Goalie

Well you can't change the entire oline in one off season unless some miracles happens like what happened with sask.. but one or 2 national oline (one via free agency, although looking at that list i'm not sure that guy exists, maybe holmes from toronto) and one via the draft. Be nice to snag Demski in the draft if we can. MLB is an obvious one too, Wild is a good WIL linebacker but he's too small to be an everyday MLB... Improve the canadian depth (free agency works here) and the draft ofcourse. Backup QB? meh i dunno about that one, Willy is our guy and if he can't do it no one can. Every team seems to have a dominant pass rushing defensive end, we don't have that guy so that would be an area to upgrade. Alex Hall maybe? Hickman since he only signed a 1 year deal with the ticats could be another. One import receiver would be nice, maybe 2 but one for sure. Chris Matthews would look good next season i think. Wouldn't mind having a big time defensive tackle, we seem to be lacking that, i like turner and i like anderson but i think it would be nice if we could move one of them to the defensive end position. If coordinators are available in the off-season, probably a big if, but if there are guys available who can replace MB and Etch, then you'd be crazy not to atleast think about doing it. STC probably needs to be upgraded too. Maybe going after a guy like Jabar Westerman, who is going to be a free agent this off-season, would be a nice depth move. Getting some help from the NFL so guys like Mulumba and Bilukidi can come north would definitely help.

If i'm bowman, i wouldn't want Steeves endorsement.

He's hear? Perhaps the club was not impressed with Hutch and are uncertain if Pav will play like he did last season. Typing errors happen at times when you don't really read through your whole post and just post it. I dunno man, budaj being sent down to St Johns suggests i was pretty darn right.

Yeah that game hutch played well, he actually played ok in most the games he got in, he really didn't get much help out there and generally played with what i'd call the american hockey league version of the Jets.

I really don't think Geography has much to do with that, if the Jets were a winning team, Free agents would gladly sign here. Hell man, Detroit is a crap hole, its broke, it's cold, it's crappy, it's gang filled yet free agents still sign there consistently? why? because that team wins. It comes down to winning, if the jets start winning, people will sign here. And if signing free agents to over priced contracts guaranteed you won stanley cups then why the heck hasn't Philly Toronto or even the rangers and flordia panthers won anything in recent memory. Because to be honest, free agents don't mean crap.

In my opinion, the OL is the engine that drives the offense, and unfortunately ours have been stuck in neutral the last few seasons. Without a good, event decent oline, i don't really think you stand much of a chance, we are playing 3 americans on the line and we still aren't good enough. Is the talent really that awful? I don't get how we could be playing 3 americans on the line and still be giving up all these sacks and still having willy being pressured every other play. Without time to throw, your offense has no chance, i'm not sure if they have been opening up many holes for grigsby or not, it doesn't really seem like it so i think i need to reserve judgement on grigsby until the oline is upgraded, With that being said tho, in the off season cuz you ain't gonna find a guy right now off the streets to come in and play the last 4 games, unless you want to give Cotton a shot, but i don't think he's an upgrade at all, i hope we bring in lots of competition at the tail back position, Grigsby deserves to be invited back for camp, But right now, i'd say he doesn't deserve to be guaranteed a job. I mean when zach evans and andrew marshall are consistently owning your asses, yeah the oline is a huge problem.

Leddy is a very good left handed d man, better than every left handed d man we have other than Toby but his upside is huge, I'm glad we didn't give up any goalie prospects for him too but he would have been a very good pick up for us.

Fun fact: I tweeted all the "main" mayoral candidates on twitter and asked a simple question, "why should i vote for you". I tweet JUDY, Gord and Brian Bowman, the only one that responded back was Bowman. Being a young guy, the guy i relate to the most is Brian Bowman, I think Bowman represents the change i'm looking for. He's not a career politician and I think he's the guy that i'm going to vote for. Steeves in my opinion has no chance in hell, he's alienated too many people and he's exactly what Sam Katz is. Honestly, Judy will probably win and it will be interesting to see how her and the provincial NDPs work but.. my vote is going to Bowman.

Actually i think these boards have been quite active, look at all the new topics started just in the last week or so, it's lots. Losing Interest? Nope we got 4 games to go, hopefully more and i plan on watching all of them. The off-season seems so long as is, i'd never lose interest during the season, for as awful and gong show like last season was, watched every game. Not really looking forward to a long off season. Sure the Jets are starting up soon and i'll watch them too. NFL? meh, NFL has been going on for a few weeks already and i have to admit, i maybe watched one full game. The teams i like, well, seems like they aren't really on TV that often. To be honest, I'm not a baseball fan at all but i'm more interested in seeing if the Kansas City Royals make it to the world series than any NFL games right now.

We will forever be rebuilding if we keep firing coaches every season or every other season.

Amazing what happens actually, earlier in the year the eastern teams like hamilton and toronto were dealing with injuries to key players, those teams are pretty damn good when healthy, toronto is a force when healthy, hamilton is pretty decent too, They are the cream of the crap out east for sure. Now? THe western teams are dealing with some injuries to key players, all of the western teams really... Calgary with BLM and Cornish, Edmonton is relatively healthy actually, Sask with Durant, I'm not going to count Lulay cuz he never started the season but Harris and Yell out in bc, Wpg/ well.. where to start really. What this shows a bit is if people don't think losing your number 1 receiver is a big deal, look at the argos, without owens they suck, with owens, they don't suck at all, they are quite good actually. Losing Moore has really hurt us.

Budaj is a UFA at the end of this season and was going to be sent to the AHL if he wasn't traded, believe he might have even cleared waivers earlier this pre-season. He ain't here to be the starting goalie, why do people think this? He's hear because he is good with the young guys, good in the locker room and is a capable player when he gets the chance to play. I'm almost certain he will be sent to St Johns to mentor Helle. Just waiting for the Jets to announce it.

Pavelec has looked good this pre-season, amazing what happens when he doesn't get tons of shots a game. He's a good goalie, he just needs some help out there. Not sure why people always want to blame one guy, Pav has played solid this pre-season, looks to be in the best shape i've seen him in and his rebound control seems to be much improved, His positioning this pre-season has also been much better. Pavelec will have a very good season, just wait and see. It's pretty obvious that PAV put in a significant amount of work in this off season. Budaj ain't here to be the number 1 goalie, i'm not even convinced he's here to be the number 2 goalie. Guaranteed that trade was tangradi for holland and budaj was thrown in as a cap dump by Montreal with Winnipeg agreeing to it because they need a veteran backup in st johns to help out helle.

Willy is being left in because he is a rookie starting qb and needs to learn how to deal with certain situations. He isn't ricky ray, what do you gain by pulling your first year starter qb? when he actually wasn't really the issue at all, sure i guess you can say to keep him from getting killed out there but again, I'd understand pulling Willy if we lost that game because of him or were losing directly because of willys piss poor play but we weren't losing cuz of willys play, we were losing because everyone other than willy didn't show up for the game. How can you blame your qb when is being sacked 5 times a game and being pressured every other play. Willy is the last guy i would pull this year. These are valuable reps for him this season, he can only get better by playing, not by watching. Brohm, marve? Man maybe they will get some time when we are officially eliminated but reality is we are one game behind bc and still play them.. Hell it's likely both us and bc could miss the playoffs but we aren't done yet, you know, it's funny, people on here saying the season is over? But it's not. And thank god the team and people in charge don't think that way either. Pulling Willy in a game is giving up on the season when the season isn't even over yet. Despite what a few nostradamus's say on this board, We still have a chance really to make it. and until we don't and until we are actually eliminated for real, willy will play the entire game. and Rightfully so, that's how he will get better. He's got a full off season to recover from his injuries, we ain't risking anything by playing him. Injuries happen and if willy got hurt? That would suck but he'd have a full off season to recover, I'm sure if he got hurt and hurt bad, he wouldn't be playing anymore but the reason he is and the reason he isn't pulled is because quite frankly, he gives us the best chance to win. Why put brohm and or marve in? so they can get killed too? Keep the guy in that gives you the best chance to win and keep him in so he can get those valuable reps that he very desperately needs.

Can you explain how we are being exposed exactly? we are in these games for the most part, The redblack game was a stinker and so was the bc game (willy got hurt tho) but the team has had chances to win, they keep making mistakes tho, turnovers, special teams turnovers have killed us this season, you eliminate those special teams turnovers and we probably win 2 vs sask, the bc game? man The D held us in right until the 4th but when you are playing your 2nd string qb who has had like no reps, and can't move the offence at all, eventually the D will tire out. We got blown out by the redblacks sure, but again mistakes, tackling issues, turnovers. If we could actually eliminate our mistakes (mainly turnovers and special team blunders) we would have won several of those games. How are we being exposed exactly? outside of one game vs ottawa and one game vs bc, and i suppose the toronto game, we have been in every game this year with a chance to even win most of them.. Exposed? How? This team is 6-8 right now but eliminating mistakes and turnovers, which easily could have been avoided if we actually had some depth at some positions, guess easier said than done tho, that 6-8 easily could be 10-4. we have been blown out once, just so happens it was against the worst team in the league but besides that game and the other 2 i mentioned, we could have won every other game we lost if not for shooting ourselves in the foot. I don't disagree with you entirely. However, football games are usually won or lost by one or two big plays (often turnovers). Also, many of those turnovers were not as easy to avoid as you make it sound. A good number of them were the cumulative result of too much pressure on Willy and poor snapping on punts. If anything, I dare say there could have been MORE turnovers on special teams. This is true. I was going to add though, if anything has been exposed, it's been our lack of depth and we all know that would probably be an issue this season if a few guys got injured.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Etcheverry He's been coaching longer than i've been alive. Obviously he has some talent to last that long.

Can you explain how we are being exposed exactly? we are in these games for the most part, The redblack game was a stinker and so was the bc game (willy got hurt tho) but the team has had chances to win, they keep making mistakes tho, turnovers, special teams turnovers have killed us this season, you eliminate those special teams turnovers and we probably win 2 vs sask, the bc game? man The D held us in right until the 4th but when you are playing your 2nd string qb who has had like no reps, and can't move the offence at all, eventually the D will tire out. We got blown out by the redblacks sure, but again mistakes, tackling issues, turnovers. If we could actually eliminate our mistakes (mainly turnovers and special team blunders) we would have won several of those games. How are we being exposed exactly? outside of one game vs ottawa and one game vs bc, and i suppose the toronto game, we have been in every game this year with a chance to even win most of them.. Exposed? How? This team is 6-8 right now but eliminating mistakes and turnovers, which easily could have been avoided if we actually had some depth at some positions, guess easier said than done tho, that 6-8 easily could be 10-4. we have been blown out once, just so happens it was against the worst team in the league but besides that game and the other 2 i mentioned, we could have won every other game we lost if not for shooting ourselves in the foot.

Hard to say, Apparently budaj is a good leader to young goalies, helped out price quite a bit the last couple seasons, he's a pretty good backup, has been the last couple seasons now. I guess looking at St Johns you got Helle and That Jussi guy, Don't think Jussi belongs in the AHL, he belongs in the ECHL, gotta think Budaj might be the veteran backup to help out on the Rock.

We have a pretty good top 9 forward group actually so i understand why ehlers or petan weren't kept. Those guys aren't bottom 3 players, they are top 6 or top 9 at the least. I think they both showed the could play but.. i suppose a year in junior, a year to see what this team does, we will see what happens, next training camp should be quite interesting with all the prospects beating down the doors, nice thing next year tho is guys like petan and morrissey can be sent to st johns instead of junior. Ehlers will probably have to play another game in junior unless he bulks up significantly.

No it really isn't. For some people maybe but... think about it. Playing in your home province for your home team, growing up a fan of that team, it's definitely not always about the money. There are so many cases where guys have taken the hometown discount that it's too long to list those names. It's not always about the money at all. THe perks alone that he gets for playing for the riders probably trump the extra 5000 or 10000 bucks he would have made here anyway. Maybe for you it's all about the money, but some guys, quite a few guys, there is no difference between 5000 and 10000 bucks. How much money would you have given him to stay here? It has to be significant and even then, i highly doubt he would have stayed, face it man, accept it, he was gone the second he could be. He wanted to go home, when someone wants to go home, money isn't the deciding factor at all, could he have got more for playing here? probably but the fact he went home tells you it doesn't matter how much money the bombers offered him, he was going home.

Pretty obvious that labatte was gone the second he could be.

I agree, O'Shea can criticize specific aspects of the team without naming names when they under-perform instead of deflecting as he does. I like Chamblin's no-nonsense approach with fans, players and media alike, he is brutally honest, straight forward and doesn't throw players under the bus. He does bench players though so he makes clear there are consequences for poor play. If you watched the RR/Stamps game after he pulled Doege, Chamblin had a face to face with him from about 6" embracing him with his hands on his shoulder and helmet as he would a son. He wasn't yelling at him but actually speaking directly to him though words and his eyes. To me that shows ultimate accountability. Isn't chamblin also the guy that bans the media from attending practices? you think that would fly here? LOL. For every good that one coach on another team does, there are equally as bad things he does and if he was coaching here, the fans would rip him a new one too. Maybe worse even, Chamblins coaching pretty much lead the riders to lose a few games earlier in the season they shouldn't have also and you can even say that not playing sunseri the entire game vs calgary was a coaching mistake. The kid looked good that game. What if he played the entire game? Perhaps sask would have won?

Who are you...some guy stalking me? When I call into the CJOB show I question O'Shea, I have ever kissed his ass. CJOB actually used one of my questions on their promo for the Coach's show. I have a fantasy hockey draft tomorrow night but am still hoping to call into the show with this exact question. Re. Kuale, two weeks ago I called him out on twitter about his poor performance and his terrible comments on the CJOB post game show, and he acknowledged he needs to play better. Game against Hamilton I said he redeemed himself, which he did, playing one of his best games of the year; that was in reference to the previous game, not the entire season. I then called him out again after the loss to Ottawa, where he played terrible. "Not sure what I want week to week"...WTF are you talking about? If someone plays well I'll congratulate them. If they play poor I might tell them. What's so complicated about that? Kuale loves responding to fans on twitter so I tweet him more than others. Either way, you sound creepy. Is there an ignore function on here? Funny thing about that twitter, when you follow the same guys and i follow kuale too, you get to see the tweets that that person retweets on your timeline. Weird how that works. Lol though calling me creepy or stalking when you talking about twitter which is pretty much the definition of stalking people and when you use the same username you do on here, makes it even more obvious who is tweeting what. Whatever though. I don't really care to be honest, just questioning why one week you are one way and the next week you are the opposite. Now i know, it's cool man. Calm down a bit though eh. Ignore me all you want, i'll still be able to see your tweets when they are retweeted by the same guys i follow.

Or that one yup.

I don't know how true this is, i recall hearing the bombers offered him similar money to what sask offered him and even offered him up some cash to help him out with his racing stuff. But really, he's been gone a while now and not coming back, does it really matter why he left anymore? Sometimes 5000 or 10,000 bucks aint enough to convince a guy to stay when everything he wants is basically at home. Maybe his girlfriend didn't want to move to Winnipeg, Maybe he wanted to be closer to his parents, maybe he wanted to raise his kid in sask, there are so many variables here to say it just came down to money, I don't think it came down to money at all. I tend to agree with 17 when he talks about the idea that someone wanted him to move to center and labatte didn't even tell the team that he didn't want too, if he really wanted to be here, he would be here. The fact that he isn't here tells me he never really wanted to be here long term. Sometimes, just need to accept the fact that some guys (mainly sask guys) want to play for SASk and it don't matter what you offer them, they grow up in sask, they bleed green, they want to play for the hometown only pro sports team in town. He probably could have made some money here but that money probably isn't enough.. I'll relate this to hockey, I'm born and raised in Winnipeg, big Jets fan, if i was playing in the NHL and i had the choice between playing in my home town or playing elsewhere, I'd definitely take the hometown discount to play for the team i wanted too play for my entire life.