I am devastated. Bjorky was my favourite player in the league. But after going through the scenarios after signing Laine, it really does make sense.

First, acknowledging two things:

1) Signing Gudbranson was a mistake as soon as it happened. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that they were expecting to remain in a rebuild and not sign Johnny freaking Gaudreau, but still that's a careless signing in a flat cap world.

2) The market for trading players with high salaries, let alone with term, even if they are good players, is awful right now. Look at what happened with Pacioretty and Vegas. And to be honest, that probably played a huge role in why we landed Gaudreau in the first place. So the return was garbage but honestly to be expected, especially since Bjorky had trade protection on his deal.

Now, understanding why trading Bjorkstrand makes sense:

1) The other two candidates to be moved, Nyquist and Voracek, have 1- and 2-years left on their deals respectively. Looking at our contract situation with our pendings FAs and rookies on ELCs, they will come off the books at the perfect time for us to retain everyone else on the team.

2) There is a clear log-jam at forward, so much so that this AGM post-Bjorkstrand trade still has Chinakhov in the AHL. Bjorkstrand would have been holding the spot behind Laine for a long-time. This allows another, young right-wing on a cheaper deal to develop in his place, particularly Marchenko who the FO is very high on and seems to be NHL-ready for this upcoming season.

3) On a similar note, Nyquist and Voracek's contract expirations offer not only cap relief, but roster openings as well. This timeline is how we are expecting our youth to progress. Kent Johnson, Marchenko, Chinakhov and Texier are all going to be (hopefully) vying for top-6 spots sooner than later.

4) Potentially the biggest advantage, is that no Bjorkstrand, Voracek, and Nyquist in 2 years means, after signing everyone else, we have enough cap-room to make a huge splash that summer. There are some big, franchise-altering names that could be available.

Overall, trading Bjorkstrand and allowing Nyquist and Voracek to naturally walk in the summer at no cost gives us good cap flexibility, allows us to keep all our picks/prospects, and gives opportunity to our younger players without rushing them.

But I will miss you very much Bjorky

This makes a Gavrikov extension raise much easier to fit in too. I think Gavy is much more valuable to retain for the team's future than Bjorkstrand as much as I hate losing Bjorky.

I can’t make sense of it. He was my favorite player. Ffs. I’d have moved out more than should be rationally allowed.

I hate Gudbranson for no reason. He will always be tainted. He could hoist the mother trucken cup for the and I will only think of the fact it could’ve been bjorky. He costed us bjork. Jarmos dumb choice costed us bjork. I’m bitter and slightly in one atm. Lol. So not the most rational atm.

Weird that Jarmo went from a clear rebuilding team to a win-now team in like 2 weeks. Perhaps ownership forced this just a bit? Need an attendance boost or something. Either way Columbus will be an exciting team to watch.

But the return for Bjorkstrand is mind-bogglingly bad. An excellent 2-way force that’s a near guaranteed 30 goal guy for a 4th and a 3rd is just horrible asset management.

Nobody saw Johnny signing with us. Must have been a contingent. We sign off on this deal. Your in the Playoffs.

Honestly, I think our ownership is pretty hands-off. This is on Jarmo. He keeps saying how he has a hard time being patient.

Also, the rebuild is over I think. We have a top-5 prospect pool in the league at least and didn't even lose any picks, let alone prospects, to sign Gauderau and re-sign Laine. There's plenty of assets to continue improving this team or to remain patient and allow them to develop.

Very true. Good teams don’t give up top 6 players who are important to team success for cap reasons. They find players on the outside of the core and move them. Idk I’m just pissed. I’ll be off it tomorrow. Lol.

After looking at Bjorkstrand’s underlying numbers we should have traded a 1st to get your if Voracek’s contract.

A very nice bit of work for the Kraken, to say the least. Bjorkstrand has been an analytical darling for years - I remember talking about him as the most underrated player in the league back in 2020. pic.twitter.com/r8bHTIGio8

— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) July 22, 2022

No one can convince me Columbus didn’t massively lose this trade.

The guy we traded Bjorkstrand to keep…

Patrik Laine, signed 4x$8.7M by CBJ, is a pure sniper who has tremendous finishing talent from the perimeter but is very poor defensively and hasn't actually scored at a very high 5v5 rate at all in the past three seasons. #CBJ pic.twitter.com/CxvfVUMKgc

— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) July 22, 2022

Here are Gaudreau's incredible microstats from the 2021-22 season. pic.twitter.com/8BTI0rMPjQ

— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) July 13, 2022

Though this is very nice to look at.

Jfresh discusses it after. His even strength offence looks bad because he doesn't take as many high danger shots. And that's because he's such a good scorer he'll score from low danger areas.

Yes, I know, I was more commenting on that defensive number… 3%.