JeremyCuddles

Logistics of whether or not Miller is worth a 1st, and whether or not we are a rebuilding team, I gotta say the thing I like about this is ownership is giving him a chance to not only rebuild the team but see it through to the point of making us a contender. Hopefully. Gillis' inherited most of the core guys from 2011 team and he supplemented them with good complimentary pieces. Benning will get a chance to both draft the core and hopefully surround them with complimentary guys. Which I am excited to see. People roast his trades and his signings, but none of the trades held the team back or were huge losses. IE Hall for Larsson, Kessel for two top 10 picks. And his signings, outside of Eriksson and even then it's not that bad, have not hurt this team's ability to sign people. Gagner and Schaller are/were short term deals so the fact they haven't worked out is not hurting the team. The team is in a great position going forward whether you think we should have held onto a couple more 2nd rounders. He has done a great job all things considered. Drafting has been good/great so far, free agents have been pretty decent, and trades, again, have been pretty decent. Nothing of note lost in any of his trades/free agent signings. This will be interesting time though. This is where trades and free agent signings are gonna matter more and draft picks will start to matter a bit less.

Well, Roussel will likely be on LTIR and with some other roster moves we'll be fine. Eriksson doesn't HAVE to go to fit Boeser in (unless he re-signs at an unreasonable price), but it sure would be nice.

My morbid curiosity wishes I could see into an alternate universe to see a Gillis led rebuild.

Twitter fans are a bit more split so I guess that means there is uncommon ground. Lol. Even if you included their vote with ours it still heavily favours fans liking the extension overall.

Twitter negativity comes from the fans following the media heads and eating the BS the media feeds them. As far as we know there are no Sportsnet and TSN media folks to vomit their negative drivel here. People on twitter can't see past the fact the media folks aren't much more special than a normal fan. Essentially the media has moved from informing people of facts to just spouting their opinion and they aren't much more informed than a normal fan. But, twitter sheep see the check mark and think "well he thinks Benning is doing a bad job so he must be doing a bad job". Twitter on the whole is just a black hole of negativity. Sucking in anything good and making it negative. You go to Twitter if you have a negative view of anything so you can be justified in that opinion with the rest of the negative folks.

We'll never become a consistent playoff team if we refuse to move any picks or anything to get better. And the quality players are usually found through trades not free agency. Yes he is a complimentary guy but that doesn't mean he won't be a key player for us. Hansen and Higgins were "complimentary" guys and without them we don't get to the finals. Also, there's no telling if Nyquist even signs here. And it's clear based on the guys Benning is bringing in that he has a view of who he wants complimenting the top 6. Miller could be a very good fit with Bo or Petey or even on the 3rd line with lots of special teams minutes. Whereas Nyquist can only really fit on Petey's line. He is a big body, a competitor, and a very solid two way guy. This team needs to start getting better and that can't be done purely through the draft and other people's castaways in free agency. After last season it's clear this team has a really good foundation in Bo, Petey, Boeser and Hughes (honourable mention to Demko and Juolevi). Time to start surrounding them with good quality "complimentary" players to get to the post-season which only further helps their development which helps this team get to that consistent playoff team spot. Miller on his own was not enough to make this team a playoff team but with Myers, Benn, Ferland, a full year of Pearson and Demko, and Hughes this team on paper is much, much better than last season. I'm willing to bet that first rounder people are crying about will be in the late teens/early 20s as early as this season, if not I bet all the money in my pocket they'll be playoff bound next season. Miller will quietly be a big reason why. This team can't be a rebuilding team forever, we gotta take strides to be better and that is not just through the draft but through smart trading and quality free agents. If that 1st rounder becomes top 5 I will leave the forum forever. Maybe. I kinda like it here.

He had 13 goals once in the last 4 years so he's a 13 goal guy? Lol. Not even gonna acknowledge the fact he had a diminished role in Tampa cause they were stacked to the teeth either. Talk about narrow view. I am not gonna say he's for sure dropping 20+ but I'll go on a limb and say he'll be closer to 20 then he will be to 13. And, his value isn't just in goal scoring. But hey, you just wanna cry about a first rounder so no point in even trying to have a rational discussion about what he actually brings. Why try get better when we can just infinitely draft the next big thing eh?

With the way Green plays him? Probably not. Only reason he got 15 last season was the team got injured early and Green was pretty much forced to play Jake with Bo. Now that we have better top 6 depth I don't see Jake getting the same looks this season. But here's hoping we see 10-15 goals from him again. He's one of the only bottom 6 guys capable of 10-15 goals.

Last year was definitely a reality check for fans. Not every player, even 2nd rounders, will dominate the AHL or even find success. I watched a good few WHL games and you can see the difference in speed and talent. It’s why guys like Rattie can dominate in the CHL. But once that speed advantage disappears you gotta find other ways to contribute. AHL is faster but also bigger than the CHL. Lind’s advantages over kids disappears in the AHL. I still have hopes for him, but the idea all the kids in Utica would drop 50-60+ points was a mistake on CDC’s part (those that had too high expectations anyway). Last season was hopefully a good eye opener for Lind and Gadjovich on what they need to improve on. To become pros.

I hope it's a 12 year deal, front loaded, so we can get hit with a recapture penalty.

I never said Laine won't get paid. Lol. For what he truly brings to the team the Jets are better off trading him is what i am saying. I know he'll make a mint. Goal scorers do regardless of what their actual value is game to game. If I am Winnipeg I try get as many 1st rounders as I can for Laine and use that cap for a guy that brings value every game or retaining guys that do that.

Yeah but those goals didn't equate to a whole lot did it? Lol. Which is why I said they should just trade him. Let him show up for 20 games for some other team and eat 10 mil of their cap instead.

I mean, yeah that's true. I think Tkachuk is a bit more than a "2nd line prick" though. Dude averaged near a point per game on top of being an agitator. But you're right. Juolevi could become an elite level d-man and that would indeed be more valuable than a top line LWer. I think a lot of people undervalue Tkachuk cause they dislike him. Lol. Which is fine. All I was saying is it doesn't matter how good anyone from Juolevi's draft class becomes. At the end of the day all that matters is what Juolevi becomes to us. We have him and all the crying in the world about the draft won't change that. I do think Juolevi's ceiling is very high, just not so sure he reaches it. But I think we are very fortunate to have Hughes and Juolevi, both could be big pieces for our blueline going forward. We desperately need young quality d-men.

Yeah talk all season was about the cap potentially going up. So it not going up definitely cut some teams at the knees.

I was in the "once Laine and Ehlers start rolling they'll be fine" camp all season. Boy did that not work out like I thought. I also thought the Hayes trade was pretty good, but I wasn't following the team super closely so you'll have more knowledge about that being good or bad. Move Laine for some picks and maybe a good young guy with upside I say. Which I am guessing is in the cards since they aren't speaking with Laine about an extension from the sounds of it.

True, hard to tell what would have happened without. Especially since we don't know what Winnipeg could have gotten or who they could have picked up to replace him in Free Agency. Damned if you do damned if you don't I guess. Just sucks they couldn't get over the hump before having to dump him. Last season was a gut punch for me and I am not a huge Jets fan. Really wanted them to do some damage in the playoffs before the team inevitably had to move some pieces out.

I feel like Winnipeg could have gotten in front of this by trading him a few years ago. Seems like we been talking about him not wanting to be there for a while.

Honestly, they don't need a king's ransom. He's invisible for 70% of their games. If they can recoup some picks and maybe get a decent young guy with upside to fill in the bottom 6 they'll be okay. It'll also allow them the financial flexibility to keep more important players. Guy had 25ish goals in the first 20 games then pretty much goose egg'd the rest of the season. His stats are misleading to his value to the team.

Laine for Pool Party

I'm excited to see him this season. I could see him in Utica at the start for potential conditioning but I think he is NHL ready. He won't come in and knock your socks off but he'll steadily get better and better as the season goes on. Juolevi has excelled/started to excel at every level he's been at. I think he'll be a good scoring D-man for us. At his draft he was touted as a two way guy but I think he'll known primarily for point producing. Not an elite point producer mind you. I don't expect him to score on the level of a OEL but he should produce on the level of a Edler. Hit you with 40ish points with steady as she goes defense. He'll never be a talent on the level of Tkachuk but I was never an advocator of comparing players to those drafted after them. Juolevi didn't choose to be drafted ahead of Tkachuk or Sergachev so we shouldn't hold that against him. He's gonna be a good to great top 4 D-man for us. He has that kind of talent and I think fans, or at least hope, they get over who we could have drafted cause crying about that changes nothing and holding it against Juolevi is idiotic. This should be a great eye opening season for us in terms of what we have with Juolevi and I am pretty excited to see what he has.

He says they did enough to make the playoffs, and here I thought I was being a homer for thinking the same thing all summer. I really like the makeup of the forward group. The additions of Miller and Ferland are massive for the top 6. And I am glad Button mentioned him because I feel like he gets overlooked a bit but I been high on the Pearson addition. I think a good few of us forget he wasn't here that long last season. He is pretty much an offseason acquisition that got some good early looks with the team. Pearson, Miller and Ferland could all easily chip in 15+ goals each. I really do feel we have a playoff caliber forward group. I been hard on Gaudette, that's mostly cause he gets a pass around here, but if he can take that 3rd line center spot from Sutter we are looking great going forward. Sutter's offense is non-existent and Beagle has never been known for scoring. Having two shutdown centers is overkill especially when we have Bo Horvat who is deployed in a two way capacity. It puts too much scoring emphasis on Pettersson's line when the bottom 6 has one guy that can score 10-15 goals and that's a guy CDC has largely been all over for the wrong reasons. We either need Sutter to find some sort of scoring touch or for Gaudette to shore up his defensive game and take that 3rd line center spot. Offensively he had shown signs he has some creativity and a nose for the net. But defensively he was lacking and his ability to take faceoffs isn't really there as made evident by the fact Green rarely even trusted him to take faceoffs and deployed him primarily offensively with 60% ozone starts. Defensively, I am content. Juolevi and Hughes will be the wildcards here if they can produce we'll be looking pretty. Bringing back Edler was a must when we traded our first. Myers addition was great and I am glad it wasn't at the rumored 7mil 7 year contract. Benn I think is a great addition and will be the Beagle/Roussel signing of this summer. Guy most of us largely overlook but will have a quietly big impact. Benn and Stecher can form a mini shutdown pair. Mini in terms of being a shutdown duo but not an elite minute munching shutdown duo. We improved everywhere with offseason acquisitions except in goal. But that's where natural development hopefully leads it to improving itself. Demko looked really solid overall and got better as he played more. His injury really sucked and likely took a couple additional crucial starts away. Marky really crapped the bed early but when he rounded into shape he was arguably the "MVP", if you want to use that term for a losing team, for us. Marky, Bo and Petey largely kept us in games when everyone else was largely disappointing or average. tldr Great additions throughout the line up, team will be in playoffs imo

Kawhi Leonard

All I know about him is he hit Drouin with a cheapshot in Junior the year after they were both drafted by Tampa. Well that and in NHL 17 he got to about 87 overall in quite a few of my Be a GM playthroughs. Guy isn't afraid to throw his weight around. Him and Bertuzzi will get along nicely I imagine. Not on the same line but just having both on the team might cause headaches for opponents. Erne is a 4th liner at best right now.

Then we'll see "Vancouver crisis" threads much like the "Utica crisis" we had this past season. Lord have mercy on our souls.

I come back here to see people argue with Timrafan about Eriksson and sometimes Dahlen.