I think Nylander will at least start the season with the hawks. Think about it, they trade Jokiharju for him knowing De Haan will be out a couple months, forcing one of Koekkoek or Dahlstrom to play until then. We all know Jokiharju is better than those two. It would make more sense to keep him than to trade him away for a guy that's going to start in the AHL. So I think the Hawks see Nylander as an NHL guy. Completely inferring here, but it makes a lot of sense.

Maybe, I think it's presumptuous at best saying he will or won't prior to training camp and preseason

It's honestly the only way I can make sense of this trade. It's not a necessarily a bad move, but I just don't get why him of all D prospects.

Simple, because they see more upside in mitchell and boqvist first and foremost. Also, the hawks were upset that Jokiharju headed back to Finland for the summer. Third, the Hawks apparently were shopping him for over a month and was the best the offer they got....and I believe that given Stan's lack of skill. None of this means Nylander is a lock. He is going to have to compete with Kubalik, Sikura, Perlini (if he's still here which I doubt), Wedin, and Quenneville.

If you've seen Nylander play more then a game or two, you'd know the guy is a slightly above average AHL winger. Stan and McIdiot are hoping to find lighting in a bottle but all the scouts comments are; Nylander is weak, afraid to get hit, has a lack of determination (some nights shows up and others doesn't appear wanting to play), and not coachable. Maybe he hated it that much in Buf and maybe that says more about his character, but one this is for certain....we are about to find out and if Nylander backfires and Jokiharju succeeds which I'm betting he does, this will cost Bowman his job and should.

Yes I agree on valuing Mitchell and Boqvist more (Which I don't understand because Jokiharju looked very good against McDavid early in he season). Mitchell is so unproven to me I just can't believe they're that locked in with him. Jokiharju will definitely succeed, it's a no brainer that he's a top 4 talent. He played very well in the NHL and deserved time over Dahlstrom and Koekkoek. Buffalo struggles at developing players thought. Reinhart, Mittelstadt and Ristolainen haven't had the best starts to their careers. Eichel is an exception because he's such an elite talent. Colliton seems to be good at unlocking potential so who knows

This is my biggest issue when people bring up how fine they are with Stan jettisoning Jokiharju because of Boqvist & Mitchell in the wings... Jokiharju PROVED he can do it. Remember his first game against the blues? He had Tarasenko neatly folded in his pocket the entire night. It was amazing. And he went on to have plenty of other similarly solid games! Boqvist & Mitchell, while I am very high on both. have proven jack and ****, and jack left town.

And frankly, I don't want to hear about how much perceived upside Bowman and Mark Kelley think those two have over Jokiharju, considering they thought Mark Mc****ingNeil had more upside than literally everyone else from pick 19 down (though to be fair, the 2011 draft was, comparatively, a steaming pile of ****).

Agree with Nick's original thought that this is going to be an optics thing for Bowman. Unless Nylander looks absolutely braindead and useless out there, he's going to start the year on the team, and probably play with someone like Toews to give him every chance of succeeding. Or at least looking good. Anyone who thinks Stanbo isn't obsessed with the optics of his very public moves is fooling themselves.

I can't believe I wrote all that. i am still in "I hate this team, **** them" mode...

I'm not in hate this team mode, because there's a lot of potential with prime Toews and Kane and young legs beneath them. But the moves Stan has been making have been so contradictory. You're telling me we need 3 years of Carpenter at 1 million per with grinding forwards like Entwistle and Hagel in the system? What did he sign/acquire them for? He drafts all these defensemen, and it just doesn't seem like he has a plan with them. Boqvist Beaudin Mitchell and now Vlasic. What is he thinking? We can't say he's "hoping one or two hit" anymore, because he already traded a hit away.

Its a temporary hate, still just cranked the **** off about the Jokiharju thing, clearly...

Ryan Carpenter is a great acquisition, in my eyes. His advanced stats are exactly what you want to see in a defensive 4th line winger/centerman who can also take draws at a clip under 53%. Clearly they want to get back to a strong checking 4th line, and with Carpenter & Kampf, I'm sure they'll have just that, regardless of who's on the LW. If Perlini stays, it will either be him, or Caggiula, either one I would be fine plugging in with Kampf & Carpenter.

Mac & Hagel are both 20. Regardless of where you project their talents to be, they're probably not done marinating yet. Yeah, Mac could force the issue out of camp, but I kinda doubt that. Maybe if Perlini doesn't stay, Mac's chances increase, but he's still competing with Kubalik, maybe Wedin, etc. so that still seems like a longshot.

I hate the trade with a passion, but clearly Stan is gambling on trading away a solid hit for a potential grand slam hit in Nylander. I think in a few years, we'll see how foolish this really was... My most fervent hope is that Nylander is basically living on Toews right, and a chunk of 19's leadership and motivation qualities rub off on him. I wouldn't be surprised to see Duncs take Nylander to the woodshed, like he did with Ben Smith all those years ago, to get his head screwed on in a far more serious manner. God that would be great if he did...

Just please somebody fire the entire front office

Entwistle is unlikely to make the team, they seem to really like Carpenter down on that fourth line, but this team has definitely done weirder things.

They've had a fantastic off-season, yeah they got rid of Joki for who knows what in Nylander, but they've wanted Nylander for a few seasons and needed to get rid of Joki. Other than that, Carpenter was a silent acquisition, de Haan and Maatta both are young and have a lot of upside, Shaw came cheap... then you have some of the best int'l signings in the league, and built back a farm system that was almost dead a few years ago. They put themselves in a situation where the next 2-3 years they can tank or push for a cup based on how things go and how the young players do.

They were doing just find until the Jokiharju trade and while it still pisses me off, I’m starting to get over it. There’s a increasingly good chance that Adam Boqvist makes the team or Ian Mitchell signs a contract, both of which would make me feel much, much better about trading Henri. Not to mention we got Andrew Shaw’s versatility and physicality, Calvin De Haan’s responsibility and a freaking Vezina finalist as our *insurance policy*. I think we’re going to be just fine, maybe even better than fine