with us.

 

[CBJWerenski8]

Penguins give enforcer Sestito tryout deal

http://dkonpittsburghsports.com/2015/08/26/pens-give-enforcer-sestito-tryout-deal/

“I understand the typical tough guy role isn’t there anymore. But, maybe I can deter people from taking runs at those guys, because I’m someone who can do some damage, who isn’t afraid of dropping the gloves.â€

And that's fine and good until you have a longer term nearly 2 million dollar contract

 

[vannzee]

I don't think that Seisto really could scare players from making a run at Crosby, Malkin, ect. He's a fighter but not some ultimate heavyweight like Sean Michael Scott in Goon.

 

[Nordique]

I don't think that Seisto really could scare players from making a run at Crosby, Malkin, ect. He's a fighter but not some ultimate heavyweight like Sean Michael Scott in Goon.

I doubt it too. There is nothing that says an agitator has to fight anyone. Dubinsky won't give 2 ***** about Sestito yapping at him for playing Crosby too physically. He's not going to waste his time dropping the gloves with a guy that has no impact on the scoreboard.

The League has taken over the role of dishing out punishments and retribution for dirty play, the players no longer police themselves. Its romantic and nostalgic to still think that way, but its simply not true anymore. I don't know which way is better, but I know that change is here to stay. Token fighting, and situational bouts will still occur, but enforcement is a thing of the past.

 

[shmoopatties]

"It's call team dynamics, folks, and checks and balances. You may not believe it really exists, but those of us who made a professional living in this sport when I was on the ice know otherwise. Those guys are getting pushed out of the game, year by year. Some call it progress. I call it sacrificing heart, character and the dedication of people who are willing and able to do a brutally difficult job in order to have a chance to make their NHL dreams come true." - Paul Stewart - Retired NHL Player and NHL Referee

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-stewart/checks-and-balances-empathy_b_6800742.html

 

[Mayor Bee]

"It's call team dynamics, folks, and checks and balances. You may not believe it really exists, but those of us who made a professional living in this sport when I was on the ice know otherwise. Those guys are getting pushed out of the game, year by year. Some call it progress. I call it sacrificing heart, character and the dedication of people who are willing and able to do a brutally difficult job in order to have a chance to make their NHL dreams come true." - Paul Stewart - Retired NHL Player and NHL Referee

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-stewart/checks-and-balances-empathy_b_6800742.html

...and herein lies a problem.

By the time you get to the highest levels of sport, everyone possesses heart, character, and dedication. No one in the last 75 years has managed to play in the NHL, MLB, NFL, or NBA for any real period of time without dedicating a huge chunk of their life to their sport. I remember a few years ago, the Olympian gymnast Shawn Johnson was a story in her own right not because of her skill, but because of how little she trained compared to everyone else....just 25 hours a week, plus being a full-time high school student. And because she took an entire day off per week, that means she was only averaging 4-5 hours a day for training.

I think there's a tendency to conflate our idea of the amount of "heart" and "dedication" someone possesses with what's physically tangible in some way. We tend to think that a football coach who puts in 100-hour weeks is more dedicated than the one who puts in 90-hour weeks, that the guy in the office who flies to remote meetings is more dedicated than the one who stays closer to home, and that the hockey player who makes a living getting punched in the head is more dedicated and has more heart than the guy who makes his living some other way.

Since we're talking about Boll here, I'll toss him in as an example compared to another (former) CBJ player: Derek MacKenzie.

Boll played in the USHL as a 17- and an 18-year-old, then two years in the OHL (including an overage season) for the Plymouth Whalers. In those two seasons, he had 47 goals and 96 points in the regular season, plus 403 penalty minutes; in the playoffs he had 8 goals and 16 points in 33 games, plus 87 PIMs. He was a 4th-round pick in the draft.

MacKenzie went into the OHL at age 16 with Sudbury and played four years there; he didn't have an overage season. In the latter three seasons, he had 86 goals and 147 assists (233 points) in 198 games, plus 13 goals and 34 points in 28 games. In his final season, he scored 40 goals and led his team in scoring. Oh, and he also represented Canada in the WJC. Clearly, the guy was a top-level junior player; he was taken in the 5th round by Atlanta in their expansion year draft.

Boll's career transaction list looks like this:
- Signed to ELC in 2007
- Re-signed in 2010 as an RFA
- Re-signed in 2012 as a pending RFA
- Re-signed in 2013 well in advance of free agency

MacKenzie's transaction list looks like this:
- Signed to ELC
- Called up in 2001-02 for one NHL game, sent back down the next day
- Played all of 2002-03 in the AHL, never getting the call
- Started 2003-04 in the AHL; called up and sent down 3 times that year
- Broke his ankle early in 2005-06 in the AHL, missed half the season. Would be called up and sent down twice.
- Atlanta allowed him to hit UFA status in 2006, then signed him 17 days into free agency.
- In 2006-07, he would be called up and sent down four more times.

By the time Columbus signed him, MacKenzie had done the following:
- Spent six years in professional hockey
- Played nearly 400 AHL games
- Been named team captain of the Chicago Wolves. This sounds like a great honor, but the guys who are named as the captain of an AHL team are essentially done as NHL prospects; it's an unspoken way of basically saying "you'll always have a home here, but you might want to start thinking about your post-playing career). He was 25 at the time.
- Played 28 NHL games
- Hit UFA status twice
- Been recalled from and sent back to the AHL ten times

Now, someone doesn't represent Canada at the WJC without being a hell of a good player. Boll never represented the USA; I think it's probably safe to say that MacKenzie was the superior junior player.

But wait, there's more. MacKenzie signed in Columbus, and over the ensuing three seasons would be called up and sent back to the AHL eight more times, and would hit UFA status twice more. He'd play 36 NHL games in that span and 173 AHL games.

Boll is now 29 years old. He hasn't spent a day in the minors, has never been a UFA looking at an uncertain future, has never had a mediocre franchise run by Don Waddell tell him that he's not in their plans at all. He may have never stared at the ceiling, unable to sleep, wondering what the hell he's going to do after this season because obviously a hockey career is going nowhere.

By the time MacKenzie was 29, he had less than a full season's worth of NHL games (64) compared to 550 in the NHL, he'd been a UFA four times, and had gone between the AHL and NHL eighteen times. And undoubtedly, there were plenty of sleepless nights wondering whether he was unfairly putting his future career on hold pursuing a dream that was clearly not going to come true.

Now, the point of all this isn't to say that Boll doesn't have heart or that it pales in comparison to someone else. My point is that "heart" and "dedication" wears a lot of different uniforms, and it's really really dumb to assume that the guys with the most heart are the ones most willing to take a punch.

 

[Tulipunaruusu*]

Derek MacKenzie is also a lazy bum who took the latest lockout as vacation while Jared Boll who to me exempfilies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to ice hockey gave his all to the other comrades of Turku's TuTo.

Personally I think it is far too often brought up that AHL or any other professional ice hockey league regular would somehow be giving up his life years worthlessly 'chasing a dream' when they still have very good income level and chance to create a lifelong contact network which keeps them in bread for the rest of their life. Whether those jobs 'created' then turn out to be heavy-lifting or general managing involving... it is sure more up to one's strengths.

 

[squarelaces]

A point very well taken.

 

[Sore Loser]

The longest tenured player in the organization, discussing his role and future with the team in depth. Also, some thoughts from GM Jarmo Kekalainen:

http://bluejacketsxtra.dispatch.com/content/stories/2015/09/13/0913-blue-jackets-boll.html

The Blue Jackets had internal talks this summer about buying out the final two years of Boll’s contract, which pays him $1.7 million per season. A glut of forwards was relieved by the trade of four, including fourth-liners Jeremy Morin and Corey Tropp, to Chicago in a deal for left wing Brandon Saad.

I'll admit that I'm rooting for Boll to become a bit of an underdog and make the lineup regularly this year. He's been loyal to the franchise and wants to be a Jacket. That being said, in spite of his efforts this offseason, I'll be surprised if he's any higher than 13th on the forward depth charts.

 

[CBJx614]

The longest tenured player in the organization, discussing his role and future with the team in depth. Also, some thoughts from GM Jarmo Kekalainen:

http://bluejacketsxtra.dispatch.com/content/stories/2015/09/13/0913-blue-jackets-boll.html


I'll admit that I'm rooting for Boll to become a bit of an underdog and make the lineup regularly this year. He's been loyal to the franchise and wants to be a Jacket. That being said, in spite of his efforts this offseason, I'll be surprised if he's any higher than 13th on the forward depth charts.

At this point I'd rather someone hungry for a chance in the 13th spot, not someone who knows he's basically guaranteed a spot in the NHL and money. I think Chaput would make a good 13th foward (that is assuming both Clarkson and Borque are in the lineup)and it would be good for him to practice with the Jackets.

 

[CBJWerenski8]

I am also rooting for Boll. However, I don't expect miracles.

 

[EspenK]

At 29 it seems he has a lot to overcome to regain speed. Unless they think OB or Milano can be this year's Gaudreau I'd rather they play in Cleveland and Boll or Bourque be the guy in the press box.