GaryPoppins
A broken clock is right twice in a day
- Sep 10, 2016
- 2,423
- 3,140
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.
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.