Speculation: Offseason Thread III: ideas, proposals, general roster discussion

[majormajor]

The story of the mythical “imminent” PLD offer sheet was leaked by the organization to the media to cover for this. Portzline ate it up and pushed the theory all off-season. The idea that a team would splash out on an offer sheet in a flat cap COVID environment was always laughable.

It is certainly not a serious idea, I don't know why so many people bought into it. But the appearance of the "offer sheet threat" in the media occurred at the same time it popped up here, after Jarmo's lengthy post FA presser. At the end of the presser he almost offhandedly mentioned protecting from offer sheets, and it was discussed here and by Porty as if it was the main topic. It might be Jarmo just reaching for something so he doesn't have to disclose an internal cap, or it might be just an offhand thing that Jarmo isn't very serious about that people are now running away with. In either case they have a pretty good idea of what PLD will need to be paid, there isn't an offer sheet threat.

 

[CBJWerenski8]

They had no trouble with Werenski. Same agent, same timing. Nothing to see here... I think you are over reacting a little.

Hopefully. With our management team you never know

 

[cbjfaninmo]

The stats people are out of control!

78.9% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

 

[GeorgeReznik1]

If this management team takes such a hard line approach to their (tied for) most important player that he entertains an OS then they should be fired immediately. Enough is enough with the burning bridges and inability to get young players signed. PLD should not be let go under almost any circumstance.

Every team in the world plays hardball with their rookies off ELCs. Every one.

We are still a basement team without guys like Jarmo. Thats a fact.

Johansen accomplished nothing in his career to demand the money he got, same as Anderson.

 

[GeorgeReznik1]

Roslovic wants out.

 

[CBJWerenski8]

Every team in the world plays hardball with their rookies off ELCs. Every one.

We are still a basement team without guys like Jarmo. Thats a fact.

Johansen accomplished nothing in his career to demand the money he got, same as Anderson.

I notice one team who habitually has players as unsigned RFAs going into/near camp. Yeah, it’s also a testament into their drafting/development, but they seem incredibly hard to negotiate with. Some agents disagree, as I’ve read, but the proof is in front of you.

Johansen had two straight seasons of 60+ points. He absolutely deserved that contract he got from us (note the word us). The jackets management made this negotiation very public and it got nasty.

 

[Cowumbus]

Roslovic wants out.

If we could get him for someone like Nash/Robinson + I’d consider it. He’s a 3rd line guy though. I guess you could play him at 3C and move Koivu down.

 

[CBJWerenski8]

I hope Roslovic gets traded and does so well we can stop talking about him coming here.

 

[GeorgeReznik1]

I notice one team who habitually has players as unsigned RFAs going into/near camp. Yeah, it’s also a testament into their drafting/development, but they seem incredibly hard to negotiate with. Some agents disagree, as I’ve read, but the proof is in front of you.

Johansen had two straight seasons of 60+ points. He absolutely deserved that contract he got from us (note the word us). The jackets management made this negotiation very public and it got nasty.

The proof is in front of me is that it happens league wide. Many GMs made HOF careers of playing hardball.

RyJo didn't do anything to earn that contract. Gotta have more than 2 years of average play. They made it public after RyJo threatened to play overseas and sit out the NHL. It was deserved.

 

[CBJWerenski8]

So Portzline wrote an article about Atkinson and his season last year. Two quotes popped out to me, for differing reasons.

As the Blue Jackets continue ramping up for the 2020-21 season — training camp opens Jan. 3, the regular season on Jan. 14 — the most accomplished goal scorer in the Blue Jackets dressing room feels like he has something to prove.

“It definitely lights a fire under my ass,” Atkinson said. “The season before (Panarin left), I had 41 goals, and so right away (in 2019-20) people are like, ‘He’s nothing without Panarin.’ I mean, seriously.

“(Panarin) is a great player, no doubt. But I had f***ing 27 (goals) the year before Panarin and 35 the year before that. People are pretty quick to turn the page without really knowing what’s up.

“And shit like that … that really fuels my fire.”

Obviously I love this stuff. I'm glad Cam is aware of the criticism, and aware of the outside noise. He seems to be motivated to not only return to form but be a better version of himself. I like that. Hope it happens even if I have some doubts (I believed he'd end up being a solid 2nd line, 20-25 goal scorer if healthy) but I am glad he's pushing himself to return to form.

The matter of Atkinson’s ankle is a little more mysterious.

High-ankle sprains are notoriously long-lasting injuries. Nash suffered one before the 2005-06 season but said he suffered sporadic, painful reminders of the injury even years later when he stopped quickly or awkwardly.

Atkinson, more than a year later, is still trying to shake it.

“There are things I can’t do in the weight room,” the 31-year-old Atkinson said. “I played a lot of tennis and pickleball this (offseason), and there were times where I couldn’t even walk. It’s very hard to walk up and down stairs, which … that’s just crazy.

“I had an MRI on it pretty recently, and there’s nothing long-term. Structurally it’s good, which is great. But there’s something in there that’s not right.”

The good news: “It doesn’t affect me at all on the ice, which is weird, I know. I’ve been feeling awesome on the ice.”

'It really fuels my fire': Blue Jackets' Cam Atkinson can't wait to start '20-21

This is really concerning. He's having trouble doing basic tasks like walking up and down stairs? With some injury history already, especially in his feet, this is a pretty big alarm bell for someone with some term left on his contract. This made me dial back on my optimism for him. How is he going to play a full season, or even close to it, dealing with basically one ankle?

I'm glad there's nothing long term wrong with it but the fact he's having such issues when not doing on ice stuff it makes it seem like he's going to be missing time, potentially lots of it, at various points in the year to tend to his ankle. Not good, considering how weak we are at the wings without him.

 

[CBJWerenski8]

The proof is in front of me is that it happens league wide. Many GMs made HOF careers of playing hardball.

RyJo didn't do anything to earn that contract. Gotta have more than 2 years of average play. They made it public after RyJo threatened to play overseas and sit out the NHL. It was deserved.

It does happen, but it happens strangely consistent with one team in particular. Nearly year in and year out when we have a high profile RFA, we're still talking about their contract into training camp. Werenski was an exception. Jones and Saad were traded for assets who we "had" to sign to the deals the player wanted (especially Saad). Korpisalo and Elvis weren't as high profile.

Elvis just got a pretty good contract extension on a bridge for like 2-3 months of excellent play after a few months of below average at best play. Yeah, I know Johansen was asking for more on a longer term deal, and he's far from innocent in that whole debacle (the 5 year deal to walk him to UFA was biggest misstep by them), but the Jackets also acted very unprofessional. Bobrovsky made that same threat after his first Vezina and the Jackets didn't go public (and that negotiation got ugly too).

I'm not saying the Jackets are the only team that plays hardball. But I do think the Jackets are one of the only teams who consistently has this issue. Also the Jackets appear to be one of the last teams who stick to bridge deals, which probably contributes to this issue.

 

[majormajor]

This is really concerning. He's having trouble doing basic tasks like walking up and down stairs? With some injury history already, especially in his feet, this is a pretty big alarm bell for someone with some term left on his contract. This made me dial back on my optimism for him. How is he going to play a full season, or even close to it, dealing with basically one ankle?

I'm glad there's nothing long term wrong with it but the fact he's having such issues when not doing on ice stuff it makes it seem like he's going to be missing time, potentially lots of it, at various points in the year to tend to his ankle. Not good, considering how weak we are at the wings without him.

I'm not concerned just because of the quote about how he feels on the ice. Isn't this what the high-ankle sprain is known for after the initial 6 months or so? Never feeling right but tending to be fine?

 

[ViD]

I don’t mind Roslovic on the third line if the asking price is not much

 

[majormajor]

If we could get him for someone like Nash/Robinson + I’d consider it. He’s a 3rd line guy though. I guess you could play him at 3C and move Koivu down.

Like I was saying in the polls, Koivu probably can't play more than 13-14 minutes anyways, so you're likely looking at having two evenly used bottom six lines. And having Koivu handle the defensive one while giving Roslovic the offensive one would make sense. Roslovic is speedier and probably helps the scoring more than Nash. But you'd probably have to trade Nash for him for it to make sense roster wise for us, and that doesn't work financially for the Jets. We'd have to eat half of Nash's salary. I would not trade Robinson. Maybe Stenlund+Nash@50%?

 

[ViD]

Like I was saying in the polls, Koivu probably can't play more than 13-14 minutes anyways, so you're likely looking at having two evenly used bottom six lines. And having Koivu handle the defensive one while giving Roslovic the offensive one would make sense. Roslovic is speedier and probably helps the scoring more than Nash. But you'd probably have to trade Nash for him for it to make sense roster wise for us, and that doesn't work financially for the Jets. We'd have to eat half of Nash's salary. I would not trade Robinson. Maybe Stenlund+Nash@50%?

Why not trade Robinson? He’s pretty useless outside of his wheels

 

[majormajor]

Why not trade Robinson? He’s pretty useless outside of his wheels

Yeah but those wheels man.

I wouldn't trade him because so far he's helped just about every line he's been put on. Second-best relative stats among CBJ forwards. He's a super fast shutdown winger, and we need that. Koivu and Jenner are slow as slugs at this point, Robinson would do a lot of work for them.

 

[GeorgeReznik1]

It does happen, but it happens strangely consistent with one team in particular. Nearly year in and year out when we have a high profile RFA, we're still talking about their contract into training camp. Werenski was an exception. Jones and Saad were traded for assets who we "had" to sign to the deals the player wanted (especially Saad). Korpisalo and Elvis weren't as high profile.

Elvis just got a pretty good contract extension on a bridge for like 2-3 months of excellent play after a few months of below average at best play. Yeah, I know Johansen was asking for more on a longer term deal, and he's far from innocent in that whole debacle (the 5 year deal to walk him to UFA was biggest misstep by them), but the Jackets also acted very unprofessional. Bobrovsky made that same threat after his first Vezina and the Jackets didn't go public (and that negotiation got ugly too).

I'm not saying the Jackets are the only team that plays hardball. But I do think the Jackets are one of the only teams who consistently has this issue. Also the Jackets appear to be one of the last teams who stick to bridge deals, which probably contributes to this issue.

It happens more with many other teams than Columbus. Many many other teams. Its usually headache average players like Johansen and Anderson that give us a bad rep, and they usually end up causing trouble on their new teams failing to live up to their contracts on new teams and Jarmo looks like a genuis I'm the end.


Jackets are the one of the most successful teams in the league at signing their own RFAs who aren't cancers in the locker room.

 

[Jovavic]

I understand the high ankle sprain lingering for years all too well. I severly sprained my right ankle in a car accident 20 years ago and it still acts up at least once a month.

 

[CBJWerenski8]

It happens more with many other teams than Columbus. Many many other teams. Its usually headache average players like Johansen and Anderson that give us a bad rep, and they usually end up causing trouble on their new teams failing to live up to their contracts on new teams and Jarmo looks like a genuis I'm the end.


Jackets are the one of the most successful teams in the league at signing their own RFAs who aren't cancers in the locker room.

We must draft a lot of bad teammates

 

[majormajor]

It happens more with many other teams than Columbus. Many many other teams. Its usually headache average players like Johansen and Anderson that give us a bad rep, and they usually end up causing trouble on their new teams failing to live up to their contracts on new teams and Jarmo looks like a genuis I'm the end.


Jackets are the one of the most successful teams in the league at signing their own RFAs who aren't cancers in the locker room.

Those two players are complete polar opposites in terms of their commitment to their teams and the admiration their teammates have for them. Don't lump them together so lazily.

 

[Iron Balls McGinty]

From a new Athletic article pondering the start of the season and training camp on Sunday if PLD isn't signed.

"Off the ice, Dubois would draw the immediate ire of the Blue Jackets front office and Tortorella. Fair or not, understandable or not, Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekäläinen has made it clear that the contract offer will only get worse if the player isn’t signed by the start of training camp."

This is where we burn bridges.

 

[stevo61]

I understand the high ankle sprain lingering for years all too well. I severly sprained my right ankle in a car accident 20 years ago and it still acts up at least once a month.

With proper recovery its not that bad. It can takes some time to heal but Ive had zero lingering effects from a high ankle sprain. In fact my ankle is much stronger now due to it forcing me to actually work on that area of my body

 

[GeorgeReznik1]

Those two players are complete polar opposites in terms of their commitment to their teams and the admiration their teammates have for them. Don't lump them together so lazily.

That's just incorrect, sorry.

 

[GeorgeReznik1]

From a new Athletic article pondering the start of the season and training camp on Sunday if PLD isn't signed.

"Off the ice, Dubois would draw the immediate ire of the Blue Jackets front office and Tortorella. Fair or not, understandable or not, Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekäläinen has made it clear that the contract offer will only get worse if the player isn’t signed by the start of training camp."

This is where we burn bridges.

Good, that's how the real world works PLD. Gotta prove something in the league to get the big bucks.

 

[Iron Balls McGinty]

Good, that's how the real world works PLD. Gotta prove something in the league to get the big bucks.

Interesting comments when nobody knows what he is asking for or being offered. This isn't Andreas Athanasiou holding out to get a 1.3875 million dollar contract. He's shown he is capable of being a 60+ point player on a poor offensive team at only 22 years old and had 10 points in the playoffs last season.