Nylander could get more and Columbus isn’t interested in another winger

There are two simple criteria for whether or not the Jackets are going to be trading young, premium players away for anyone that's due $5M+ on an extension.

1. Is the player 25 or younger?

2. Is the player a center?

Nylander does not pass this test so he is not going to be of interest to the Jackets.

Well, if you read my explanation, Nylander is an upgrade NOW.

The talent that is currently there remains projects largely (Marchenko, Chinakov etc) Nylander is like a 40 point upgrade. Again, I saw Jarmo Kekalainen as being very aggressive on the blueline, and used that thought in this package. I don't think Provorov was exactly necessary, or Severson given where the Jackets are, yet he did it. It is aggressive. Acquiring Nylander would be along that thought process.

Could Nylander get more? Peeke is 3 years of contract control on a very good contract. Silljnger is 5 years of contract control. Contract control matters in Toronto at the moment. So, where maybe Nylander could get more, there is also a huge benefit to that control - which would not be lost on Jarmo.

Devil's advocate rebuttal.

Certainly doesn't make the Leafs better this year as they "going for it." Peeke isn't anything special, and certainly slotting three goals last season Sillinger into the 2C seems like optimism.
Can't think of one instance where a contending team (Leafs) allowed a star player to negotiate with another team, with one year last year left on the his contract. Leafs aren't doing that.

Columbus already have Gaudreau and Laine as their star winger. If they give assets, it will be for a center

Given that criteria, why Provorov (granted, 26) and Severson then?

They certainly make the Jackets better, but if healthy, the blueline doesn't look that bad - and was young as well.

Genuinely curious here where acquiring "older players" on the blueline made sense, but acquiring a clear upgrade up front doesn't..... foregoing the C arguement, ad I get that and eluded to it.

Eluded to the reluctance of moving a young centre..... and I really get it.

If the package were Jenner (always has been of Leafs interest), the 2nd becomes unconditional. Would that function? Or if instead of the 2nd, it's Texier.

I just see a fit here.

If he is really wanting $ 10 million per, I would be bending the rules.

Been doing these posts to gauge Nylander's market value.

Honestly, I see him at 6-7 years at $8.75 million. The Bratt deal just stands as such an excellent comparable.

If his camp is north of that, and the impass is there, best be getting as much value as possible to move forward.

As for this package, Peeke is pretty solid for the money. Sillinger (a player the Jackets would be very reluctant to move granted) just has the upside.

Better? Debatable. Deeper? Yes.

I mean, obviously the criteria for what the Jackets needed changed after those trades. Same as it did after the draft, or when Texier announced he's coming back, or when Voronkov signed his contract. Why would I list criteria that applied 3 months ago?

As far as age goes, Provorov is 26, he's unlikely going to be a Jacket beyond the 2 years he has left on his contract, and he cost them almost nothing beyond the 1st they got for trading Gavrikov. With Severson, he again cost them only a 3rd and not premium young players. There's a very big difference between these moves and trading away young guys who are expected to grow into core players for the next 10-15 years to get players who are going to start declining within the next 3-5 years and don't fill a positional need.



You see a fit because you're only considering things from the Leafs angle. The Jackets don't have space for another expensive winger. They're not going to trade their captain. They're not going to trade a young player who they just supported for 18 months as he grieved deaths in his family. These things are obvious if you consider the other team, but you're not doing that.

I feel I am actually.

We simply have a different read in what Jarmo did this offseason.

Before everything I liked the Jacket's blueline, quite a bit actually. Werenski is great. Peeke for what he does is full value. Bean, I think is on the verge of coming into his own (mitigating circumstances aside). Boquist is quite good - although I am debating his fit in Colunbus, but Jiricek or Ceulemans are poised to take spots. Blankenburg as a bottom pairing option was excellent imo...... so when half the blueline misses the bulk of the season, well, it hurt. The reward certainly in Fantelli. But if that blueline were healthy, I think the Jackets would have much better than they were.

Given this mindset, I found Provorov and Severson odd. A shift in direction - in so far that Jarmo looked st the roster overall and felt it was ready to take a big step forward. Now, if there is that s9hft in thinking, Nylander can fit. Currently upgrades on Johnston, Marchenko, Bennstrom....

I am not undermining how good the Jackets forward group looks - in a couple years, they could be dynamic. But I also saw that with the blueline - which is how I saw a shift in the thinking or direction.

Why I proposed the deal.

I am not a Homer my friend. I try to make these deals seeing all sides of the equation.

Simply, we see to differently on how this offseason looks for the Jackets. Respect that, but that does not mean I fail to see another side.

It’s about more than just a shift in thinking, it’s about building a balanced roster, and having 3 of your top 4 highest paid players on the wing isn’t a winning recipe. Being deep down the middle and on the blueline is.

Jackets defense sucked last years. Yes, guys were hurt, but Gavrikov was dealt so Provorov made sense to replace him at 2LD. For all the serviceable guys on the right side, none are top pair guys, and smartly they don’t want to just toss Jiricek to the wolves. Severson makes sense also.

Now they have a real big logjam on D and will be sitting someone good. That’s a good problem to have. They aren’t desperate to make a trade, and they aren’t adding any more high dollar wingers with Gaudreau and Laine on the roster and Johnson and Marchenko looking like future stars.

How could you like a defense that set back to back goals against records for the team? They were abysmal. I have hopes that Peeke, Boqvist, and Bean can be salvaged, but i would absolutely not bet another full season on those 3 and Blankenburg all in the starting lineup.

Ok, so the idea with Provorov was the exact same as it was with Gavrikov. They wanted a stop gap 2LD for the next couple years until Mateychuk and Svozil are ready. The Provorov trade does nothing more to shift the team towards a compete now window than extending Gavrikov a couple years would have.

The Severson signing is simply because their RD have not shown enough to stake another year of the team's development on them. They needed someone who could come in and play competent hockey now to enable their young forwards to develop and the UFA pool is barren over the next couple years for RD. Severson *might* have been jumping the gun a bit, but it beats the alternative of having to play Gudbranson as a 1RD at any point of the year again.

There is no guarantee that Jiricek makes the team, and that's just fine for his development. Ceulemans is nowhere close to making the team. He just left a horrendous situation for his development at Wisconsin and needs to learn how to play structured defense on a professional level. He's at best going to compete for NHL time in 24-25, but could easily debut in 25-26.

The other thing, the team doesn't need to push a window right now. They have 2 players of any importance that are going to be 30 this year. Everyone else that matters is 26 or younger. Taking away an opportunity pretty much permanently from a Johnson or Marchenko makes no sense for the future of the Jackets. It also severely cripples their ability to add another top 6C as they would be spending almost $30M on 3 wingers. There is simply no fit for Nylander in Columbus, especially not at the cost of center depth that the team actually needs. The only way a Nylander trade works is if Laine converts to center full-time and who knows if Babcock has any serious interest in that at all?

Why is Jarmo still the Columbus GM? Hasn't a accomplished much.... Trading for two years of Pronovov is a short term help, but seems to me he gave up a lot to acquire him which doesn't even mean they make the playoffs. Severson, for seven years is too much term. Heck, Severson took that contract because he knew he would never get a better deal in free agency.

The problem is you're ignoring why. The blue line was horrible, they badly needed to make moves there. I don't see where you're getting that these moves weren't necessary from. Severson was a long term acquisition and Provorov was a short term upgrade + placeholder for Meteychuk.

Unlike D, Columbus is set at wing all throughout the lineup. The value is fine, even in CBJ's favor, but this just doesn't fill a need and would give them a 3rd winger making 8.5 mil or more. If I knew that they'd run KJ at center going forward, it would make more sense, but it's really up in the air whether that's gonna happen after he played wing his entire rookie year and there hasn't been any more word on it.

People keep spinning the angle of "it basically cost nothing cause they traded the pick from the Gavrikov trade"

Which is stupid. Once you moved Gavrikov and had that pick, you value that 1st as if you had it originally, not as a 0 risk asset. Doing so is how you throw away value. I think the Provorov addition was very good and fit a need perfectly, but I wasn't a fan of giving up the 1st and not getting anything back besides him. Would've liked a bit more. Being willing to give Severson that term is probably a big reason why they were able to get him, so it was probably needed. It's an overpay, but I don't think by so much that it's gonna bite them hard or something.

Half the blueline was on the IR last year... long term.at that. Not ignoring why one bit. I have a difference of opinion on what the Jackets blueline is when healthy, clearly..... which for me made the Provorov and Severson acquisitions odd for me.

Ignoring the fact like 300 man games were lost on the Jacket blueline last year is revisionist. Or you simply were not reading my responses in the thread.

I accept the difference of opinions absolutely. What makes CF work. I respect them.

I guess the question there is, what does @palhal make of the Jacket blueline when it is healthy prior to those acquisitions.

Has I think I made clear, I kind of thought it has a lot of promise - young with a tonne of upside.

Werenski-Peeke
Bean-Boquist
Blakenburg-Gundbrasson

For me, that is a blueline of a rebuilding team. And they have what looks like upgrades coming internally. Even with Provorov and Severson, this team fails to sniff the dance, even though I think they are upgrades.

People suggesting the blueline sucked last year fail to realize half of it was on LTIR. Of course it sucked! Name a team that could withstand that? We both know the Leafs couldn't lol.

So maybe you ask a fair question..... how is he still there at this point?

If you go through the trouble of upgrading a blueline that when it matured lined up with the forward group, I would think that signifies you switched directions.

The feedback from this thread I think mimics where the Jackets are at..... confused. If you are going to wait out the Marchenkos, Sillingers, and Johnstons of the team, you wait out the blueline.

So, given how much I hated Bergevin flipped every two year, you pose the best question of them all.

Yeah, they lost a ton of games from guys last year, but the blue line still would've been one of the 5-7 worst in the league. Jiricek is coming soon, but you still needled another RD in the top 4. I'm not confident Boqvist, Peeke, Grubranson, or anyone else they had was going to be able to fill that role consistently. I think Peeke is a good 3RD, Boqvist is a great offensive minded 3D that can run PP2, but hasn't shown he can stay healthy to take on a bigger role. LD2 had absolutely no answer short term this year prior to the Provorov trade. I love Blankenburg, but he's simply not a player that can be getting more than 2rd pair minutes if you want to be a good team. There were holes to be filled, most notably in the shrot term, but getting a reliable guy like Severson when a lot of your non prospect RD have big concerns is a great add imo.

How is it stupid? It's the exact path Jarmo was reportedly going to take before he even traded Gavrikov. He was planning to go after Chychrun with an additional firsts in assets, but instead wound up trading a little more than what he got for Gav and Korpi to get Provorov. The team is in pretty much the same position they would have been had they extended Gavrikov for a couple years like they originally wanted to.



You gotta get off this idea. Honestly, would you be saying the same if they had extended Gavrikov 2 years and signed only Severson? Absolutely not. Why is it different with adding Provorov? They needed players that can reliably play hockey now. Peeke isn't good enough and neither Boqvist or Bean have put in the work during the off season to gain the kind of muscle that would make them durable enough to withstand a full NHL season. Betting another season on the lineup you listed when they're trying to get into a competitive mindset would have been a fireable offense.



He's the GM because he has accomplished more than any other GM in team history and he did it while going up against the prime of Crosby's Penguins and Ovechkin's Capitals for the majority of his tenure. He has also done an incredible job of rebuilding the team over the last 3 drafts. Going into the 2021 draft, the Jackets pool was ranked bottom 5 if not bottom 3. Today it's ranked top 3 if not #1 in the league. He deserves a shot to carry on with what he is building when it looks as promising as it does.

The best ability is availability. Provorov and Severson are almost always on the ice for 80 games a year. Boqvist, Bean and Blankenburg aren’t. Doesn’t mean much if you think they’re good if they aren’t healthy enough to be playing.

They had two years in Columbus to take a job. They’ve showed they can’t. With Gaudreau, Laine, Werenski and Jenner on the payroll, you can’t keep sitting around forever and wasting years of their primes.

The roster wasn’t as bad as their showed last year, but some holes were revealed. The defense had to get better, and the coaching had to get better. They also need a 1C which they got in Fantilli. Columbus won’t be pushing for a cup next year, but they should be back in the mix for the playoffs and only getting better.

Jarmo was the first GM to build sustained success in Columbus when this team made the playoffs 5 of 6 years and lost to the eventual cup champs 4 of those years. No, playoffs are the goal and no one is satisfied, but winning it all isn’t some simple magic formula. Leafs fans should know that as well as anyone.

That core fell apart due to age and UFAs deciding to go get paid or just wanting to play elsewhere. That’s not in the GMs control. They’ve beefed up the facilities, added a player concierge and other amenities and done all they can to make Columbus a place that guys want to play. It’s still not going to be for everyone, same as Toronto or anywhere else.

Jarmo rightly recognized the need to sell off pieces and rebuild. Then he quickly built one of the best prospect pools in the league. Gaudreau falling in his lap expedited the time line, and he had a surplus of picks and assets to add to the team this summer, so I’d say he did a fine job bringing in exactly what this team was lacking: a top-4 RHD in Severson, a future 1C in Fantilli, and a short term replacement for Gavrikov at 2LD.

The Jackets have to stay healthy, period. Provorov and Severson help with that. They drafted Fantilli. They’re getting Tex back and adding Vronk. Plus another year of experience and growth for Johnson, Marchenko, Sillinger, Chinakhov. Plus a competent head coach. This team is going to be vastly improved. With Gaudreau, Werenski, Laine, Jenner all under contract, this team needs to start winning now. The additions of Severson and Provorov make sense and fill needs.

This roster wasn’t bad least year. They were still young and should’ve been in the middle of the league standings, but were absurdly injured and very poorly coached. Now they’re improved threw off-season adds, kids are maturing, guys are healthy and they have brought in a Hall-of-Fame level coach. Be skeptical if you wish, but there’s not another GM that would’ve done any better.