Just curious what did Friedman say?

When everyone takes a super friendly UFA deal its really easy

CHI isn't interested in moving Jones or acquiring Marner. Especially not adding a 1ST ROUND PICK. That is ridiculous.

Kurashev should be on the table, but it will take a hefty payment.

do

Rielly-Pesce
McCabe-Jones
Benoit-Liljegren

dont bother resigning Ed and give his 1.9 to Pesce so the deal is 5x7.7, more realistic

I'd hope chicago would ride out the 6 seasons of overpaid jones than trade for 9 years of overpaid marner.

That a Jones for Marner deal may be possible.

As a Leafs fan, I don't really want Jones either. Was just spitballing.

Friedman really only said Jones because there's talk that he's unhappy being on a losing team. Whether that's true or not who knows but that's the whole premise of the Marner - Jones trades on this site

They'd be insane to add a 1st. Toronto gets cap space, adds to their defense, and would be navigating Marner's NMC which would limit their potential trade partners. 1 for 1 is more than realistic in that scenario.

Gotcha, thank you!

Another unworkable 20 man roster. NMC Marner isn't been traded. Leafs are likely better off just having lots of cap when Marner leaves as a UFA, then rather spend 9.5m X 6 on Jones.

I HATE when players who sign massive deals on clearly declining teams become unhappy with the losing. Are we supposed to believe they are so ignorant they don't recognize what 99+% of casual fans know? If Jones thought his extension with a clearly on the decline and soon to be rebuilding Chicago team would not result in playing for a rebuilder then he is a complete idiot.

Happens way to often. I don't know if it's the money that lures them or what but if it's clear to the public that the teams about to be crap, I don't know why players don't see it. Gaudreau is the list recent example

Yeah. Karlsson with SJS was another. Like, how could he not understand that SJ would be rebuilding at some point in that contract? Name the team in the cap era that is a contender for 10+ years lol? Even Boston had a few down years of re-tooling.

You are correct. But when young men are offered so much guaranteed money it's hard to resist. But as you suggest, you signed the contract....now just shut up or just quit playing pro hockey.

I respected Trouba's decision as a Jet. He could have taken long term guaranteed money after his ELC ended. But he wanted to play elsewhere. So he took shorter contracts which guaranteed he would be a UFA in another four years. He got traded after three years. Though people knew he wanted to play in the US due to girlfriends medical training, I don't believe he was ever publicly critical of the Jets or the city of Winnipeg.

They just don't want to admit that they signed for the money. Fans would instantly turn on any player that came out and admitted it.

They're basic tradeoff decisions billions of similarly aged humans make over their lifetime. If they can't grasp the consequences of those decisions, they have a lot more pressing issues than being on a losing hockey team.

It's kinda strange that so many professional players (and the fans) think it so necessary to go for top dollar all the time. For instance if a UFA is offered 5m X 8 by one team, but "just" 4.5m X 8 by a team that a player would prefer, I find it hard to believe that the total difference of 4m over the term of the contract is going to affect the players life style at all. Shouldn't "happiness" be paramount?

Every year in the USA and Canada there are probably hundreds of thousands of people who turn down "more money" because they prefer to stay where they are.
Gee, haven't we known people who turn down promotions because it would going to the night shift, and it would affect a person's life at home with his family. And $ 20,000 increase in pay means a lot to person who makes 60,000. Same with moving to other cities. I've known so many who turn down promotions because a move would affect the wives employment, the kids schooling, or elderly parents.

The average guy or even above average guy who slugs it out daily, and thinks of his own well being or his family.....those are the heroes of are society. Not an athlete who signs with "my" team.

At the same time, Stan Bowman was a swindler. I'm sure he put together some rose colored narrative to attract players and thought he was brilliant and his plan was going to work. And even at that time, Toews and Kane were still very much looked at as a selling point. "All we need is a #1D and a few auxiliary pieces and this team will be ready to go for another cup!" I'm sure the price CHI offered CBJ and the money they offered him helped a ton, too.

Also, Stan and the Blackhawks knew about the Jenner and Block investigation at that point. So, they knew the clock was ticking and he needed to do something big. It was a stupid last ditch effort to remedy a desperate situation that no one outside of the Hawks organization realized the extent of.

Doesn't excuse the fact that Jones was a complete moron if he thought CHI wouldn't be rebuilding during a major portion of his contract. All top contenders do in the cap era. It's inevitable.

At the time we had what could be considered a good cast of transitional players that could lend itself to more of a re-tool, if it became necessary. Stop trying to make Jones into a moron or a bad player. He is no more an idiot than your average professional athlete, in fact he is probably more intelligent than most. He isn't even anywhere near as restless as the media is making him seem. Any player who doesn't hate losing shouldn't be in the NHL, but all things considered he seems pretty content to see things through and excited for the trajectory of the rebuild and the players on the way. He is disgruntled about as much as you would expect any player to be when they are losing this much.

You should probably stick to the Penguins. Your seeds of chaos will have no effect here.

The delusion is thinking a cap era dynasty like CHI wouldn't need to rebuild. They had no justification for making that deal and myself along with MANY others said as much at the time. Not much different than PIT acquiring Karlsson, though the PIT decline is not as precipitous given the PIT core is stronger and always has been.

Well, yeah. I also said that at the time. Mostly because a few months prior, CHI had announced that they were doing a rebuild, and then they turned around and bought a bunch of players in thinking they could salvage the roster and right the ship. But I can see how the argument could have been made at the time especially with the kind of money Bowman was offering him. On paper, that roster looked like a contender.

I think there were a lot of factors that lead to that team being as awful as it was, though. Colliton was a garbage coach, Toews long covid being relentless, all the controversy surrounding CHI resulting in massive turnover in the front office and coaching staff, and the effects of those things made a lot of players untradable. Then you have the takeover by someone who witnessed years of mistakes made by Bowman that made it nearly impossible to deny it any longer. If we hadn't given so many assets away and stuck with the original rebuild before Jones was acquired, the rebuild could've possibly been over already.

But all of that is in the past now. We can only work with what we got. When all is said and done, I actually like Jones a lot. It doesn't exactly make sense for Jones to be in CHI, but he is, and it makes no sense at all to dump or sell low on him, and it makes even less sense to jump into another giant long term contract with another almost 30 year old, and it makes even less sense than that for a rebuilding team to move Jones for a rental, let alone add valuable assets on top of him for Marner.

Like I said before, too, the media is making a bigger deal out of Jones demeanor than what is actually true. The videos of the exit interviews are online, you can see for yourself. The only reason he said anything is because he was asked, but then he went on to say many more positive things than negative and show that he wants to win. So, until he openly asks for a trade, I don't consider him "being upset with the rebuild" an issue.

I think there is an even bigger delusion going on amongst CHI fans right now, though. So many people want to throw in the towel and buy all these players, like we have to "contend while Bedard is on his ELC." But all that does is set us up for future cap issues, roster issues, and a depleted collection of picks and prospects. We aren't there yet... Not even close. I don't foresee Jones contract becoming a problem until maybe the last 2 or 3 years. At which point navigating 2 or 3 years of a bad contract will be much easier than most people think. A bridge deal here, a prove it contract there, a few players with longer development curves, and that should get us through the thick of things. If we have to dump 1 or 2 years of Jones, it shouldn't be a big issue, at that point $9.5M will be a fairly commonplace AAV that isn't as hard to move as it might be today, and the salary cap will be much higher.

Chicago needs to stay the course. Adams has them on the proper path.