After Saturday morning’s news bombshell from Elliotte Friedman that top Jets prospect Rutger McGroarty‘s name had come up in trade conversations but not just from teams calling Winnipeg about acquiring him but also from Winnipeg discussing trading him which is an important distinction.
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Now that the Stanley Cup Final has concluded and with the first round of the NHL Draft approaching on Friday night the business of hockey is expected to ramp up.
To that end on today’s 32 Thoughts Podcast (starts at the 42:33 mark), Jeff Marek begins the segment on McGroaty saying “We mentioned this on the last podcast. He will be traded. whether it happens before or after the draft, Elliotte do you have a Spidey sense or finger in the wind on this one”?
Friedman indicated:
“I think it could happen before. Someone told me ‘be ready right after the Final. Be ready.’ There were two things I was told to be ready for before the Draft. McGroarty and Ullmark. I’m sure there are other things out there but those were the two things I was told ‘be ready for them’. “
Marek followed-up with asking for clarity on how this situation came about and then mentioned if the team needs to make a demonstration to the marketplace that “young players do want to stay and play here”. After a bit of a preamble on public pressure Friedman said this about the clarity element of the question:
“Look. I think the McGroarty thing broke down at the end of his season. Some of his teammates at Michigan, Frank Nazar was one of them, they made their NHL debuts. But Frank Nazar did it in Chicago and they had nothing to play for. Winnipeg was playing for the best possible position in a brutal division that featured Colorado and Dallas and obviously it didn’t work out. But that didn’t mean the process was wrong. You had to go for the best seeding you could get. And it wasn’t like they could do it like Chicago could. But if you’re McGroarty you see your friend get a chance to make their debut, you don’t get to do it and their is probably some level of FOMO (fear of missing out). And then you hear next year ‘you know what we’re not sure you’re ready yet, you’re not guaranteed a spot’, and if you have your choice between going back to a third year at Michigan or going to the AHL in Manitoba, I don’t know a 20 or 21 year old kid who wouldn’t pick going back to Michigan. And I think that’s where it broke down.”
He also spoke about Perfetti and Heinola :
“I know Perfetti has been brought up and Heinola’s been brought up. And maybe that started to become a thing. Ok somewhere down the road it might be like that. But, but I think in general I think it was a short term thing. I think the relationship changed when the path this year and the early path next year, it wasn’t open to him”.
He then went on to discuss the CBA and how college guys are using the four year rule against teams.
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