What the Jets need to address positionally this off season

GaryPoppins

A broken clock is right twice in a day
Sep 10, 2016
2,418
3,135
What a great year. But with the end, comes sifting through the wreckage of an "early exit" and what is required to get over the next hump, next year.

1) Capable backup goaltender: IMO, I believe Helle started to show cracks in his game simply due to fatigue. This was an odd year in terms of the influx of injuries to our backups that saw us have to play Helle an additional 5-10 games more than what he likely should have.

Comrie is not ready, nor will he likely be ready ever... His stock seemed to drop significantly. Mason's injury woes seemed to rear it's head and Hutchinson dumped gasoline on the bridge and burned that sucker down. Phillips and Berdin are obviously not going to be big-league contributers.

Could we look at Mason's injury problem as an outlier or a trend that will continue? That's a big thing that needs to be addressed. Not sure if they pull a Pavelec and send him down to the minors if required... but that will be an interesting scenario to monitor.

2) LHD: You could see often that teams were targeting our LHD when doing zone entries.

Morrissey is fantastic, but it was a pretty large drop off after him.

Enstrom started showing his age in the playoffs simply not getting his game to where it was before injury...His injuries are a big problem and would find it hard to see him come back next season. I expect him to retire. If he does return, I would expect a 1 year extension with a 1M cap hit.

Chiarot, though playing his best hockey he ever had leading up to playoffs, is still Ben Chiarot and is nothing more than a somewhat-reliable 7th/8th.

Kulikov I thought stabilized the bottom pairing with Myers, but has a higher cap hit and could prove problematic in the next couple years. Also, his long term health could be questionable since his back injury seemed to pop up again. Some concerns for sure.

Niku after a big off season in the gym should get a crack at being a full time NHLer paired with Buff. He's proven everything he's needed to at the AHL and looked pretty good this year.

Morrow I thought equipped himself quite well. Now, most players play well when paired with Buff.... but seems like they played well together. Speaking he has RFA status, he could be cheap and a valuable guy if Niku doesn't make the transition as anticipated.


3) Centre Depth:

I may grab some heat, but I'm not confident in running a tandem of Scheifele/Little as a top 2. Now, some may say that it was an off year and that Little will rebound. However, there was statistical analysis prior to Little signing his extension that his play was showing regression. We saw that this year. He essentially ghosted in the playoffs and putting Little between Ehlers and Laine again next year will likely see the same results.

I'm not running out and saying that Jets should resign Stats because we should be leary regarding aging vets that aren't fleet of foot...but something needs to be done to address a 2C to play between Laine and Ehlers. Internal options outside of Scheifele don't seem to be adequate. One could look at Roslovic, but that line would be a disaster defensively and I don't see it there yet.

Appleton and Petan also likely aren't options. Interesting to see what happens with this. Cap complications may make this tough to manage.


4) The three headed monster of Buff, Trouba and Myers. In my opinion, you cannot have all three from a Cap perspective. I believe Poolman showed enough that given the reigns, he could be an adequate bottom pairing D.

Buff with reduced minutes played the best of his career, and hoping we can see the same thing next season.

Myers scares the "Bleep" out of me a lot of times with his play, but he came through with some pretty clutch goals in the playoffs. I think this could be a "Sell High" moment for the team. Could be used towards a 2C, perhaps?

It'll be interesting to see if the Trouba extension actually happens. I could see a scenario that "We wanted to stay, but couldn't make the money work" in the Trouba discussions. It could be a gamesmanship move that they leaked that "he wants to stay" so it could take the villainy out of the Trouba camp if deep down, they still want to move. Keeping my eye on this one.

Love to know thoughts/responses to this.
 

Joe Hallenback

Moderator
Mar 4, 2005
15,358
21,345
Little was our #2 Center until the trade deadline. We were will into a playoff spot at that point. Little had one of his worst point totals in his career. I expect little to get back to his regular point total and be 50+ point center which is right were a 2nd line NHL center should be.

People who worry about Bryan Little have chicken little mentality. He will be more then fine.

A more pressing concern is who is the number 3 center. I don't think Roslovic will end up a NHL center. I think he is better suited to the wing and looked great there in the playoffs. They may try him there to start the season. Maybe they give Petan another shot.

I can see the season starting with

Wheeler/Scheif/Connor
Laine/Little/Ehlers
Perrault/Roslovic/Armia
Copp/Lowry/Tanev

I can see it also like this

Wheeler/Scheif/Connor
Laine/Roslovic/Ehlers
Perrault/Little/Tanev
Copp/Lowry/Armia
 

sipowicz

The thrill is gone
Mar 16, 2011
31,336
40,287
Little's slide to mediocrity didn't just begin this season, I think most everyone could see that in the 16-17 season he was no longer the player he once was, this he will get better even though he will be another year older is wishful thinking. He has noticeably started to slow down. Bottom line, Bryan Little is a 3rd line C now.
 

Ares

Registered User
May 8, 2018
244
228
I have Draisaitl in my mind. What would it take to get him here? I know EDM is looking for a scoring d-man and a speedy winger.
 

DRW204

Registered User
Dec 26, 2010
22,105
26,702
I have Draisaitl in my mind. What would it take to get him here? I know EDM is looking for a scoring d-man and a speedy winger.
more than we are willing to part with, plus more
 

DRW204

Registered User
Dec 26, 2010
22,105
26,702
Little was our #2 Center until the trade deadline. We were will into a playoff spot at that point. Little had one of his worst point totals in his career. I expect little to get back to his regular point total and be 50+ point center which is right were a 2nd line NHL center should be.

People who worry about Bryan Little have chicken little mentality. He will be more then fine.

A more pressing concern is who is the number 3 center. I don't think Roslovic will end up a NHL center. I think he is better suited to the wing and looked great there in the playoffs. They may try him there to start the season. Maybe they give Petan another shot.

I can see the season starting with

Wheeler/Scheif/Connor
Laine/Little/Ehlers
Perrault/Roslovic/Armia
Copp/Lowry/Tanev

I can see it also like this

Wheeler/Scheif/Connor
Laine/Roslovic/Ehlers
Perrault/Little/Tanev
Copp/Lowry/Armia
yea i know Little was a bit of the whipping boy this year and there is no doubt he had a down year from a production stand point. the last 3 seasons prior to this year he was between a 60-65 pt pace. The ascension of Scheifele/removal of Wheeler from his wing, the lack of chemistry w/ him and Laine and then being pushed to 3rd scoring line C following Stastny's acquisition are contributing factors. Maybe reunite Little/Wheeler?
 
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DRW204

Registered User
Dec 26, 2010
22,105
26,702
Myers + Ehlers? Not that I want Ehlers to go, but I wonder if that would be enough for Drai + 10 overall
yikes if i am EDM. They can get a PMD and/or a speedy winger without losing their 22 year old 70+ pt C. I do think Myers to EDM is a good fit though from their POV.
 

Duke749

Savannah Ghost Pirates
Apr 6, 2010
47,751
22,632
Canton, Georgia
Little's slide to mediocrity didn't just begin this season, I think most everyone could see that in the 16-17 season he was no longer the player he once was, this he will get better even though he will be another year older is wishful thinking. He has noticeably started to slow down. Bottom line, Bryan Little is a 3rd line C now.

47 points I’m 59 games Sip :facepalm:

Kinda disappointed in your attempt here. We all know you can do better. ;)


I have Draisaitl in my mind. What would it take to get him here? I know EDM is looking for a scoring d-man and a speedy winger.

People want to rip Little’s contract but Drai’s contract would put our cap situation in a much bigger mess then it is now.
 

surixon

Registered User
Jul 12, 2003
48,721
69,062
Winnipeg
Little's slide to mediocrity didn't just begin this season, I think most everyone could see that in the 16-17 season he was no longer the player he once was, this he will get better even though he will be another year older is wishful thinking. He has noticeably started to slow down. Bottom line, Bryan Little is a 3rd line C now.

? He was on pace for well over 60 points in 16-17 and imo played some great hockey. No signs of a slide for him at all.
 

Jetsfan87

Registered User
Aug 24, 2015
325
144
Ontario
yea i know Little was a bit of the whipping boy this year and there is no doubt he had a down year from a production stand point. the last 3 seasons prior to this year he was between a 60-65 pt pace. The ascension of Scheifele/removal of Wheeler from his wing, the lack of chemistry w/ him and Laine and then being pushed to 3rd scoring line C following Stastny's acquisition are contributing factors. Maybe reunite Little/Wheeler?

This. Switch Laine and Wheeler and give that a try. To me Little is better than this past year showed and I think the main issue was finding a combination with chemistry, Ehlers Little and Laine just dont work. Thats shared between all 3 players, not just Little. Try the below out and see what happens.
CSL
ELW
or
ESL
CLW
 
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Ares

Registered User
May 8, 2018
244
228
People want to rip Little’s contract but Drai’s contract would put our cap situation in a much bigger mess then it is now.

Well the difference is Drai would be worth every penny... but I know his contract is not ideal. I guess it's just a dream. :cry:
 
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Mortimer Snerd

You kids get off my lawn!
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Jun 10, 2014
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Myers + Ehlers? Not that I want Ehlers to go, but I wonder if that would be enough for Drai + 10 overall

That wouldn't get Drai alone, much less add the 10OA. Never mind that Drai is heavily overpaid and we couldn't afford him.
 

Atoyot

Registered User
Jul 19, 2013
13,546
24,394
I don't understand the "Roslo line would be a disaster defensively" logic. People seem to think that just because a player is young they must be poor defensively, but in reality Roslo made a ton of great defensive plays from the wing and when he got the chance to play center he didn't have any defensive issues that I saw. He was incredibly solid all around all season.
 

Mortimer Snerd

You kids get off my lawn!
Sponsor
Jun 10, 2014
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yea i know Little was a bit of the whipping boy this year and there is no doubt he had a down year from a production stand point. the last 3 seasons prior to this year he was between a 60-65 pt pace. The ascension of Scheifele/removal of Wheeler from his wing, the lack of chemistry w/ him and Laine and then being pushed to 3rd scoring line C following Stastny's acquisition are contributing factors. Maybe reunite Little/Wheeler?

I don't think lack of chemistry with Laine is the problem. I think it is Little and Ehlers who are the poor fit.

Just swap Connor and Ehlers. Fixed.
 
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ERYX

'Pegger in Exile
Oct 25, 2014
1,757
2,363
Ontario, Canada
Bryan Little has been underrated and underappreciated by this fan base for years. I can't remember a year, going back to when I started posting in the 2013/2014 season, that people haven't said he's a 3rd line centre, not good, bad contract, etc. It's true that from a points perspective he had a down year, but he still did a lot of what made him good in previous years IMO. He also still put up 43 points. It's true that he seemed to lack chemistry with Ehlers and Laine and that line was on fire for a time with Stastny, but even that seemed to wane.

I'd be more in favour of "spreading the wealth" a bit in terms of our talent, and reuniting Wheeler and Little and Sheif with Laine rather than firing Little into the sun or trading him for a bag of pucks.

I frankly am more concerned about the situation in net. We definitely need at minimum a bona fide backup to take some of the load from Hellebuyck, assuming that fatigue was the reason behind his very poor play in the Vegas series.

This will not be a popular opinion, but I am frankly not convinced that Hellebuyck is as good as his numbers this year were. He was quite bad in 2016/2017. He's only given us one good season so the sample size is not enough either way -- in other words, the jury is still out on him for me. He's been steady back there for sure, and I'll take steady -- we have enough talent up front that we don't NEED a superstar -- but he can't **** the bed like that on us in crucial games. I've frankly not been overawed by Hellebuyck all season and I kept meaning to write this but never did. Did he make the Jets look good, or did our talented forward and defence corps make him look good? I can't think of many games that he stole. I think in the playoffs the only game that he was the difference (in a positive way) in was game 1 against Nashville. That one he stole. He had a few stinkers, and then of course dropped four straight to Vegas three of which I'd pin on him.

I also don't like his arrogant attitude. Remember in 2016/17 he was saying he thought there was nothing wrong with his game back then too, same as he was saying during and after the Vegas series. Now, that might just be how he talks to the media, and deep inside he's burning up and is going to work even harder this off season. I don't know, so I'm not calling for him to be run out of town. I'm just saying I'm concerned.

Juxtapose him with the other young Vezina candidate in Andrei Vasilevskiy. He is one year younger than Hellebucyk. I didn't follow Tampa Bay too much during the regular season, but I can see his numbers. I have followed Tampa in the playoffs especially the Eastern Conference Finals and he has been very good and great when his team needed him the most going into Washington down 2-0. He didn't turn in another two poor performances like Hellebuyck he turned the series around.

I still suffer from PTSD from the Pavelec years maybe. I don't know, I'm just not sold on Hellebuyck after one great regular season and a rather "meh" playoffs that ended with us losing a series that we would have won if he was just average.
 

Jetsfan87

Registered User
Aug 24, 2015
325
144
Ontario
I don't think lack of chemistry with Laine is the problem. I think it is Little and Ehlers who are the poor fit.

Just swap Connor and Ehlers. Fixed.

That could be. I proposed swapping Laine and Wheeler (since Little and Wheeler have played well together in the past) but I'm all for swapping Connor and Ehlers instead to solve this. Its not like any of them are bad players individually, ELL just didnt work last year.
 
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Tommigun

Registered User
Jan 5, 2018
4,822
4,960
What a great year. But with the end, comes sifting through the wreckage of an "early exit" and what is required to get over the next hump, next year.

1) Capable backup goaltender: IMO, I believe Helle started to show cracks in his game simply due to fatigue. This was an odd year in terms of the influx of injuries to our backups that saw us have to play Helle an additional 5-10 games more than what he likely should have.

Comrie is not ready, nor will he likely be ready ever... His stock seemed to drop significantly. Mason's injury woes seemed to rear it's head and Hutchinson dumped gasoline on the bridge and burned that sucker down. Phillips and Berdin are obviously not going to be big-league contributers.

Could we look at Mason's injury problem as an outlier or a trend that will continue? That's a big thing that needs to be addressed. Not sure if they pull a Pavelec and send him down to the minors if required... but that will be an interesting scenario to monitor.

2) LHD: You could see often that teams were targeting our LHD when doing zone entries.

Morrissey is fantastic, but it was a pretty large drop off after him.

Enstrom started showing his age in the playoffs simply not getting his game to where it was before injury...His injuries are a big problem and would find it hard to see him come back next season. I expect him to retire. If he does return, I would expect a 1 year extension with a 1M cap hit.

Chiarot, though playing his best hockey he ever had leading up to playoffs, is still Ben Chiarot and is nothing more than a somewhat-reliable 7th/8th.

Kulikov I thought stabilized the bottom pairing with Myers, but has a higher cap hit and could prove problematic in the next couple years. Also, his long term health could be questionable since his back injury seemed to pop up again. Some concerns for sure.

Niku after a big off season in the gym should get a crack at being a full time NHLer paired with Buff. He's proven everything he's needed to at the AHL and looked pretty good this year.

Morrow I thought equipped himself quite well. Now, most players play well when paired with Buff.... but seems like they played well together. Speaking he has RFA status, he could be cheap and a valuable guy if Niku doesn't make the transition as anticipated.


3) Centre Depth:

I may grab some heat, but I'm not confident in running a tandem of Scheifele/Little as a top 2. Now, some may say that it was an off year and that Little will rebound. However, there was statistical analysis prior to Little signing his extension that his play was showing regression. We saw that this year. He essentially ghosted in the playoffs and putting Little between Ehlers and Laine again next year will likely see the same results.

I'm not running out and saying that Jets should resign Stats because we should be leary regarding aging vets that aren't fleet of foot...but something needs to be done to address a 2C to play between Laine and Ehlers. Internal options outside of Scheifele don't seem to be adequate. One could look at Roslovic, but that line would be a disaster defensively and I don't see it there yet.

Appleton and Petan also likely aren't options. Interesting to see what happens with this. Cap complications may make this tough to manage.


4) The three headed monster of Buff, Trouba and Myers. In my opinion, you cannot have all three from a Cap perspective. I believe Poolman showed enough that given the reigns, he could be an adequate bottom pairing D.

Buff with reduced minutes played the best of his career, and hoping we can see the same thing next season.

Myers scares the "Bleep" out of me a lot of times with his play, but he came through with some pretty clutch goals in the playoffs. I think this could be a "Sell High" moment for the team. Could be used towards a 2C, perhaps?

It'll be interesting to see if the Trouba extension actually happens. I could see a scenario that "We wanted to stay, but couldn't make the money work" in the Trouba discussions. It could be a gamesmanship move that they leaked that "he wants to stay" so it could take the villainy out of the Trouba camp if deep down, they still want to move. Keeping my eye on this one.

Love to know thoughts/responses to this.

Great post!

1)
I'm not too worried about Mason's injury problems and am sure it was just really rotten luck. However, he's very expensive for a backup goalie but I think we can take the cap hit by bridging some players in case we can't move him. If we can and decide to move him I don't know who we could get as a replacement, so I'm perfectly fine with running him next year, let him rebound and take some ice time off Hellebuyck. Not a high priority imho, it's not statistically probable he'll be injured as much next season.

2)
Enström is done and I'd rather see Morrow on the ice tbh. If Enström signs for 1M and is ok with being a depth defenseman (which he won't) then sure, sign him. But I don't think that will happen. I see a lot of upside in Morrow, he could be our Nate Schmidt, a defenseman who didn't fit his previous team's roster but is an absolute beast when given enough ice time to truly find his game!
I'm fine with Kulikov and am not too worried about his health atm. Chiarot is a good depth piece to keep around.

3)
I fully agree that we need to find a true second center, and I don't think Little will rebound enough to be that guy. This is imho the most important position to fill and it's not going to be Roslovic, at least not next year. I really hope that Stastny wants to stay a while longer and that Cheveldayoff can work his magic. Stastny was really good in the playoffs as well until he, like the rest of the team, ran out of gas. They'll manage that better next year. I'm still pretty hopeful that Stastny will indeed be back, and didn't he just buy a house in Winnipeg?

Petan is not an option. I never saw the fascination with him. Don't know enough of Appleton to comment.

4)
Myers needs to go. He's too expensive for a third pairing defender and that money should be spent elsewhere. His value is high atm so Cheveldayoff should really move him, he won't be bringing back a larger return than what he'd do now and we need to let go of some players to manage cap space.

Looking forward to seeing more of Niku next season and really hope he makes the roster.

Who knows what will happen with Trouba, I think he'll sign for a reasonable amount and stays. But I'd move Myers even if Trouba leaves and scramble to fill that position, I'd expect a capable defenseman back in the trade anyway.

5)
I'll add a fifth section, wingers. I wouldn't mind losing Perreault as he's just too expensive for what he brings at the moment. Let Roslovic (and Vesalainen if ready) take his minutes instead.

So what I'm really looking forward to is moving Myers and Perreault, and definitely not resigning Enström (unless as a cheap PB guy who'll play when injuries happen). That'd free up quite a lot of cap space. I'd be ok with moving Mason but don't know who'd take him at that cap hit right now.
 
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Tommigun

Registered User
Jan 5, 2018
4,822
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I have Draisaitl in my mind. What would it take to get him here? I know EDM is looking for a scoring d-man and a speedy winger.

He's far too expensive. He's carrying a cap hit of 8.5M.
 

Ducky10

Searching for Mark Scheifele
Nov 14, 2014
19,809
31,386
Little's slide to mediocrity didn't just begin this season, I think most everyone could see that in the 16-17 season he was no longer the player he once was, this he will get better even though he will be another year older is wishful thinking. He has noticeably started to slow down. Bottom line, Bryan Little is a 3rd line C now.
How much of that shitty Dutch beer were you drinking in 16-17? Seems to have left you with a large blackout.
 

Ducky10

Searching for Mark Scheifele
Nov 14, 2014
19,809
31,386
Bryan Little is no longer a 2C but Paul Stastny is....................

th
 
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