[Signing] Jets re-sign RFA's Joel Armia and Adam Lowry 2 year contracts

[Odd.]

Winnipeg, MB - The Winnipeg Jets announced they have agreed to terms with restricted free agent forwards Joel Armia and Adam Lowry on two-year, one-way contracts. Armia’s contract carries an AAV of $925,000 while Lowry’s AAV is $1.125 million.

 

Armia, 23, had 10 points (4G, 6A) in 43 games last season with Winnipeg after splitting time between the Jets and Manitoba Moose. Armia was acquired by Winnipeg from Buffalo on February 11, 2015 along with Drew Stafford, Tyler Myers, Brendan Lemieux and a first-round draft pick (Jack Roslovic) in exchange for Zach Bogosian, Evander Kane and Jason Kasdorf. Armia, from Pori, Fin., played in one game with Buffalo in 2014-15. He was originally selected in the first round, 16th overall at the 2011 NHL Draft by the Sabres.

Lowry, 23, had 17 points (7G, 10A) in 74 games last season with the Jets, his second season in the NHL. Over his career, Lowry has 40 points (18G, 22A) in 154 career games. Lowry, hails from Calgary, Alta., was selected by Winnipeg 67th overall at the 2011 NHL Draft.

Joel Armia
Right Wing
Born: May 31, 1993 -- Pori, Finland
Height 6.03 -- Weight 205 -- Shoots R

Adam Lowry
Forward
Born: Mar. 29, 1993 -- St. Louis, MO
Height 6.05 -- Weight 210 -- Shoots L

 

http://jets.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=889418

 

 

[wshdrvvn]

That trade looks like an absolute robbery now.  Kane has all the talent but none of the maturity.

[c00kies]

Just now, wshdrvvn said:

That trade looks like an absolute robbery now.  Kane has all the talent but none of the maturity.

To be fair, Armia hasn't done much to get excited about yet. Myers is an improvement over Bogosian though, and losing the LR distraction is a huge bonus.

[wshdrvvn]

Just now, c00kies said:

To be fair, Armia hasn't done much to get excited about yet. Myers is an improvement over Bogosian though, and losing the LR distraction is a huge bonus.

Armia is a fine player and all but really I was more referring to all the other pieces they received.

 

[ForsbergTheGreat]

I'm curious as to how the jets are going to plan for expansion draft. If they don't move Trouba, they might be one of the teams that go with 8 skaters (4 D, 4F) and one goalie.

[CRAZY_4_NAZZY]

Jets are huge, skilled, mean, and fearsome.

 

If only they had a good goalie, they would be a team to fear night in and night out.

 

 

[Monty]

47 minutes ago, ForsbergTheGreat said:

I'm curious as to how the jets are going to plan for expansion draft. If they don't move Trouba, they might be one of the teams that go with 8 skaters (4 D, 4F) and one goalie.

While I'm certainly no expert, I am one of the few resident Jets fans on here. So here's my thoughts on it; laying out, in order, what the Jets would probably look at doing.

 

1. Trade Enstrom. I'm assuming they have been trying to do just this for quite some time now. While he moves the puck well, his points have decreased exponentially; plus he's undersized. So his price tag makes him incredibly difficult to move. That said, he wouldn't be impossible to move. There are teams (ie. Arizona, Carolina) that have the cap space and perhaps the need to add him in on his . However, they know the situation the Jets are in; that they want to keep rid themselves of Enstrom due to his NMC. Since they can't expose him, a team willing to take him off their hands would want one of their plethora of prospects in addition. Thankfully, the Jets can afford to part with someone like Nic Petan, Tucker Poolman, Michael Spacek, etc and it won't hurt their prospect pool one iota.

 

2. Sign and keep Trouba. This is the preferred option with Trouba. The market is already set for what Trouba should be making (see: Ekblad, Jones, Klingberg, etc). There is no world where Trouba accepts a long term deal with any team and gets paid more than $5.5M per season over 8 years. The issue, I assume, is that of ice time for Trouba, coupled with playing the right side. While the Jets really like what they've seen from Tyler Myers, Trouba is the far better two way defenseman.

 

*perhaps this happens and they look at trading Myers*

 

2. Sign and trade Trouba. This is a possibility. However, the Jets would likely want a young defenseman in return that is NHL ready who plays the left side. However, the issue here is that they have the same problem, 4 defensemen they would have to protect.

 

3. Buyout Enstrom. The Jets have loads of cap space and he only has 1 year remaining on his contract after next year, so they'd only be hit for two seasons. However, Chevaldayoff and Chipman have not been fans of this approach, they've said so publicly. However, considering expansion and the implications it would have to the team going forward, this could happen should the above 3 not occur.

 

Now, if they end up keeping Enstrom, Myers, and Trouba, then they are looking at the 4 forwards, 4 defense, and 1 goalie option. Definitely the least preferred:

 

Forwards:

- Scheifele

- Little

- Wheeler

- Lowry

- Perreault

- Armia

- Dano

 

Defense:

- Byfuglien

- Enstrom

- Trouba

- Myers

 

Goalie:

- Hellebuyck

 

The bolded ones are who they would protect under that scenario. The difficulty is that of the forward group. Ehlers, Laine, and Connor are exempt, so no issue there. Scheifele and Wheeler are guaranteed to be protected, but then the Jets have some major decisions to make in regards to Little, Lowry, Perreault, Armia, and Dano. If this situation happens where they protect 4, 4, and 1. Then the progression of Lowry, Armia, and Dano will go a long way to determine who is left unprotected out of that group.

 

Obviously the preference for them would be to move Enstrom (trade, buyout), and then protect 7 forwards, 3 defense, and one goalie.

 

[ForsbergTheGreat]

9 minutes ago, Monty said:

While I'm certainly no expert, I am one of the few resident Jets fans on here. So here's my thoughts on it; laying out, in order, what the Jets would probably look at doing.

 

1. Trade Enstrom. I'm assuming they have been trying to do just this for quite some time now. While he moves the puck well, his points have decreased exponentially; plus he's undersized. So his price tag makes him incredibly difficult to move. That said, he wouldn't be impossible to move. There are teams (ie. Arizona, Carolina) that have the cap space and perhaps the need to add him in on his . However, they know the situation the Jets are in; that they want to keep rid themselves of Enstrom due to his NMC. Since they can't expose him, a team willing to take him off their hands would want one of their plethora of prospects in addition. Thankfully, the Jets can afford to part with someone like Nic Petan, Tucker Poolman, Michael Spacek, etc and it won't hurt their prospect pool one iota.

 

2. Sign and keep Trouba. This is the preferred option with Trouba. The market is already set for what Trouba should be making (see: Ekblad, Jones, Klingberg, etc). There is no world where Trouba accepts a long term deal with any team and gets paid more than $5.5M per season over 8 years. The issue, I assume, is that of ice time for Trouba, coupled with playing the right side. While the Jets really like what they've seen from Tyler Myers, Trouba is the far better two way defenseman.

 

*perhaps this happens and they look at trading Myers*

 

2. Sign and trade Trouba. This is a possibility. However, the Jets would likely want a young defenseman in return that is NHL ready who plays the left side. However, the issue here is that they have the same problem, 4 defensemen they would have to protect.

 

3. Buyout Enstrom. The Jets have loads of cap space and he only has 1 year remaining on his contract after next year, so they'd only be hit for two seasons. However, Chevaldayoff and Chipman have not been fans of this approach, they've said so publicly. However, considering expansion and the implications it would have to the team going forward, this could happen should the above 3 not occur.

 

Now, if they end up keeping Enstrom, Myers, and Trouba, then they are looking at the 4 forwards, 4 defense, and 1 goalie option. Definitely the least preferred:

 

Forwards:

- Scheifele

- Little

- Wheeler

- Lowry

- Perreault

- Armia

- Dano

 

Defense:

- Byfuglien

- Enstrom

- Trouba

- Myers

 

Goalie:

- Hellebuyck

 

The bolded ones are who they would protect under that scenario. The difficulty is that of the forward group. Ehlers, Laine, and Connor are exempt, so no issue there. Scheifele and Wheeler are guaranteed to be protected, but then the Jets have some major decisions to make in regards to Little, Lowry, Perreault, Armia, and Dano. If this situation happens where they protect 4, 4, and 1. Then the progression of Lowry, Armia, and Dano will go a long way to determine who is left unprotected out of that group.

 

Obviously the preference for them would be to move Enstrom (trade, buyout), and then protect 7 forwards, 3 defense, and one goalie.

 

That's kind of my thoughts too.  The NMC will also make it a hard sell to teams since teams will be forced to protect him, carolina might be an option, but they have a ton of young upcoming D so I don't see them having an interest/need for acquiring him. 

 

Other than Scheifele and wheeler who's the other two forwards you'd keep?

[ItsMillerTime]

 

[Monty]

19 minutes ago, ForsbergTheGreat said:

That's kind of my thoughts too.  The NMC will also make it a hard sell to teams since teams will be forced to protect him, carolina might be an option, but they have a ton of young upcoming D so I don't see them having an interest/need for acquiring him. 

 

Other than Scheifele and wheeler who's the other two forwards you'd keep?

Not sure at this point. Those two are the only ones that would be set in stone. If the decision had to be made today, then they/I would keep Perreault and Little. However, Lowry has progressed nicely, and if he makes that next step to become a second line center, then he could replace Little, making him available. As for Perreault, who I love, if Dano or Armia takes a giant leap forward, then he could be made available over one of them.

 

However, if the Jets end up doing the 4, 4, 1 route, and they protect Scheifele, Wheeler, Little, and Perreault, then the rules state that each team can only lose one player. So, they could make Lowry, Dano, and Armia available, and the worst case is that they would lose one of them.

 

Now, if I had to make the decision today, I would protect Scheifele, Wheeler, Perreault, and Lowry. Expose Little, Dano, and Armia. Little is really good, severely underrated actually. However, I'd prefer to take the risk and lose either him, Dano, or Armia over Lowry.

[cripplereh]

sweet and not bad

[c00kies]

4 hours ago, Monty said:

While I'm certainly no expert, I am one of the few resident Jets fans on here. So here's my thoughts on it; laying out, in order, what the Jets would probably look at doing.

 

1. Trade Enstrom. I'm assuming they have been trying to do just this for quite some time now. While he moves the puck well, his points have decreased exponentially; plus he's undersized. So his price tag makes him incredibly difficult to move. That said, he wouldn't be impossible to move. There are teams (ie. Arizona, Carolina) that have the cap space and perhaps the need to add him in on his . However, they know the situation the Jets are in; that they want to keep rid themselves of Enstrom due to his NMC. Since they can't expose him, a team willing to take him off their hands would want one of their plethora of prospects in addition. Thankfully, the Jets can afford to part with someone like Nic Petan, Tucker Poolman, Michael Spacek, etc and it won't hurt their prospect pool one iota.

 

2. Sign and keep Trouba. This is the preferred option with Trouba. The market is already set for what Trouba should be making (see: Ekblad, Jones, Klingberg, etc). There is no world where Trouba accepts a long term deal with any team and gets paid more than $5.5M per season over 8 years. The issue, I assume, is that of ice time for Trouba, coupled with playing the right side. While the Jets really like what they've seen from Tyler Myers, Trouba is the far better two way defenseman.

 

*perhaps this happens and they look at trading Myers*

 

2. Sign and trade Trouba. This is a possibility. However, the Jets would likely want a young defenseman in return that is NHL ready who plays the left side. However, the issue here is that they have the same problem, 4 defensemen they would have to protect.

 

3. Buyout Enstrom. The Jets have loads of cap space and he only has 1 year remaining on his contract after next year, so they'd only be hit for two seasons. However, Chevaldayoff and Chipman have not been fans of this approach, they've said so publicly. However, considering expansion and the implications it would have to the team going forward, this could happen should the above 3 not occur.

 

Now, if they end up keeping Enstrom, Myers, and Trouba, then they are looking at the 4 forwards, 4 defense, and 1 goalie option. Definitely the least preferred:

 

Forwards:

- Scheifele

- Little

- Wheeler

- Lowry

- Perreault

- Armia

- Dano

 

Defense:

- Byfuglien

- Enstrom

- Trouba

- Myers

 

Goalie:

- Hellebuyck

 

The bolded ones are who they would protect under that scenario. The difficulty is that of the forward group. Ehlers, Laine, and Connor are exempt, so no issue there. Scheifele and Wheeler are guaranteed to be protected, but then the Jets have some major decisions to make in regards to Little, Lowry, Perreault, Armia, and Dano. If this situation happens where they protect 4, 4, and 1. Then the progression of Lowry, Armia, and Dano will go a long way to determine who is left unprotected out of that group.

 

Obviously the preference for them would be to move Enstrom (trade, buyout), and then protect 7 forwards, 3 defense, and one goalie.

 

I've been talking with Jets fans (I too am from Winnipeg and like the Jets) and most agree with what you said.

 

Some of brought up trading Little, which I wouldn't be against depending on the return.

 

Second, Enstrom does seem to be the one everyone wants moved, and I agree with that as he doesn't really fit well with the team. The problem is with that NMC, as he'd easily be exposed without it.

 

The plus is, a team wouldn't have to protect him if they trade for him, which could make him a good rental player.

 

Buying him out will be tough because he would have to waive his NMC to be waived for the buyout (I think that's how it works anyway, could be wrong), which he may or may not want to do.