With the Stanley Cup now awarded, the offseason is now in full swing. What storylines lie ahead around the league in the weeks to come? Our Offseason Keys series continues with a look at the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Last summer, the Blue Jackets made one of the bigger trades of the summer when they shipped Brandon Saad to Chicago in exchange for Artemi Panarin. They were hoping that the Russian winger would provide them with more firepower up front. While he had a nice year, the team actually scored less and were ousted in the opening round once again. While GM Jarmo Kekalainen will assuredly want to try to add to his roster, several of his keys this summer involve dealing with his current players.
Extension Talks
A lot of teams have one notable player that they will likely sit down to discuss a contract extension with over the course of the offseason. Columbus has three that are going to require a lot of attention including a pair of significant potential unrestricted free agents.
Let’s start with Panarin. Being moved away from Patrick Kane and the Blackhawks didn’t exactly slow him down. In fact, he hit the point-per-game mark for the first time in his NHL career, collecting 82 (27-55-82) in 81 games. He led the Blue Jackets in scoring by a whopping 25 points. It’s hard to ask for much more than that. The 26-year-old signed a two-year, $12MM deal with the Blackhawks after they were unable to work out a long-term pact that fit under their cap structure, a decision that wound up being moot given that he was dealt before the contract even kicked in. The price tag has only gone up since then as he projects to be one of the top forwards that could hit the open market in July 2019.
Then there’s Sergei Bobrovsky, their undisputed number one goalie. While he didn’t put up the same numbers he did in 2016-17 that saw him win the Vezina Trophy, he was still well above average while being among the league leaders in games played and shots faced. Joonas Korpisalo doesn’t appear to be their long-term option as goalie of the future and there isn’t anyone in the system that’s nearing NHL readiness either. Columbus badly needs to re-sign (or replace) the 29-year-old but it won’t be cheap. Bobrovsky is already at a $7.45MM cap hit and as salaries go up around the league, it’s not crazy to think that he’ll be the second-highest-paid goalie in the league for 2019-20 if they can get an extension done.
On the restricted free agent side is defenseman Zach Werenski. He has quickly emerged as a core player and ranked second in their blueline in points (37) and average ice time (22:35). In recent years, youngsters in situations like these often forego the bridge contract in favor of inking a long-term pact that buys out some UFA eligibility. Independent of everything else, this is something Kekalainen would certainly like to do. However, if they intend to lock up Panarin and Bobrovsky as well, they may be forced to go the shorter-term route to keep the cap hit down. Accordingly, it wouldn’t be surprising to see any extension talks for Werenski delayed until they have a better sense of what is going on with their two UFAs.
Re-Sign Or Trade?
Defenseman Ryan Murray and forward Boone Jenner were expected to be long-term fixtures in Columbus. Both have had up-and-down times in their careers and they both are coming off of somewhat-disappointing seasons. With the duo now being arbitration-eligible, Kekalainen will need to decide if they’re still part of the plans for the foreseeable future or if the time has come to look into moving them.
When healthy, Murray has been a capable defender for Columbus. The problem is, out of his five NHL seasons, he has reached the 70-game plateau just once and has played in just 64% of their games in that span. Further adding to that frustration is the fact he was the second-overall pick back in 2012. With Werenski heading for a major raise soon, Seth Jones and David Savard locked up for nearly $10MM combined long-term, and the expectation that they will try to bring back Ian Cole, Kekalainen needs to decide if there’s enough money to keep Murray around.
As for Jenner, he is just two years removed from a 30-goal campaign but he has barely managed to match that output over the past two seasons combined. He has spent a fair amount of time in the bottom six while also spending most of 2016-17 on the wing. These don’t help his trade value but at the same time, it doesn’t help Jenner’s arbitration case either. How much should they be willing to pay Jenner who is more of a third-line center in a best-case scenario? If it’s too much for their liking, the lack of help down the middle on the open market should give them some options to move him.
Add Top-Six Help
With both Nick Foligno and Brandon Dubinsky struggling to live up to their contracts, the Blue Jackets have been looking for top-six help going back to this past season. They acquired Thomas Vanek at the trade deadline who wound up being quite productive so there’s certainly a possibility that they’ll look to keep him around. Even if they do, they’re still likely to target other players to improve their depth.
One of the challenges involving potentially moving Jenner is that Columbus doesn’t have great depth down the middle, especially if they wind up cutting bait with Dubinsky. With that in mind, don’t be surprised if they set their sights on adding a center in a trade (since the free agent market is likely to create some inflated contracts, something they can’t particularly afford with the players they need to soon re-sign).
The Blue Jackets are in a tough division but one more quality top-six forward may be enough to take them to that next level if they can keep the rest of the core of the roster intact. It doesn’t seem likely that they will be overly active overall in terms of shaking things up but this is one need they have to fill.
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