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Frankly it's all getting a bit tired but there's no real reason not to keep talking about how the Jets are going to get deeper at forward. As there is no clear answer and the opportunity to make moves with no cost other than dollars is almost upon teams what options do the Jets have to build a true second line?
Here's a list of the top centres sorted by descending salary as per capgeek.com with their age.
Briere, Danny 35
Elias, Patrik 37
Ribeiro, Mike 33
Connolly, Tim 32
Antropov, Nik 33
Roy, Derek 30
Koivu, Saku 38
Lombardi, Matthew 31
Cullen, Matt 36
Weiss, Stephen 30
Handzus, Michal 36
Malhotra, Manny 33
Santorelli, Mike 27
Wellwood, Kyle 30
Bozak, Tyler 27
Reasoner, Marty 36
Gordon, Boyd 29
Hecht, Jochen 36
Steckel, David 31
Lapierre, Maxim 28
Here is Right Wingers
Iginla, Jarome 36
Alfredsson, Daniel 40
Jagr, Jaromir 41
Selanne, Teemu 43
Bouchard, Pierre-Marc 29
Horton, Nathan 28
Ryder, Michael 33
Clarkson, David 29
Hejduk, Milan 37
Mueller, Peter 25
Larose, Chad 31
D'Agostini, Matt 26
Jones, Ryan 29
Langenbrunner, Jamie 37
Brunner, Damien 27
Kobasew, Chuck 31
Richardson, Brad 28
Boyes, Brad 31
Armstrong, Colby 30
Of the two lists only 12 of the 40 listed are age 30 and below. It represents a challenge for GMs and I think it's going to be very telling on who gives what to whom as it relates to contract length.
Before discussing the Jets needs and options it would make sense that of those 12 players 30 and younger they are going to ask for term- probably 4 years minimum. That might rule out the Winnipeg Jets as do they want create a log jam at either position to hinder some of their top prospects?
I think Kevin Chevaldayoff is looking, talking and feeling out certain UFAs but I think unless he can hit a home run on player, cost, and term we already have a good indication of what he wants to do. That's mimic the Olli Jokinen deal.
While the first year did not work out as planned with Olli in Winnipeg the move was correct but did not pay off. Chevy used a bit more cap space on a two year deal to get Jokinen rather than contract length and should he be in the market he will try that approach again in my humble opinion.
The reason is simple, at some point you have to give your top prospects a chance to succeed in the right setting. Take Mark Sheifele as an example. He needs to play as a centre with talent not on the third and fourth line. Will he be ready to fill that role come October? That's a another issue to debate but at some point the Jets have to give him that chance and it would seem that with a year or two makes good sense.
The same can be said for Adam Lowry as well in that capacity. While a stint in the AHL might be helpful to see what these top prospects are amongst pros the Jets need to improve their team too. It's all about timing and that leads to the next option to solve forward depth problems...
Is it time for a trade?
Astute NHL.com writer
Patrick Williams said today via twitter that when juggling numbers he sees little chance of the Jets being able to improve under the cap circumstances. He's probably right and that means moving some one for something so let's allow everyone's favourite trade bait to enter the conversation: Dustin Byfuglien.
Buff has 3 more years on his deal at 5.2 million per year. He's a defensive point monster who brings a dynamic quality to his game that is unique among all NHL defensemen- full stop.
That's what he is, who he will be in the future and nothing is going to change. What you see with Buff is what you get and it's very hard to find. So for the sake of argument he is the player on the Jets most likely to be moved with the most value.
The debate, at least from the Jets point of view, is what return would they want IF they decided to trade Byfuglien?
I'm a believer of quality over quantity and I think there's no real help to the Jets to take on prospects and picks if they are building to the 5 year plan. They have those in an almost abundant state now since the draft and does adding more push the team in the right direction?
Trading Byfuglien would have to be a 'give to get' deal as I see it and I'm okay with that. It begs another question just what are the Jets prepared to 'get' in that deal?
I'll throw out a name for the sake of discussion. There's not tip from some one, no rumour floating around or any reason other than a scenario facing a team called the LA Kings.
Byfuglien for Richards.
LA has only 3 defence player signed after this season and one is Robyn Regehr who will 35 then. Dustin Brown needs a new deal after this season and Kopitar will to in 3 years. Does it make a forward expendable?
Mike Richards would makes sense for a few reasons. He's from Kenora, 2 hours east of Winnipeg, and spends his off seasons there. He is a former WJHC team mate of Jets captain Andrew Ladd and the two apparently are friends. He knows Winnipeg, he knows some of the team and he brings more experience. His cap hit is only 500k more than Byfuglien's too.
Richard's is now on the downward swing of his deal too with 7 years and 36.6 million left and a 5.750 cap hit. But based on salary per year the average is 5.22 million paid to Richards over those 7 years compared to an average of 6.48 paid in the previous 5 years.
I'm not sure I pull the trigger on this deal at first blush if I'm either GM but I certainly don't walk away, never to speak of it again either. There's no smoke here and I don't know if either team has even spoke to each other about anything, let alone these players.
It's just curious why these two teams scouted each other so heavily for much of the regular season when neither were going to play each other this year isn't it?
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