Marchenko on the move

[St. Charles Bronson]

I'm not interested in any trade that involves Jake Neighbours. Hopefully they sign him to a new, long-term deal sometime soon.

[Old_Goat]

There's nothing wrong with Columbus. They aren't moving. The same black cloud once hung over the Panthers. And then they finally got the right coach and GM in place.

They might not be moving but that still doesn’t make it a desirable place to live or a franchise players want to play for. Ft. Lauderdale is a lot more desirable than Columbus. And they have the tax advantage too.

It’s going to be hard for a team like Columbus to get over the hump. They can get good players but it’ll be hard to get enough of them to want to go there or stay there to truly be competitive. And now that it’s becoming more clear lots of players don’t want to go there, the ones that are there don’t want to stay as they know that sort of recipe will never lead to a team good enough to truly compete for a Cup so why should they bother staying in a losing situation?

Marchenko appears to want out, they got Werenski to back away from wanting to leave a bit but he still hasn’t signed an extension. And I doubt he does unless they get better…but they’re not going to get better by trading Marchenko for 2-3 lesser parts. They can’t get any UFAs to sign there…my guess is Werenski eventually gets dealt too. The can was just kicked down the road a bit.

It is now. But a decade ago the Panthers tax advantage and weather didn't matter when numerous players had them on their no trade list. Blue Jackets have whiffed on some of their draft picks. If they ever hire the right coach and GM, there's no reason they can't at least be a playoff team.

Ok. But if the best they can do is make the playoffs here and there, is that enough to keep players there? And the best coaches and GMs would probably want to avoid going there too as it’s that much harder of a job to try to be successful there for them too.

The Panthers have those advantages they could lean on once they got a competent front office. Columbus has basically no good selling points.

As someone who grew up in StL and spent time in both markets, I can't say there is that much difference between the two cities.

I would agree but there is a huge difference in hockey history and also I don't think players are dyeing to come to STL either.

I do think there is a lot to said for proving you are going to be a highly competitive team short and long term no matter the city and I think if Columbus would do that they'd be fine.

Agreed. The Blues have been around for nearly 60 years, are well run, their players aren’t all trying to leave, they usually make the playoffs (but yes I’m aware of the record the last 4 years) and have a Cup. Columbus has made the playoffs 6 times in 26 years and have 1 series win ever. Two series wins if you want to count the Covid play-in round in the 2020 bubble where 12 teams in each conference “made” the playoffs.

STL as a city isn’t a big draw either. We have trouble getting UFAs to sign here or waive their NTC to come here but once players are here, they tend to want to stay. That’s not the case in Columbus. Players really don’t want to sign or be traded there and quite a few of the players they do get there try to leave as soon as they can.

Success brings success. A team needs to build enough success on their own to become a desirable enough destination for other players to look at it and say, yeah, I want to be a part of that. But when a team can’t do that first step because a lot of their RFAs don’t want to re-sign there, they just can’t get over that hump to fill in the gaps with trades and free agent signings to truly build a contender. And once an org has that reputation, it’s really hard to get away from.

That’s where Buffalo was for years. And a year ago, Tage Thompson hinted at wanting out of this last season didn’t go well. If Buffalo hadn’t finally broken out, we likely wouldn’t seen TT force his way out, no way Benson signs that big extension etc. Buffalo was really close to disaster there with TT close to following ROR, Eichel, Bennett etc as star players forcing their way out of a bad situation.

Buffalo barely found a way to do it but I just don’t think Columbus will be able to have the same sort of luck. Don’t think they’ll be able to improve enough to convince Werenski to stay. The Johnny Hockey tragedy hit that team hard. He surprisingly signed there and maybe he could’ve drawn some more star players there. But now they don’t have much left and are pretty easily a bottom half team in the league with really no clear path out of that. Nothing real ace in the hole for them to play to get out of their mess.

Buffalo finally just breaks out and then they decide to hire John Davidson as Senior Advisor for the organization...Hmmmm.
Anyway, back to Columbus...

[STL fan in MN]

There's nothing wrong with Columbus. They aren't moving. The same black cloud once hung over the Panthers. And then they finally got the right coach and GM in place.

They might not be moving but that still doesn’t make it a desirable place to live or a franchise players want to play for. Ft. Lauderdale is a lot more desirable than Columbus. And they have the tax advantage too.

It’s going to be hard for a team like Columbus to get over the hump. They can get good players but it’ll be hard to get enough of them to want to go there or stay there to truly be competitive. And now that it’s becoming more clear lots of players don’t want to go there, the ones that are there don’t want to stay as they know that sort of recipe will never lead to a team good enough to truly compete for a Cup so why should they bother staying in a losing situation?

Marchenko appears to want out, they got Werenski to back away from wanting to leave a bit but he still hasn’t signed an extension. And I doubt he does unless they get better…but they’re not going to get better by trading Marchenko for 2-3 lesser parts. They can’t get any UFAs to sign there…my guess is Werenski eventually gets dealt too. The can was just kicked down the road a bit.

It is now. But a decade ago the Panthers tax advantage and weather didn't matter when numerous players had them on their no trade list. Blue Jackets have whiffed on some of their draft picks. If they ever hire the right coach and GM, there's no reason they can't at least be a playoff team.

Ok. But if the best they can do is make the playoffs here and there, is that enough to keep players there? And the best coaches and GMs would probably want to avoid going there too as it’s that much harder of a job to try to be successful there for them too.

The Panthers have those advantages they could lean on once they got a competent front office. Columbus has basically no good selling points.

As someone who grew up in StL and spent time in both markets, I can't say there is that much difference between the two cities.

I would agree but there is a huge difference in hockey history and also I don't think players are dyeing to come to STL either.

I do think there is a lot to said for proving you are going to be a highly competitive team short and long term no matter the city and I think if Columbus would do that they'd be fine.

Agreed. The Blues have been around for nearly 60 years, are well run, their players aren’t all trying to leave, they usually make the playoffs (but yes I’m aware of the record the last 4 years) and have a Cup. Columbus has made the playoffs 6 times in 26 years and have 1 series win ever. Two series wins if you want to count the Covid play-in round in the 2020 bubble where 12 teams in each conference “made” the playoffs.

STL as a city isn’t a big draw either. We have trouble getting UFAs to sign here or waive their NTC to come here but once players are here, they tend to want to stay. That’s not the case in Columbus. Players really don’t want to sign or be traded there and quite a few of the players they do get there try to leave as soon as they can.

Success brings success. A team needs to build enough success on their own to become a desirable enough destination for other players to look at it and say, yeah, I want to be a part of that. But when a team can’t do that first step because a lot of their RFAs don’t want to re-sign there, they just can’t get over that hump to fill in the gaps with trades and free agent signings to truly build a contender. And once an org has that reputation, it’s really hard to get away from.

That’s where Buffalo was for years. And a year ago, Tage Thompson hinted at wanting out of this last season didn’t go well. If Buffalo hadn’t finally broken out, we likely wouldn’t seen TT force his way out, no way Benson signs that big extension etc. Buffalo was really close to disaster there with TT close to following ROR, Eichel, Bennett etc as star players forcing their way out of a bad situation.

Buffalo barely found a way to do it but I just don’t think Columbus will be able to have the same sort of luck. Don’t think they’ll be able to improve enough to convince Werenski to stay. The Johnny Hockey tragedy hit that team hard. He surprisingly signed there and maybe he could’ve drawn some more star players there. But now they don’t have much left and are pretty easily a bottom half team in the league with really no clear path out of that. Nothing real ace in the hole for them to play to get out of their mess.

Buffalo finally just breaks out and then they decide to hire John Davidson as Senior Advisor for the organization...Hmmmm.
Anyway, back to Columbus...

Yeah, Jarmo and JD back together for the 3rd time. Which I’ve always found interesting as it was JD that passed over Jarmo as GM here when he hired Army away from Dallas to be our GM in waiting all those years ago, which caused Jarmo to leave the org. Guess Jarmo wasn’t that mad about it or understood and they eventually figured they work well together.

I’ll be rooting for Buffalo. They’re also not a prime destination as snowy Buffalo is a hard hard sell in the dead of winter but it’s a great sports town and I like how they’ve built their team.

[Old_Goat]

There's nothing wrong with Columbus. They aren't moving. The same black cloud once hung over the Panthers. And then they finally got the right coach and GM in place.

They might not be moving but that still doesn’t make it a desirable place to live or a franchise players want to play for. Ft. Lauderdale is a lot more desirable than Columbus. And they have the tax advantage too.

It’s going to be hard for a team like Columbus to get over the hump. They can get good players but it’ll be hard to get enough of them to want to go there or stay there to truly be competitive. And now that it’s becoming more clear lots of players don’t want to go there, the ones that are there don’t want to stay as they know that sort of recipe will never lead to a team good enough to truly compete for a Cup so why should they bother staying in a losing situation?

Marchenko appears to want out, they got Werenski to back away from wanting to leave a bit but he still hasn’t signed an extension. And I doubt he does unless they get better…but they’re not going to get better by trading Marchenko for 2-3 lesser parts. They can’t get any UFAs to sign there…my guess is Werenski eventually gets dealt too. The can was just kicked down the road a bit.

It is now. But a decade ago the Panthers tax advantage and weather didn't matter when numerous players had them on their no trade list. Blue Jackets have whiffed on some of their draft picks. If they ever hire the right coach and GM, there's no reason they can't at least be a playoff team.

Ok. But if the best they can do is make the playoffs here and there, is that enough to keep players there? And the best coaches and GMs would probably want to avoid going there too as it’s that much harder of a job to try to be successful there for them too.

The Panthers have those advantages they could lean on once they got a competent front office. Columbus has basically no good selling points.

As someone who grew up in StL and spent time in both markets, I can't say there is that much difference between the two cities.

I would agree but there is a huge difference in hockey history and also I don't think players are dyeing to come to STL either.

I do think there is a lot to said for proving you are going to be a highly competitive team short and long term no matter the city and I think if Columbus would do that they'd be fine.

Agreed. The Blues have been around for nearly 60 years, are well run, their players aren’t all trying to leave, they usually make the playoffs (but yes I’m aware of the record the last 4 years) and have a Cup. Columbus has made the playoffs 6 times in 26 years and have 1 series win ever. Two series wins if you want to count the Covid play-in round in the 2020 bubble where 12 teams in each conference “made” the playoffs.

STL as a city isn’t a big draw either. We have trouble getting UFAs to sign here or waive their NTC to come here but once players are here, they tend to want to stay. That’s not the case in Columbus. Players really don’t want to sign or be traded there and quite a few of the players they do get there try to leave as soon as they can.

Success brings success. A team needs to build enough success on their own to become a desirable enough destination for other players to look at it and say, yeah, I want to be a part of that. But when a team can’t do that first step because a lot of their RFAs don’t want to re-sign there, they just can’t get over that hump to fill in the gaps with trades and free agent signings to truly build a contender. And once an org has that reputation, it’s really hard to get away from.

That’s where Buffalo was for years. And a year ago, Tage Thompson hinted at wanting out of this last season didn’t go well. If Buffalo hadn’t finally broken out, we likely wouldn’t seen TT force his way out, no way Benson signs that big extension etc. Buffalo was really close to disaster there with TT close to following ROR, Eichel, Bennett etc as star players forcing their way out of a bad situation.

Buffalo barely found a way to do it but I just don’t think Columbus will be able to have the same sort of luck. Don’t think they’ll be able to improve enough to convince Werenski to stay. The Johnny Hockey tragedy hit that team hard. He surprisingly signed there and maybe he could’ve drawn some more star players there. But now they don’t have much left and are pretty easily a bottom half team in the league with really no clear path out of that. Nothing real ace in the hole for them to play to get out of their mess.

Buffalo finally just breaks out and then they decide to hire John Davidson as Senior Advisor for the organization...Hmmmm.
Anyway, back to Columbus...

Yeah, Jarmo and JD back together for the 3rd time. Which I’ve always found interesting as it was JD that passed over Jarmo as GM here when he hired Army away from Dallas to be our GM in waiting all those years ago, which caused Jarmo to leave the org. Guess Jarmo wasn’t that mad about it or understood and they eventually figured they work well together.

I’ll be rooting for Buffalo. They’re also not a prime destination as snowy Buffalo is a hard hard sell in the dead of winter but it’s a great sports town and I like how they’ve built their team.

Yes, Buffalo is a good hockey town. But Success is what really sells. There is no perfect destination.

What gets lost in all of these discussions: Even if a destination is close to perfect there are only 23 seats available on a roster. And they cannot fill it with all double-digit $ salaries. And even if there was no cap, without real competition and broad anticipation of success, isn't it possible that many league games could devolve into a boring TV show that ends well before the clock runs out?

[BluesDom]

They all agreed that JN63 would probably be part of the return. The real debate was around how much more it would cost (a 1st AND a prospect, a 1st and another NHL ready player). The most interesting part to me was the disconnect on Jiricek. A couple of them said they’d be OK including him and one was totally against it…claimed Jiricek will be another Petro. I can’t remember who said what exactly, but Jiricek was a bit of a lightning rod inclusion for sure.
[/quote]

Marchenko may or may not be moved. The Blues are not in the market for him. It is something to talk about but its not really ever going to happen.
We have major $ commitments to Holloway, Thomas, Buchnevich, Broberg, Parayko, Binnington, McMichael, McTavish, Fowler and have to be mindful of Mailloux, Hofer, Snuggerud and Neighbours upcoming contracts.

We wouldnt want or need Marchenko. We also couldnt afford him and still retain our upcoming RFA's.