Myers' best shot at getting traded came and went, and Chevy's admitted to having talks with Myers about playing with Buff next year on his off side. You get JoMo and Troubadour back and that's a solid top 4. Aside from 2C our top 6 is set. Whoever the jets get at 2C unless it's someone in the range of 70+ points is irrelevant since Roslovic. Roslovic is coming off roughly half a point per game as a bottom 6 player, and almost 2 points per 60 minutes of ice time, with a whopping 4 total minutes of power play time. He'll easily earn top 6 minutes given the opportunity. Based on projections he's due in the ball park for a 60 point season, and that isn't factoring in linemates. Going from Little and Perrault to Laine and Ehlers should jump the offense a bit more. So all said and done, our top 4 is set, and our top 6 should be set, at least by December.

3rd pairing D is easy. Kulikov needs to go. Not trading Myers is fine, but that means we still have an overpaid 3rd pairing dman who could play top 4 minutes on any one of VAN, NYI, NYR, DET, or NJD. That's a cap dump given his injury history but all those teams do need a LHD and he would do the job for a slightly overpaid fee. Poolman was a statistical beast in the games he played in, and Niku is the AHL's Erik Karlsson. They both earned roster spots.

Our bottom 6 is where it starts to get tricky, so it makes sense to start with the easiest decisions and work to tricky.

Lowry, and Armia are the two best defensive forwards on the jets. That Lowry can lead NHL players with over 40 games in HDCF% and not get a single Selke vote is ridiculous. (The award is for best defense not best two way play.) Armia is diet Lowry, and both really need to come back. Along with Little, Armia is easily the most underrated jets. Copp is a decent 4th liner who for whatever reason get his numbers boosted significantly when he's on the ice with Lowry. I would love the 4th line of Copp-Lowry-Armia, with Tanev coming in for depth. Tanev was brutal in his first year and was mediocre this year. One more year of coming in for injuries and he'll hopefully pick up all the positioning aspects of the game, and be a good 4th liner if we can't resign Copp in 2019.

3rd line is the trickiest part, and this part is pretty much up for discussion. Perrault and Little are both possible trades, but it's important to understand they aren't overvalued. Perrault is one of the best possession players in the NHL and Little is a 2C in every way except for a lack of chemistry with Laine. Little's NMC is up in two years, so it will be possible to cap dump him *cough* Seattle *cough* before his contract becomes bad value. Our candidates for the 3rd line are any one of Little, Perrault, Vesalainen, Appleton, and any trade target. With Simmonds, Coyle, and Puljujarvi coming to mind. Simmonds and Coyle would need salary retained.

The only prospects which should be absolutely be off limits are
-Appleton
-Vesalainen
- One of Samberg or Stanley
-Niku
-Poolman

but that leaves us at least 6
B to A- minus prospects that we can move to get Kulikov dumped, and possibly Perrault if we decide to go after a guy like Coyle (with 50% of his salary retained).

For contract values, you should browse Matt Cane's predictions. They aren't gospel and don't account for what players want, but they are usually fairly accurate. Needless to say if Trouba makes over 6mill and Morrissey makes more than 4.5mill on long-term 7 or 8 year contracts, Chevy is overpaying.

Massively insightful and exactly the type of response that I was looking for - someone who understands the Jets needs and the importance of often underappreciated players. I agree about Copp, Lowry, and Armia being our best option on the fourth line, they are simply too dominant and hard working defensively to let any of them move elsewhere, and since they have an offensively limited role, their numbers aren't truly indicative of their offensive skill, a category in which all 3 players excel over other fourth lines in the league.

Also agree that 2C is the biggest question on forward, and depending on whether or not Chevy wants to fill that hole, the offense changes slightly. If Stastny comes back, I would expect Little or Perreault to be moved (probably Perreault) in order to clear up a little bit of cap. I like Roslovic as a 2C, but would prefer to see him playing another year of 3rd line, perhaps in the middle to see if being a center is a better fit for him than on the wing, but I also don't doubt that he would blossom with Ehlers and Laine. My only problem is that both Ehlers and Laine are slightly irresponsible/high-risk with the puck, which is perfectly ok given their offensive upside, but it is largely beneficial to them to have a veteran center in the middle. Take a look at Laine's production last year following the acquisition of Stastny, he went on a wild goal scoring run and shot up to second/tied-for-first in goals in a matter of less than 20 games. So, signing Stastny may be expensive, but if it creates more space/looks/accountability for Laine and Ehlers and improved their production, it may be a worthwhile expense.

As far as D go, I slightly disagree about Myers having passed his highest trade value - I still think he could get close to as much as he is worth for a one year contract, but since the Jets won't be able to afford him next year, it would be wise to look at offers from other teams, especially considering Buff and Trouba will be first and second pairing and the Jets would definitely prefer a LHD playing along the left side. Whether he moves or not, Kulikov has got to go, simply based on cap hit per pairing, in which he will in fact be overpaid as a probably 3rd pairing D, as you have stated.

Prospect wise, reports indicate Vesalainen will be playing in North America this season (Moose or Jets) so it would be nice to see him make a push for a job with the Jets, but I can see him being a year away. Appleton is definitely deserving of a look considering his offensive production as a rookie. Poolman will probably play a full season if Myers moves. Sami Niku will probably play a full season if Chariot/Kulikov move. Any of these players who can come in and have an impact will benefit the team now in terms of production and cap, and will also benefit them in years to come because development will be occurring at a fast rate on a good team. Trade Petan/Lemieux/Dano and whichever of the D prospects dont crack the top few desirable.

Goalie situation is pretty easy - lock up Hellebuyck, dump Mason and try and find a decent backup for a good price (Lehner?) - or, if Mason has to stay, we could probably afford him this season, and he will probably be better than last year, just worry a bit about a goalie who has 2 concussions and a knee injury in the same season, so it would be best to part ways.

Third line is still a question, so I'll be interested to see what happens there...

I love Statsny but my only problem is the contract he would sign. If he can take a paycut to play with Laine that's excellent, and worth trading Perrault or Little for. (Agreed it would likely be Perrault.) If it's anything starting to approach 6mill and Roslovic is not your answer, then we should really start looking for other good 2C options. Eric Staal comes to mind immediately. 3.5mill rental who can play 2C and put up in the range of 70 points. He is not the playmaker Stats is, but he's a lot cheaper and a better scorer.

As for Laine, I would really like to see our top line be Ehlers-Scheifs-Laine. Ehlers and Connor are basically 1A/1B depending on whether you're looking for possession stats or pure scoring. Laine isn't as good as Wheeler yet, but he is unquestionably the future 1RW for years and years here. It does break up the chemistry Scheifs and Wheels have, but Scheifs can make anyone produce points and Wheels can do the same at a slightly lesser level. Laine should be playing with the best playmaker and most complete center on the team plain and simple. I think that would balance our top 6 better and give us more of a complete '2 first lines' combination as opposed to a very good 1st line and very good 2nd line.

Note: While I would agree that Laine can be irresponsible in his own zone, and Ehlers can turn the puck over. Ehlers rarely turns the puck over in the neutral zone or defensive zone. Ehlers leads the Jets in defensive zone exits and offensive zone entries. Having him on the ice actually increases the distance between a turnover and our net. When Ehlers and Laine do turn the puck over it just looks worse because it's almost always one of them getting too cute, but they're also 22 and 19 so it's pretty forgivable.



Yeah, I just meant that it's really unlikely Myers is traded. That has nothing to do with value, quite the opposite. If I was betting money I would say that Chevy may have pitched Myers for one of the Islanders 1st round picks, or a team in the 10-15 range, and turned down teams like Toronto who held the 25th Overall pick. Myers is absolutely worth a late lottery pick 10-15, but the problem with trading him now is that if you want a fair return, and something the jets can use, you're trading for 2019 picks which have unknown or ballpark value. If I'm the Islanders, there is no way I'm trading next year's first in case the Islanders suck. Pick can always be lottery protected, but that really doesn't help the situation. Case in point, Ottawa and Colorado this year going to next year.

You could always trade Myers for a player, but he is worth way more than a 3rd liner, even a good one, and less than a 2C.



I don't know if you went to watch development camp this week, but some takeaways:
-Appleton is the best forward there. Hands down. He's very smooth, very fast, is pretty sneaky with getting open, and has a very, very good shot.
-Vesalainen reminds me of Evander Kane. Not as a person, just in that he is big, fast, has a nasty shot, and likes to lean into defenders to make space, use them as a screen to get his shot off. That being said, our bigger guys (Stanley and Samberg) did push him around. I hope he plays for the moose this season, and the jets call him up for our two games in Finland.
-Stanley was hands down the best player out there. One year of AHL and he'll be ready for the show.
-Samberg looks like a monster. His decision-making is a little slow, but his positioning on defense is good. I'm excited to see how he does for his sophomore season.

Bonus: Gustafsson was the surprise of the week. He reminds me of Lowry.

Also a good sign that the Jets didn't even bother telling both Niku and Poolman to report to prospect camp.





I am aggressively apathetic to this. Mason's a good backup who's on contract for one more year. If we keep him, I'm happy, if we don't I'm also happy. We're not going to be getting anything in return if we do trade Mason, so the actual worth of trading him plays into my apathy.

So based on what you're saying, and my ideas and meeting in the middle I wouldn't mind seeing this:

Ehlers-Scheifele-Laine
Connor-E. Staal-Wheeler
Pacioretty-Little-Roslovic
Copp-Lowry-Armia
Tanev-Appleton

Morrissey-Trouba
Myers-Byfuglien
Niku-Poolman
Morrow-Chiarot

Perrault/Petan/2019 2nd for Pacioretty 50% retained
Samberg/Dano/Kulikov/2019 1st for Eric Staal 50% retained
We give up our 1st and 2nd next year, but seriously, who could stick with that lineup?

@TheCelt I guess that since the Stastny signing didn't come to fruition, you're concepts seem to be a good option for the Jets. At this point, I can't see Little leaving - he is under rated, as we have said, and I think he is going to have a better year this season, and at this point we need a little bit more veteran depth in the middle and he could even slide over to wing for a different look depending on who the Jets are able to add. Mason is gone now, so it'll be interesting to see what kind of back-up the Jets will go after. And Armia is gone (unfortunately) so I'm guessing that Tanev will become a regular on the fourth line, which in my mind is a big downgrade defensively. Would've been nice to add Stast, but not for 6.5. Would have preferred to keep Armia and Mason's salary if we weren't for sure gonna get Stast, also, but here we are with a lot of cap space to do something with and a ton of other teams in the west adding very good players (Stastny, Neal, O'Reilly) so I think Chevy will be forced into doing something substantial in order to keep the foot on the gas. Complacency is a killer, so if we do nothing, we can't expect to be as good as last year. Need at least a few new faces.

Also, thank you very much for the details about Development camp - I am very pleased to hear that Stanley is looking the part and that Appleton comes as advertised. I was trying to follow along on twitter but found it difficult to find actual details on player performance.