Would have been a much much much better start to rebuilding imo

It would've been. Maybe even passing on Hamilton might've been a good route to take too. That cap space could be used on young guys coming off ELCs or future UFAs when we would've been really ready to compete again

Of course, who knows if Hamilton even wanted to come, but it sounds like Bowman and Co. were set on Jones from the start

ehh I don't know, I think every team needs a number 1 d man and he is that -- even if he became a number 2 in the future that isn't a bad 1 2 punch

I would feel a lot better about the state of this team if we had Boqvist, Sillinger/Coronato, our 2023 1st, etc

I still would do that Hagel trade. Thats just too much value to pass up

Hindsight is always 20/20.

The Seth Jones trade should have never happened. We could have just signed him this offseason. He had already told everyone that he didn't think his future was in CBJ...so why give up SOO much for him? I don't even mind losing Boqvist. He's a puck mover and might get a few points here are there, but I don't think he's going to be a 2-way Dman in the NHL. He just hasn't shown the level of commitment needed to be a physical player. That doesn't mean he needs to go fight people, but just hustling and harassing forwards. I hadn't seen it in CHI and the games I did watch of CBJ (not too many to be honest) I hadn't seen it there either. He's scored on the same set piece play a bunch on the PP, which is good for him, but he'll be a PP specialist like Eric Gustafsson.

I would not sign Douggie Hamilton. Having watched him a bunch in CAR...he's a fine player, but he's not worth his contract. I say that because the defensive puck movers are easier to find. Maybe a NJD fan can tell me he's finally graduated into a 2-way dman, but he'd get exposed and bailed out by Slavin a bunch in CAR. His version of defense is to sell out at the blue line to prevent the opposing rush, but it's a high risk high reward venture and he'd often get penalties for that style. I'm also not a big fan of his defensive play when the opposing team is cycling down low. AGAIN, he's a fine Dman. I know it sound like it hate him...I DON'T HATE HIM. I just think $9M is $2M too much for his services.

The counter to some of this is...would MAF actually come to CHI in the first place if Bowman hadn't have made the Seth Jones trade? We'll never know for sure, but he might have retired. I'd still do the Hagel trade. TRad has been nice. Yes, Hagel is far better, but we do need those picks.

I’m a Long Island guy so I like Coronato a lot, but Sillinger’s dad was an NHL center for almost two decades. That combined with Cole’s positional value made him the right pick at #12 IMO.

I agree completely. Even in a down year, he's still been one of the best offensive d-men in the league this year on a bad (but improving) NJ team. He could've taken some pressure off Boqvist too as he kept maturing on both sides of the puck. At least pursuing him seemed like a no brainer for where we were at and I don't know if they really ever considered it. Still blows my mind.

Probably. My guess is the hawks would have taken Coronato though. Home town kid that they were showing a lot of pre draft interest in

Hagel trade is arguable. I'm still of the opinion that you don't trade 23 year old energy wingers on pace for 30+ goals in the first year of a $1.5 mil x 3 year deal. Raddysh has been great and the picks (low as they may be) are nice, but Hagel could've been here when we were good again. Players like that don't grow on trees.

I understand your concerns with Hamilton. I don't have the same experience watching him that you do, but I was always skeptical of his vastly improved defensive metrics in CAR and others in the analytics community were too. He's declined a bit in that respect in NJ, but he's still an elite offensive player. I'd rather have him at $9 million for 7 years than Seth at $9.5 million for 8 (9 with this season), which was kinda the point of including him in the post at all.

Oh because he played the steel. Yeah him and Ryan Ufko are LI guys who played for Chicago.

That's fair. As for the two players straight up...with the contracts, but without the trade...I would prefer Seth Jones and is $9.5M vs Hamilton and his $9M. The trade makes a huge difference. We shouldn't have given up that much for a pending UFA that wanted to leave. Just bad asset management.

Man, that Jones trade and the his resigning may go down as the worst move of the decade.

Why would you trade for Sillinger just to bench him?

We've botched the development of Dach, Boqvist, Jokiharju, etc by playing them too soon. No reason to rush him to the majors if we're rebuilding

CBJ took him with our pick from the Jones trade. I wouldve liked him but idk if we would’ve taken him