Have to up the free agent signing portion of this off-season to an A now. Jimbo needed 2 top 6 forwards and 2 dmen to play in their top 6 and he got all of them. You can argue the contracts were a bit too long but the dollars seem right and the team is definitely better than it was.Diehard1 wrote: ↑Mon Jul 01, 2019 9:34 pm With the caveat that there’s still lots of time to make extra moves, my thoughts on what Jimbo et al have down so far:
Draft - B+ - this would have likely been an A had they not traded away their 3rd rounder. Podz was a good, risky pick at 10. He wasn’t what I expected but then again I didn’t think Jimbo would go for a Russian. Kudos to him for having some balls. Hoglander was a great pick and I see him being a top 6 forward here for years to come, top 9 at worst. Keppen has potential in the 4th round. The rest of them were all over the map but seemed like decent swings at potential. No D drafted is a bit concerning though Jimbo is right to point out they’ve spent a lot of time and money there lately in both the draft and FA.
Trades - C - Miller was an overpayment, especially when seeing what guys like Colin Miller got in return. I like the player but would have preferred Nyqvist for nothing but dollars and keeping the 1st and 3rd - he wanted to come here too to play with Petey, so it could have happened. Miller is a bit younger but the contract and production is basically the same and you keep the assets. The Francis Perron deal has the potential to produce some NHL depth but it’s not enough to move the needle.
Free Agency - B+ - like Myers signing is fine, ya it’s too much money and probably a year too long, but I don’t think it’s going to be a Loui-esque killer contract. The Benn contract is a good one for a versatile depth defender. The Fantenburg deal is whatever, depth signing. The goalie and Graovac are for Utica. Myers is a B signing, Benn an A so the grade is right in between.
Re-signings - A - the Edler contract is a no brainer at good term and dollars.
RFA signings - incomplete - Boeser, Goldy, Leivo, Boucher, Perron, Teves and Rafferty all need new deals. None signed yet but the big one is Brock and hopefully Jimbo gets him signed to a nice long term deal. Update - Motte signed for 1 year and $925k which is right about what was expected.
Overall to date - a solid B+. The draft was good, the Miller trade was an overpayment even if he’s a nice player that will fit in well. The UFA signings were better than expected both in term and dollars spent. The RFA signings are still to come. If Jimbo signs them all he has 16 forwards and 12 D on the roster so Utica should have some good players and there’s room to move out some bodies, I will update this later in the summer as it’s likely we won’t see much else happen for the next month or two.
The RFA signings have been good so far as well - subject to the big one still to come of course.
The only iffy piece of business he’s done so far is to overpay for Miller with a 1st but the rest has been solid.
Good job Jimbo, he’s getting dangerously close to an A this offseason. If he gets Boeser on a decent deal and can ship out some deadwood - of which there is a lot - he will get an A from me.
Isn’t it amazing how even the ‘Benning Bashers’ like me and Blob like it when Jimbo does a good job? It’s almost like we were objective or something.....