Would Olli Jokinen be a gamble worth Taking?

Jokinen’s on-ice impact wasn’t good in the last three seasons.

In 2007-08, he only ranked in the top 30 in just on-ice SF/60 and just outside of it for SF/60 impact. Meaning, when he stepped on the ice, his team’s shots for per 60 minutes went up. That’s good. Everything else, on the other hand, was not so good.

In 2008-09, he didn’t even rank that high in shots, falling in the lower half of all the forwards I filtered out in all areas from on-ice stats to on-ice impact to adjusted CORSI/60 to even just PDO. Not desirable at all.

2009-10 saw improvement to his impact. He didn’t rank in the top 30 but he had good on-ice GF/60, SF/60, and SF/60 impact – all above half. His adjusted CORSI/60 was even 54th, so that was a big improvement. Again, all else wasn’t so good.

However, overall, he didn’t appear to make the Panthers, Flames, or Rangers all that much better when he stepped on the ice outside of a handful of stats.

Looking at GVT, his total 2009-10 GVT was 7.6. Not bad, that puts him with Simon Gagne, Gilbert Brule, and Steve Sullivan. So he has contributed despite some not-so-inspiring on-ice and on-ice impact stats.

His durability, his 49.3 FO% from last season, and the fact he would fit better on an offensive line are all good points. Perhaps he would fit in with Derek Zona’s suggestion that he could be a center who outscores weak competition while Zajac’s getting it done against the tougher opponents.

But I’m not so sure if he’ll be an answer. For a one year deal, OK, I might take a flyer on Jokinen if the other center options aren’t available. If it works, great; if not, then go back to FA for 2011 or hope there’s a center ready from within.

Given that he’s coming off a salary of $5.25 million (!!!), I’m not so confident he’ll want to take significantly less money. I don’t think the Devils should go after him hard or anyway; but he could be a Plan B/C move.

Its either a home run or Brian Rolston.. I was ecstatic when Lou signed Rollie, look at him now…. Jokinen is kind of a gamble. He could either score 20+ goals or barely reach 15 goals. He could be a valuable asset at a cheap price in between Kovy and Elias. I mean look at the guys he played with, Rangers- Avery, Callahan, maybe Prospal, and with the exception of Gaborik. Not that type of offense powerful line every center wants. Look at Gomez. You see other centers that I think are better than Jokinen like Cullen, Koivu, Belanger, and (yes) Higgins. Higgins is interesting to me. Loved a big city in Montreal and faulters with New York. New Jersey could seem the (low market) media he didn’t get in New York. Given Higgins had terrible line combos with the Rangers and with Montreal I think he had Kovalev and maybe Kostystin. Like John said above Jokinen probably wouldn’t take a salary less than 3 million. One year. Fine. Multiple. See you in the KHL buddy. There are better options than Olli right now.

Matthew Lombardi had slightly better or equivalent numbers in nearly every category, plus stayed out of the box a heck of a lot more, is 3 years younger and less than half the (current) salary. Avoiding washed-up or declining ex-Rangers is always a good move.

Thats a mess I would avoid. Hopefully he thinks the same thing.

Semin’s much better than Elias
Last year Fehr was better than Zubrus.
Morrison played in an offensive powerhouse system where everyone scored 20+ goals. If Peters played on that team he would have even 10 goals.

he would have atleast 3.

Lou gave the general speech that he gave when Rafalski, Gomez, Madden and Gionta left, the old “we respect all our players” speech. He wants Kovalchuk, not Martin.

How about Eric Belanger? Lombardi? What about Madden? Madden apparently just built a house in NJ.

Simple answer: No.

Because:

…lets face facts: Calgary was pretty bad offensively this season, ranking 29th in Goals/Game at 2.48…The Rangers were better offensively than the Flames (16th in goals/game and 13th in PP efficiency)…

if being on teams that struggle offensively excuses his lack of offensive production, adding him to the 19th ranked offense isn’t going to help our Devils.

Stats aside, I personally don’t like the guy. Never have.

He was relied on in Florida to be “the” guy, but never lived up to expectations. He was supposed to find his groove with the change in scenery in Phoenix and was even worse. He was supposed to be part of the spark in Calgary to get them over the hump, and they couldn’t get rid of him fast enough. He wasn’t really supposed to do much for the Rangers as he came over in part of a salary dump, but they were really hoping he’d help their sputtering Gaborik offense. True to form, however, he didn’t.

How many fresh starts does a guy deserve before it’s safe to write him off as a career underachiever?

Get Douglas Murray on this team now!!!! Somebody who can take the body.

why hasn’t the prospect of bringing in Prospal been brought up he was making just over 1 million this year with the Rangers. Secondly he has had experience playing with some real solid players such as Gaborik, St. Louis, and Lecavalier. Unless of course he has signed some deal over in Europe that i’m not aware of recently. I think a line with Kovy, Prospal and Elias be a great line. And of course leave the top line as is being ZZPops. then you could have Rolston down with Clarkson, and Palmieri, hasn’t Rolston been a center at some point and if not then i’d assume signing Prospal would open us up for another center such as a Belanger and the fourth line could be P3L, Pelley and maybe Zharky or some other youngster. I’m also taking into account that makes it tough to keep Martin. However to get Prospal even at 2 million we could put Pandolfo in AHL that would free up some cap space. And if a committee of young defense didn’t work out we could bring in another veteran such as McKee or a dark horse who i’d go after that being Douglas Murray though that would be a long shot.

the Captain. I’d also like to see the likes of Leblond getting some powerplay time who knows could end up doing the dirty work that Holmstrom now enjoys in Detroit. I realize to expect those numbers Homstrom gets for Leblond is way out there but he would make a good screen heck in the playoffs we used White and you could see he looked out of sink up in the crease. I’m interested to see how many think me insane for suggesting Kovy as captain. Though that may make Parise feel he’s gonna get the axe next year.

Leblond fights, I haven’t seen any Holmstrom fights in a while. Theres no way Leblond will get PP time unless he can show Holmstrom like screening. But in my case thats Clarkson’s position.

the only thing im concerned with in regards to Clarky is the penalties he takes don’t want our powerplay ended due to a penalty by us. Hope all the bad penalties he took in philly series won’t happen to us again. Also would love to see Holmstrom come to NJ wishful thinking i know.

then i’d definitely be letting Kovalchuk go. But more than anything tell me if i’m wrong we need a defensive overhaul. I’d make sure we could get Marleau before parting with Kovalchuk though. Lets not forget though Zubrus and Elias are natural wingers just our last two coaches couldn’t get that through there head. Whoever decided they were better at center was mistaken.