doubt that gets us OEL. Smith has negative value, Maatta is okay, Nylander is okay, and its a middle 1st.

I doubt the Yotes will trade their captain for table scraps and a 1st

You're probably right, but also keep in mind that OEL himself is overpaid and AZ really needs to shed expenses. They weren't even making money pre COVID.

I’m just going to say that OEL is on the decline and we don’t need to add another contract of an aging defenseman. Even if he is fantasitc for two years, he does not put us over the top towards winning a cup. The next 5 years of his contract will be brutal for our cap situation, and we will be in a worse all around position because of acquiring him.


Let’s not jump the gun, develop talent from within.

Agree. Personally never been an OEL fan and I’ve been to dozens of Yotes games when I lived in Phx. I’d rather acquire prospects, picks, or ELCs than established big name/money players. Unless his name is Connor McJesus I don’t see those kinds of players making us significantly better.

There is some serious irony to that last statement when we traded our best RHD prospect for a guy who couldn’t make it into the buffalo lineup. Literally half the teams in the league coulda given us a better return. Or...... we coulda just kept developing that talent that came from within? Yes? Isn’t the point of a logjam getting to trade assets for better pieces cuz you have leverage as we did with RHDs?

Stop with the OEL trades, especially if you don't think he's a clear #1 over Keith. The guy is signed for way too big of a cap hit for 7 more years. This is like Erik Carlsson, wouldn't want that contract either. These players might be playing at their contract values today, but in 3 years these deals will start looking bad and only look worse beyond that.

So you are using a mistake to justify further mistakes? That does not seem like a good argument.

Jokiharju was defiant and because Mitchell, who was supposed to join the Hawks last offseason, was/is coming up, it made Jokiharju expendable. I agree, the Hawks got a bad return on him, but this was talked about by multiple beat writers including The Athletic (you should subscribe if you don't) that it was known by other teams Jokiharju was having problems with being coached in Chicago, left for Finland against the hawks advice, and Mitchell was a better prospect in the system. So I'm betting, the Hawks couldn't get great value for Jokiharju but we will never know the truth on that. That being said, we needed a forward prospect because our forward prospect pool for a top 6 player was dead at the time. I also think, all the fans still talking about Jokiharju will quickly forget about them once they see Mitchell....he is by all measures a better prospect and should be a better player. Furthermore, with the cheap acquisition of Regula for Perlini, we now have another solid RHD prospect that will be a year or two away. Mitchell, Boqvist, Regula (with Nylander) is better then Mitchell, Boqvist, Jokiharju. I'll be a lot of money on that one.

Well, glad you said that stan. Let’s look at mistakes justifying further mistakes.

Stanley “I’ll never be daddy” bowman chose to give Bryan bickell, a man is who never had a stand out regular season and ONE decent playoff a 4 million per year contract for four years. Bickell gets MS, we can’t handle his cap hit, and we need to package teuvo with him to move him. A mistake to justify a mistake of a contract.

Stanley “really, I built this core” Bowman chose to trade Saad at the beginning of his strongest point because we couldn’t afford him. Fair enough, anisimov had two to three-ish decent years with the hawks. Two years later, panarin is a superstar in the making playing the best hockey Kane has ever enjoyed. Stan bridges him to a 2 year deal for 6 mil per. Yet, they trade him to get back Saad who isn’t even in the same league as panarin, even back then, and the stats for both players since only reinforces that. However, he claims it was “cap control” more than anything. A mistake of a move to justify avoiding a mistake that in turn became a mistake, whoa, crazy! Translation: we always wanted Saad and made a “mistake” trading him, we knew couldn’t afford panarin down line and wanted to avoid that “mistake,” so we made a “mistake” of a trade. Justification folks.

Stanley “Fear my laser eyes” Bowman (just for you) decides after a disgraceful Nashville series to blow up the team into the ****ing stratosphere. On draft day we trade hammer and Panarin within minutes of each other for lesser returns. Murphy is finally working out, but only finally. The panarin needs no defense as there is none. Q, a coach who wasn’t a bowman guy and wasn’t a bowman hire, storms out of the meeting for these trades. What follows is the worst season in a decade. Bowman made a **** team that even Q couldn’t make work. The following year, bowman finally has all the ammo he needs, and Q is made the martyr for Bowman’s mistakes. Bowman viewed Q as a “mistake” and used that as justification to fire him, an even bigger, “colossal” mistake.

Need more? I got plenty.

Somehow I didn’t really see a point In there, unless you are just saying “fire bowman”

So tell me, because it seems you are in a mood to talk today, what do you think about this trade?

I do find it fascinating that the athletic reported jokers trouble being coached in Chicago. Just curious, was that before or after Q left and a child was hired? Also, I seriously love the amount of praise the Athletic gets sometimes. I’m not ripping them, but it is hilarious how some only trust them.

Mitchell being better is a moot point. I have plenty of confidence that he will be good, but at this point it’s still just speculation, and if I get heat from hawks fans for anything on this site, it’s speculation on other teams and not my own team. Either way, joker is good, and is an NHL player. He’s stuck on buffalo now, which sucks for him. But the fans who say we need a forward pool, we got nylander, it’s not like we got cozens, Reinhart, or even middlestadt. If you’re going to do that trade, get something worth jokers value. This is the lowest I’ve felt about nylander since we traded for him. I want a reason to like him but he SUCKED in the playoffs.

Boqvist, Mitchell, and regula is pure speculation right now. Again, I get **** for that all the time on this site because I give praise to lots of players around the league and apparently not enough to hawks players and prospects. All I know is Mitchell and regula haven’t played an NHL game yet and joker has. I don’t mind if people speculate cuz that’s how prospects work. Boqvist can’t play defense but can play offense. Mitchell is pretty decent all around, ala a jack of all trades and king of none. Regula is a good offensive presence that hasn’t excelled on the defensive side yet like Boqvist. Right side looks set for offense and little defense. We still want Colliton as our coach right?????? That being said, keep your money and just hope for the best.

I’m just pointing out the irony of “you” saying we should grow from within after the joker trade. Then you said a mistake justifying a mistake is a bad argument. To which I brought up examples of how bowman has done that the last 6-7 years. Plus, let’s face it, he’s traded every good prospect this team had. Sorry dude, just love the irony of that profile name sometimes.

As for the trade, thanks, I hate it.

I agree with that opinion of the trade, and I think I’m a pretty knowledgeable fan... so I’m not sure why you are telling me things I already know.

Anyways, Peace.