The All Encompassing JR Thread

[ColePens]

I was going to go through all of JR's moves one by one to comment on each one since the 2017 draft, but it took too much time and I figured I'd just group them into categories.

• Re-signing players: I think he has actually done a fine to good job with re-signing players. The Dumoulin, DeSmith, Simon, Rust and Guentzel contracts were all good to great. Hornqvist was fine, it hasn't panned out great so far, but it's not a bad contract. Oleksiak, Sheahan and Sheary ended up not working out, but I don't think they were "bad" deals. I'm pretty sure that's mostly everyone.
• Trades: JR has made 3 types of trades in the last 2 years: bad trades, good value trades for players who don't fit and good value trades for players who fit, but aren't good enough to make a huge impact. I think most of his trades fall in the first 2 groups. The only trades in the last group are the Pettersson trade, Sheahan if you look at last year and the Bjugstad/McCann trade, and that's only if you don't consider the Bjugstad/McCann trade "bad" because of what Brassard cost. Pearson, Oleksiak, Sheahan if you look at this year and Brassard fit in the "bad fits" group, but I'm not sure if Brassard belongs in that group or the "bad trade" group.
• UFA contracts: horrendously bad. I don't think I need to go into any more details here. Hunwick was bad, Johnson was worse, they brought in Grant to be a tough guy and McKegg was signed to be their 3C in 2017. Just horrible.
• Replacing departed players: this is where JR has failed the most. JR may not have made the wrong decision to let those guys walk, but he has been horrible at replacing those guys. He tried to replace Daley with Hunwick, it was an absolute mess. He tried to replace Cole with Johnson, it has been an absolute mess. Kunitz was mostly replaced in the lineup with Reaves. It took him a year and a half to replace Bonino with a 3C that fit what the Penguins needed out of their 3C, and that's even with him getting a great return with Sheahan. Simon hasn't been able to replace Sheary. It goes on, the Penguins have downgraded across the chart when looking at replacements since the 2017 team.

Overall, I think he has done a poor job. I don't think I'd call it any worse than "poor", though. He's been good with re-signing players and a lot of his trades are good in value, a lot of those trades just haven't worked out. He has been a mess with replacing departed players from the 2017 team and he's been even worse in free agency, which takes him to poor for me.

Meh... you did so well to analyze it, then your last paragraph i'm going to question. You are taking today's feelings and applying a perspective. That's vastly unfair. If you took his body of work, you wouldn't find a better GM in the league. Period. So if you are going to claim "overall" status, you still have to praise. The appropriate thing is to discuss the recent decline.

By the by - this is on the players, too. Just saying. And coaches. Everyone is responsible.

 

[Gurglesons]

And the results been bad.

Yes, in my opinion the right call was to let Bonino go and 4X4 would have ben an over commitment. He was a good 3C for us, but nothing spectacular and he disappeared for long stretches and was even the worst player on the roster for said long stretches.

If it wasn't for server change and the unreasonable ask, I'd tell you to go back to GDT's during those stretches to read about Bonino.

Well, most around here are very short sighted.

Bonino would be from 28-32 on a four year deal. We knew he fit here as a temporary plug for a Sid or Malkin injury or as a shutdown guy ala 2017.

The fact the best managed team in the league immediately scooped him up should tell you something..

 

[Empoleon8771]

Meh... you did so well to analyze it, then your last paragraph i'm going to question. You are taking today's feelings and applying a perspective. That's vastly unfair. If you took his body of work, you wouldn't find a better GM in the league. Period. So if you are going to claim "overall" status, you still have to praise. The appropriate thing is to discuss the recent decline.

How so? I'm not really sure what you're referring to. He certainly hasn't been good in the last 2 years, his UFA signings have been disasters and he has done a really bad job at replacing guys he has lost from the 2017 team. That's what causes him to be poor in my eyes.

 

[K Fleur]

Kessel trade?

More than 3 and a half years ago.

From trade deadline 2016 to trade deadline 2019 the only trade that has definitively improved this team is getting Hainsey.

 

[Gurglesons]

More than 3 and a half years ago.

From trade deadline 2016 to trade deadline 2019 the only trade that has definitively improved this team is getting Hainsey.

Did you mean 2017? Because Schultz is probably the golden gem of JR’s tenure here. Without him we dead in 2017.

 

[K Fleur]

Did you mean 2017? Because Schultz is probably the golden gem of JR’s tenure here. Without him we dead in 2017.

For some reason I thought the Schultz trade happened in January, not the deadline.

So 2.95 years since his last trade that improved the team then.

 

[cheesedanish87]

Another thing is that JR can't even properly evaluate his own team right now.

Is their anybody on this board that likes the def? Does anybody not see a problem with the def?

JR seems satisfied with it.

Pens organization might be the only ones that don't see the problem.

 

[Gurglesons]

For some reason I thought the Schultz trade happened in January, not the deadline.

So 2.95 years since his last trade that improved the team then.

Sprong for Pettersson is looking to be crazy good.

 

[66-30-33]

Imagine Pens firing JR and hiring Peter Chiarelli. :O

 

[ColePens]

Imagine Pens firing JR and hiring Peter Chiarelli. :O

There are random things i think about from time to time that bother me that are so silly and stupid. Stuff that has no attachment to my life but i just feel are so unfair for people.

The bills lost 4 straight superbowls. Holy cow.

How WWE manages to hate their crowd even though they need their crowd to fund their business.

That goalie that got 4m for no reason this year.... and half of Chiarelli's moves look like he's trying to kill the team. I actually feel bad for Oiler fans. What an idiot. Why did he give that goalie that money?

 

[66-30-33]

There are random things i think about from time to time that bother me that are so silly and stupid. Stuff that has no attachment to my life but i just feel are so unfair for people.

The bills lost 4 straight superbowls. Holy cow.

How WWE manages to hate their crowd even though they need their crowd to fund their business.

That goalie that got 4m for no reason this year.... and half of Chiarelli's moves look like he's trying to kill the team. I actually feel bad for Oiler fans. What an idiot. Why did he give that goalie that money?

For me it's just "stop wishing you were better at FPS when you have no desire to improve yourself at them".

 

[Pancakes]

He took the worst team in hockey and got them within a fighting chance of the playoffs this year?

I have liked some of his moves. Sheary move was a good idea even if it hasn't completely panned out. The Hutton move was good. I'm sure of them being good had to with natural progression as well for their good players like Eichel, Reinhart, etc. And certainly Dahlin has made a huge impact that their prior GM didn't get to enjoy.

I kinda liken it to Shero in 06-7. He came in and made some decent moves, but he also was a beneficiary of Malkin coming over, a high draft pick in Staal, etc.

Except Shero didn't have the black mark that is the O'Reilly trade.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Thank you @KIRK for respecting my tender sensibilities

JR's roster building and Sullivan's lack of adjustments makes me want to kick them in their tender sensibilities sometimes.

 

[Pengu]

I like or understand all of his moves during his tenure. ALL BUT ONE. I sort of can swallow the Hunwick signing as it was "only" a 2 year deal and that he had had a decent 2nd half of the previous season with the leafs. The JJ signing I CAN NOT swallow. He has been overhyped his enire career in the NHL and was in a clear decline in his last season at CBJ. And JR still made a worse signing than even Shero ever made. And unless JR does what he had done before and holds up his hands and signals he was wrong and tries to rectify that error he'll loose my support.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

I like or understand all of his moves during his tenure. ALL BUT ONE. I sort of can swallow the Hunwick signing as it was "only" a 2 year deal and that he had had a decent 2nd half of the previous season with the leafs. The JJ signing I CAN NOT swallow. He has been overhyped his enire career in the NHL and was in a clear decline in his last season at CBJ. And JR still made a worse signing than even Shero ever made. And unless JR does what he had done before and holds up his hands and signals he was wrong and tries to rectify that error he'll loose my support.

I have some bad news for you...

 

[The Old Master]

Sprong for Pettersson is looking to be crazy good.

could of used him last game. imo

 

[Gurglesons]

could of used him last game. imo

Pettersson?

 

[Gurglesons]

JR's roster building and Sullivan's lack of adjustments makes me want to kick them in their tender sensibilities sometimes.

What adjustments would you suggest Sullivan do?

 

[Empoleon8771]

could of used him last game. imo

Sprong had 0 goals in his last 6 games and he has sat as a healthy scratch for the last 2 games, and will be scratched for a 3 straight game tonight.

 

[mpp9]

What adjustments would you suggest Sullivan do?

He hasn't done anything horrendous, but he's not been part of the solution on the PP. Keeping that 1st unit out last game was dumb and bit them. Sitting Kessel needed to happen earlier.

Playing Jack Johnson with Schultz is borderline insane.

 

[The Old Master]

Sprong had 0 goals in his last 6 games and he has sat as a healthy scratch for the last 2 games, and will be scratched for a 3 straight game tonight.

so the kids streaky..... most goal scores are. and he's still a kid.

 

[The Old Master]

Pettersson?

either one.

 

[BrokenStick]

Acting like JR suddenly started making mistakes in the last 18 months is completely untrue. Don't forget about all the terrible decisions he made before the cups, too.

Everything he touched turned to gold in 15-16, but the year before we had:

Neal for Hornqvist: good deal that worked out great.

Hiring Mike Johnston: disaster.

Signed Steve Downie: awful
Signed Blake Comeau: good

Didn't send Sprong back junior: ruined career here.

Despres for Lovejoy: awful trade that worked out ok.

Bortuzzo for Cole: good deal that worked out well.

Edit: hit post before I was ready. Continued below.

 

[BrokenStick]

Continued:

1st for Perron: ok deal that turned out really bad. Similar to three Brassard deal, actually.

The disaster that was the cap situation that caused us to only have 5 dmen in the roster for multiple games.

Many of these are worse than what's happened in the last 18 months.

I'd say his worst moves overall have been:

Mike Johnston
Reaves
Letting Bonino go
Jack Johnson

Other than those, his moves have been ok to good, or just didn't work out.

Plus his year of pure gold, of course.

 

[Gurglesons]

He hasn't done anything horrendous, but he's not been part of the solution on the PP. Keeping that 1st unit out last game was dumb and bit them. Sitting Kessel needed to happen earlier.

Playing Jack Johnson with Schultz is borderline insane.

I guess. Your first unit is your first unit when you need a goal. They tie it there and totally different narrative.

As has been said to death. When your GM is defending JJ the way he is you can’t do anything.