The Unknown Poster

You can support the military without supporting war.

I have no problem with this. Usually its a cool little thing to do and if hardly overly offensive. If it makes a few bucks for the team and league, great.

People that say Winnipeg is a free agent wasteland sometimes make it seem like its unique to us, which it isnt. Like you stated, other markets have had issues for a variety of reasons. Edmonton is probably the worst market. Someone once explained to me that the thing that makes Edmonton terrible besides everything else is their airport being so far outside town and making it difficult to travel whereas Winnipeg is fairly close, flight-wise, to everywhere. I think some of it is over-blown. Players primarily want to win. If Winnipeg was a winner, players would be lining up to come here. You rarely ever here any current or former Jets do anything but rave about the team and city. I can see players being hesitant before they get here, but its pretty overblown. When a superstar free agent chooses another city its never that city versus Winnipeg. That player didnt just turn down Winnipeg, he turned down probably hald a dozen or more good offers from other cities too.

Hockeybuzz has a bad reputation for just spouting every and all rumours. But I enjoy the site because it is what it is - a rumour site.

The always-accurate Hockeybuzz reports the Jets are closing in on Dustin Penner, which surprises me if true. I wonder if that would mean a third line of Penner-Perrault-Buff and a fourth line of Galiardi-Slater-Halischuck/Thorburn. Im sort of cautiously in favour of the signing. Penner would surely come cheap and certainly has the potential to have a rebound year. For a market like Winnipeg, taking a small risk on a guy like Penner is a low-risk/high reward possibility.

The Dallas example is probably the exception to the rule. It could have blown up in their faces but as a southern US team, they needed to take the risk to get better. The Jets would look at that and say why trade for Sequin when we can wait two years for Scheif and keep our other young players. Im sure they'd have been interested in Spezza but we dont have enough parts to give up where it doesnt become a net negative for us. Thats why we made offers to free agents - the Jets would love to have Parise or Stastny but only when the cost is cash, not players or picks.

It is not true that true north is distancing itself. There is talk that they have many plans to honour the old jets. Just waiting for time and place. There has been rumours the heritage classic will result in the original jets history coming home. Certainly the alumni game can't feature only thrashers.

Here's my argument to that. I really do feel the Jets have a plan. And they will stay loyal to their plan no matter what. The exception might be a game-changing free agent. We know they inquired on Parise. We believe they made a massive offer to Stastny. But the plan is to keep the core players and make the team better through positive draft and development. They accentuate the core with minor pick ups, waiver wire and free agency. The issue some people have is 'why hasnt Chevy made a player for player trade to make the Jets better'. The answer is, it wouldnt make the Jets better. Most fans propose trades where they ship spare parts for all stars but that doesnt work in the real world. The Jets' most tradeable assets are players we want here, not somewhere else. The teams that get the spare parts they need to put themselves over the top are either flush with talent they can trade (ie. they have an abundance of right handed D so they trade one for two forwards etc) or they are packaging a player and picks. Making a trade might make the team better but at what cost? We could trade Trouba right now for a package that would make us better this season. Do we want to do that? Or do we want Trouba to become an all star in Winnipeg and make us better two seasons from now? Yes, we could trade Kane or Buff. Trading Kane is unlikely to make us better right now but might make us better next season or the season after. Buff might us better right now and I'd argue he should be the number one trade bait. But realistically, the Jets arent one or two players away. When we get to the point where we're one or two players away, Chevy will make trades. Just watch.

I swear, every week there's a post like this and we end up with the W.. Let's hope the trend continues! *knocks on wood* And every week there's someone posting about how everyone isn't pissing rainbows.That said, the one week I picked Bombers to win in the pick ems they lost. So I now I pick them to lose out of stubbornness. I have this irrational fear of believing in this team for this reason

That looks about right to me Atomic.

It depends how they deploy their top six. Buff was mostly a RW but ended the season at LW and played a lot better (in my opinion). But that loads the left side and leaves a too six RW hole. Lawless thinks it's Buff - Scheif - Wheeler which makes a lot of sense. But again, it leaves a RW hole. If we assume Ladd - Little -Frolik is a lock I'm just not sure.

That isn't going to happen.

Probably not to this extent. But it will be a good deal for him.

Saw a stat where the Max salary was even more years ago. Wasn't Jagr making $11 million or something? Teams are going to have these $10 million players soon.

It's fair market value to where franchise players are going to be sooner than later. Crosby comparisons don't work because he took less to help out the Pens and his salary is a drop in the bucket compared to his endorsements anyway.

Probably works to the jets advantage to trade Kane next draft. The teams that are out of the mcdavid sweeps might be more willing.

I agree with that. If we had to trade one I'd rather trade buff. But I think buff is happy to be here. Kane obviously not.

Yeah I like it too now that I've read up on him a bit. Good size. Good effort. Potential is there. Makes the fourth line instantly better if not the third. Two way deal makes him a strong contributor in St. John's if jets don't work out. Versatile forward at centre or left. Makes me wonder if they want to keep buff and RW and go Galiardi - Perrault - buff.

I feel sorry for dinwiddie. He gets a dream opportunity that he's just not ready for and the team isn't good enough. Hope this doesn't ruin his career.

TJ Galiardi. One year, two way deal. $750,000

Classy to do it with the Jets there. I strongly suspect there will be a significant Winnipeg contingent on hand. Hopefully we get a Teemu night the following year and retire his jersey here also.

I don't know why you always have to get personal in every debate on here. Really strange behavior. I make comments on Chevy and instead of refuting them you have to turn to mocking me. Real nice. I believe I will just avoid this forum from now on. It is clear that differing opinions are not welcome. You guys can have your 3 posts in each thread where you all agree that the Jets and Chevy are infallible, shake hands, and close the topic down. I thought we were looking for discussion here but it turns out I was wrong. That wasnt a personal shot at you at all though I do find it amusing you took it as such. It was a general statement about overly-emotional Jets fans who fly off the handle without actually thinking about the situation with any sort of common sense or logic. My instinct when I heard the Frolik signing was probably the same - I thought it sucked and was bad and meant guys didnt want to be here. But once I got over it, I gave more thought. Its why I actually like Lawless because he generally chews through the emotional nonsense and makes valid points that the emotional fans (many of whom are his listeners) dont like. When you listen to people call into the H&L and they rip on the Jets or Bombers, Lawless usually asks questions that stump the caller because they havent actually given it any thought. Im all for signing Dustin Penner too. But I understand why the Jets might not want him. How many people call Chevy a failure for the Gooch signing who heralded it as a great move at the time? Fans are fickle and rarely honest with themselves about reality. The Jets have always said they want to be successful but its going to be through the draft. I heard someone on 1290 make a great point - Chevy says a lot of things that other GM's say about drafting and development and patience. The difference is, Chevy actually does what he says whereas many other GM's bow to pressure or go for that quick fix and it doesnt work out.

Ignorant. You don't think a head coach who throws his players under the bus at every turn, who basically said that the talent level on the team isn't good enough to win, isn't a cancer in the room? You don't think that stuff doesn't bring the team down. Have you ever had a boss that everyone hated that when he walked into the room everyone shut up and was immediately on edge? I was never in the locker room, so I can't say this is how it was, but based on what I saw of his interviews, how he composed himself, how he spoke, and what he said, I would have a very hard time respecting what he did and said as a player. And that is the worst kind of cancer to bring to any team, because it permeates from the top down. I think you're jumping to a lot of conclusions based on absolutely no knowledge about a guy who, aside from a brief period, seemed to always perform at a high level and command the respect of his players and colleagues.

Ignorant.

People get very emotional. The people who bash chevy need to explain exactly what they would do if they were GM. "Duuuhhhh, I'd trade for Crosby..." "Duuuhhhh I'd sign the three best free agents no matter what it cose..." "Duuuhhhh I'd draft the top five players in the league..." Dont just whine if you cant offer a different perspective. The Halischuk signing is actually a good signing. They let his contract expire and didnt offer a qualifying, then picked him up on a two-way deal. So when people say our bottom six depth is an issue, this is a smart move to add that depth and help out St Johns and be financially prudent. I'd rather have this player than Tanner Glass for $1 million or whatever he got. I would have liked us to be in on Peter Mueller. And maybe we were. I think the idea that no one wants to play here is a bit overblown but I think there are a few teams that have to pay a bit more to attract guys, Winnipeg being one of them. And that probably has less to do with any one thing like Weather or location as it does with the team on the ice which, when winning, can make the weather and location seem a bit less rough. I think the Jets are willing to spend money when the time is right. We can sit back and say we're wasting Ladd, Little, Wheeler but really, is that the group that is going to get us over the top with the addition of a few big players? Yes, we have a few good guys around 30 years old, but we have a few better guys in their early 20's. Thats the "core" we should be focusing on and I think we are. They want to see Kane, Scheif, Bogo, trouba, Hutch, Morrissey, Lowry etc continue to get better and then you will see more complimentary trades. I also think Jets management has a very specific vision which is why it sometimes seems to us that nothing is happening. Whereas other teams might be in on every player, the Jets want to stick with their plan. And that plan might be to rely on a guy like Lowry rather than sign a journeyman who will win that spot and relegate Lowry to the Rock for another year. As for Penner, I'd be interested in him. Im not sure he fits the Jets' effort/speed desires but as a depth move, I'd be happy with it. I think Buff is playing the LW this year though. In fact I think our forward group is: Ladd-Little-Frolik Buff-Scheif-Wheeler Kane-Perrault-??? (maybe Lowry) Halischuk-Slater-Tangradi Not exactly world beaters but for talent on ice, it's an improvment over last season assumuing Perrault is better than Jokinen and better for guys arund him (ie. Kane), that Scheif continues to improve, that Wheeler plays the whole season, that Frolik is now comfortable and playing for a contract and we get a couple of big performances from young guys. I expect us to compete for the Playsoffs the same way we did last year..maybe in tough, but pushing. Jets have been in on big free agents so you cant say they havent tried.