Preds take that and run

I'm starting to come back around on Boqvist's value. He's scoring at a 65 point pace since NYE. While I don't think that's a realistic pace to expect him to keep up with, I'm back to being afraid of selling low on him and having him blow up elsewhere into a legitimate top 4 scoring RD. I'd rather he stayed and Blankenburg be a scratch at this point. He has a lot of heart, but he has also been making a lot of really rough defensive mistakes.

The reported ask for Chychrun is now down to two 1sts or a 1st and a prospect worth a 1st. Mateychuk came in at #14 on Scott Wheeler's prospect rankings so I feel like he's just too good of a prospect to part with for Chychrun. Not to mention he's the guy that Chychrun is supposed to be bridging the Jackets towards if they were to acquire him and he didn't re-sign so I don't think that would be very likely of a trade.

im iffy on trading Peeke.

For some reason, GMs totally overrate defensive, physical dmen (see Gudbranson) and tend to give up alot for them. If a team would truly be willing to part with something like a first or a good prospect for Peeke who has been totally underwhelming and is about to become overpaid, then i would run with it. Peeke has not been nearly as good as CBJ fans tend to think, he would be a 7D on almost any other team right now. HOWWWWEVER. Guys like him sometimes bloom late and we could really regret trading him.

i don't want them out per say, but both Boq and Matey are extremely offensive defensemen. We still need a couple bigger defensemen that play defense well and not have all the workload be on Werenski, who isn't too physical/defensive himself either. Obviously Jiricek is developing as a great 2 way not afraid to use his size, but he's the only one I see (as of rn injured roster) going forward that's capable of being a trustworthy defensive top 4 lock for the future. Peeke has been disappointing, Gudbranson is as advertised, Bean disappointed and is OffD anyway, and while it seems Blankenburg has been the most physical defenseman, I don't think he can reach that consistent top 4 potential, but who knows.

Wheeler also put Dumais ahead of Marchenko and Foudy at 9 which is kinda stupid as of now

Ekholm and chychrun trades are overpays. Not thanks on zadorov too. Boq can probably get a late first. Would rather not trade Peeke either. This team might compete for a WC spot next year but you’ve gutted the prospect pool and burned a lot of futures.

While I agree that right now they're overstocked on offensive defensemen, that could definitely change 2-3 years from now when Mateychuk is ready to play in the NHL. There are also more ways to play defense well than to just be a shot blocking, physical defender. Cale Makar certainly doesn't fit that bill at all and he's an excellent defender. That's the kind of game that Mateychuk tries to play and I think it's one that the Blue Jackets could use more of with how often they get stuck in their own end playing hold the fort. I'd much rather at least keep him through the World Juniors next year when he gets a chance to showcase what he has as a main part of Team Canada before trading him away in what could be an extremely shortsighted Chychrun experiment that ends with him asking for a trade again within 2 years.

Johnny and Boone will be 30 come next season, and with everyone else aging, how many times are we going to restart? Not everyone can last an extra 2-3 years before becoming constant contenders, because by the time we get to regular contending they'll be approaching mid 30s. The prospect pool is absolutely loaded right now, so maybe we can keep what we have now, but at some point we have to accept that this constant wait restart is not gonna work. Don't be afraid of trading 24'-25' picks to help the core we have now. These next 2-3 seasons is essentially Jarmo's last resort. If we're back to this scenario of "let's wait for the prospect pool to develop" by the end of those 2-3 years Jarmo should be fired. This is pretty much his 3rd restart, so he best hope 3rd times the charm.
This team is going in the direction of how the Browns were a few years ago, looking like they're running out of years of a great core (since NFL careers are shorter). But they made a big trade to sacrifice future to be ready after they let their prospects develop. Don't hoard picks every year.
Jarmo blew up the draft bank in 2019, but after 3 years of drafting we are still back to a top 5 prospect pool and one never before seen depth wise for us. We can part with some future picks now. You have to get to a realization that not everyone is gonna fit, even as injury backups, cause they're gonna want to play somewhere else. That's why depth guys still get traded around to contenders as we've been seeing. The D prospect pool is already loaded, but with 2 spots (Z and Jiricek) maybe 3 (keep Blanks for a bottom 4 role) already locks for the future, maybe even 4 if we can't move Gudb. That leaves only 2 spots with Peeke, Boq, Matey, Svozil, Ceulemans all there to be ready.

Also yes Makar is an excellent defender, and the similarity where it makes Z an excellent defender is gap control and stick work. But Z is also slower, and Makar is not afraid to throw the body around and excels at pivot hits, meanwhile I rarely see Z ever try to hit beyond a body blocking hands up shove (besides that 1 time against Matthews lol), and who knows how he'll feel about contact after his shoulder. Gudb just cant keep up with anyone, but unfortunately Jarmo's trust of his "intangibles" has done us quite a disservice with that contract.

Part of what makes the current Jackets a non-playoff team is that the majority of the team is not very good. That means when they're competitive again most of them will be gone. So they probably really don't care much about Kuraly, Robinson, Olivier, Roslovic, Gudbranson, Voracek, Nyquist, Danforth, Elvis or Korpisalo long term. Even Boone, as great of a leader as he is, is at best a bottom 6 or maybe even just a 4th liner in his mid 30s when the team is actually competitive. Gaudreau you hope is still able to be a productive 2nd line player from 32-35, but in all honesty he's on the team right now to sell tickets while the team grows. If they have to move him when the team's competitive window opens they'll do it. The players that matter are all 25 and younger right now and can absolutely afford to spend 3 years building into a solid team. Next year Werenski is 26, Laine is 25, Tarasov is 24, Marchenko is 23, Boqvist is 23, Chinakhov is 23, Voronkov is 23, Johnson is 21, Svozil is 21, Sillinger is 20, Ceulemans is 20, Jiricek is 19 and Mateychuk is 19. That's the potential core to build around plus whoever they draft this year. And yeah, this thing is cyclical. Jarmo came in and they built something from 2013 up to 2018-19 at it's peak and then to 2020-21 when it all came fully crashing down in fantastic fashion. Now they're doing a full proper build up again from square one. It's probably gonna be best if you just make peace with that because it's happening and it's gonna happen again in like 10-15 years when these players get old too probably.

A lot of torching the prospect pool for a very short term gains. A lot of these moves the receiver will take and run because they are overpays.

I don't like ANY of these trades for the jackets.
Only had that makes any sense won't happen now since Boston got their dman(orlov).

These all wreck alot of jarmos work the past few seasons, no chance he blows it all up for a team that wouldn't even be a contender.