Kristian Huselius for Michal Rozsival
 

Jackets fan, curious as to whether a deal based around Huselius for Rozsival might work.

Juice doesn't really fit our team's style of play, but he's still managed to put up 33 points while many of our other players are struggling.

We could use a veteran defenseman like Rozsival, even if he's imperfect. We've had to rely way to much on guys like Anton Stralman and Mathieu Roy because of Rusty Klesla's recurring injury problems and Mike Commodore's recurring conditioning problems.

Salaries are comparable (Juice is slightly cheaper), but Huselius has one additional year on his deal beyond Rozsival's.

Thoughts?

Do you plan on speaking to the Jackets' GM if we agree to the terms?

sure, id do it. smaller cap hit and anything is an improvement from rozsival

If the Jackets GM listened to me, Ken Hitchcock wouldn't be our coach.

No thank you. Any deal longer than Rozsival's would be a no.

Yeah. I'm not looking to add years on contracts for under-performing players. If we ship out Rozsival, I want it to be in a deal for someone legit (unlikely) or a salary dump.

the point of moving rozsival is to free up cap space which could be used to get better players and resign our young players.....not just a swap of overpaid players hoping something changes for both players.

Actually, Huselius only has 2 years left, same as Rozsival. I still wouldn't do it though. We already have 2 rookies on defense and we could use Rozy's money in the offseason to resign Staal and Girardi. Hopefully we can find a buyer at the draft.

Not a bad idea, what about Redden + Sauer for Huselius + Torres/Modin

Salaries work out this year and the Rangers make some room on defense for McDonagh or Sangs next season while also clearing some cap room.

I would do this in a second.

Huselius and Rozy contracts end the same time, and Huselius is little cheaper. We are getting rid of Rozy and adding a pretty decent offensive player. For a team struggling to find goals, why wouldn't we want to add a 2nd line winger? His 14 goals and 33 points would be second on the team.

This would also allow us to bring up a dman from the AHL to get a fair shot.

Nobody is going to just take Rozy off our hands to free up our cap. Lets not forget how bad he's been for most of the season and GMs know this.

The trade makes more sense now that I know the deals expire at the same time. I've never been enamored with Huselius, but I'd at least consider it now.

This trade would be beneficial for us next season, but detrimental for us this season. So I dont take huge issue with it. Seems like an okay fit actually. Rangers might have to add a mid level pick though.

Agreed.

Huselius is a pretty good playmaking winger and I would imagine he would easier to move in the offseason than Rozsival would be if it came to that. I would make that deal and possibly look for a #6 d-man at the deadline for cheap to fill the hole for the rest of the season.

Absolutely.

Yes, and I'll take you out to a steak dinner if you take Rozsival off this team.

I'd probably do it. I liked Huselius as an option when he went to free agency, but he's been kind of hit or miss in Columbus. He might do better in a Tortorella system as opposed to Hitchcocks.

That being said, based on the timing, I think this deal might make more sense if it was a 2 for 2. I.e: We send Rozy and Higgins for Huselius + 5/6 d-man on an expiring contract. Jurcina would be ideal for us right now, but I doubt he'd be available.

This. I would make this trade in 0.05 seconds. Huselius immediately makes an impact on the Rangers offense, wheras Roszival could be "replaced" from within by a rookie. Obviously it hurts us defensively slightly, but in the future it's really not that big of a deal. Plus Huselius would be an easy trade at the deadline in a year or so.

I'd be in favor of it.

Even though we're desperate for some offense, I'm not sure Tortorella would want to do it.

He didn't seem too confident in either Heikkinen or Sanguinetti at this point and though the terms been used as a joke I don't think Huselius is a Torts' "type of guy".

I would have to say ok to this one.

Hits and term are relatively the same, but this team needs offense and Huselius would help supply a little more of that. A concern would be defense obviously as Rozy takes a big chunk of time per game, but its not like the Rangers have gotten consistent performance out of him and hes had plenty of time to prove that.

I have to say though that Rozy is a gamer, and has played well in the playoff games and in big games like the Devils game on Tuesday. It seems as if if hes on the Rangers most likely play well and when hes off, they suck. He is a very influential player on this team whether you like it or not - so I'm not sure if the coach and GM would go for something like this.

But, that really has nothing to do with the Rangers issues on a whole and i think as a Rangers fan you would have to make this deal with the future in mind. I think it would be an upgrade to the team once Rozys position was filled again, this time with the right player and cap hit.

Value-wise I like the deal, but there are some concerns when you consider how this would impact us this year and next.

1) We replace Rozy with Heikkenin, Sauer or Sanguinetti, weakening our defense
2) We have to bring up yet another rookie in case of injury or poor performance
3) I believe Rozy is targetted to be traded in the offseason to free up money to resign Staal and Girardi. This trade would leave us with little cap space since we would likely not trade Huselius in the offseason.

Now, to point 3, I believe that Rozy can be traded this offseason. Whatever his deficiencies, he's still a top 4 dman. The fact that he has a high cap hit won't matter to cash-poor teams since his actual pay will only be 4 and 3 million for the last 2 years of his deal.

We likely won't be able to clear the entire 5 mil...something will be coming back...but it should be enough to give raises to Staal and Girardi.

If we are going to trade Rozy before the deadline, I'd rather it be for an expiring contract.

No way.

Rozsival is due $7 million over the next two seasons. Huselius is due $9.5 million over the same period.

In the summer,some team which missed out on landing a free agent defenseman will be in the market for a defenseman. A budget team. Not a cap team. $4 million and $3 million in salaries are what they care about and not the cap #.

This.

We do this because not only is it a slight cap relief, we get a bit more offense, andit allows a younger player to rotate in on defense.

Not to mention, I feel that Huselius is a much better bargaining chip than Rozsival if we need to move him.

What rookie is ready to play 20+ minutes a night providing solid play? And lets not let the misguided bashers of the guy stink up this thread, Roszival has been playing very good hockey for over a month now. In fact, hes been our second best defenseman behind Staal. Thats not easily replaceable.

But I digress, I like Huselius a lot and would have liked to seen the Ranger make a run at him a year and a half ago. Hes a good player, but his contract is a bit inflated. Id be on the fence about this one.

Roszival is increasing his trade value every game nowadays. In the offseason, the Rangers should be able to unload him with minimal salary coming back...that should be plan #1.