With the NHL season now less than a week away, we continue our look at what each team has done this summer and what to watch for in the year to come. Next up is a look at the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Last Season: 45-30-7 record (97 points), fourth in the Metropolitan Division (lost in the first round of the playoffs to Washington)
Remaining Cap Space: $5.61MM per CapFriendly
Key Additions: D Adam Clendening (free agent, Chicago), F Anthony Duclair (free agent, Chicago), F Riley Nash (free agent, Boston)
Key Subtractions: F Matt Calvert (free agent, Colorado), D Taylor Chorney (free agent, Lugano, NLA), D Ian Cole (free agent, Colorado), D Jack Johnson (free agent, Pittsburgh), F Thomas Vanek (free agent, Detroit)
[Related: Blue Jackets Depth Chart From Roster Resource]
Player To Watch: D Zach Werenski – While Werenski had a down year offensively relative to his rookie campaign, his all-around game took a step forward while he was trusted to play more minutes. Now, he heads into 2018-19 with a fair bit of pressure on him.
For starters, he will likely take on an even greater workload with Seth Jones out to start the season and will be asked to take on more of a role offensively as well. As their depth is a little weaker this season, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him approach the 24 minutes per game mark, the type of ice time that’s reserved for the best defenseman on the team.
How he handles it will go a long way towards helping shape his next contract. While Werenski is undoubtedly looking at a significant raise already next summer (as a restricted free agent without arbitration rights), ascending into a true number one role would set him up for potentially one of the bigger post-ELC deals we’ve seen. Needless to say, there’s a lot riding on this season for the 21-year-old.
Key Storyline: In a time where teams are moving quickly to lock up their top pending unrestricted free agents as soon as possible, it isn’t very often now that one remains unsigned heading into the season. It’s very rare for a team to have two prominent potential UFAs but that’s the case in Columbus when it comes to winger Artemi Panarin and goalie Sergei Bobrovsky.
Panarin’s camp has already indicated to the team that he doesn’t have interest in signing there on a max-term deal and had set a deadline of the start of training camp for any extension negotiations. As things stand, it certainly appears as if he’s heading for the open market in July.
Bobrovsky’s case isn’t quite so clear. He’s looking to become among the top-paid goalies in the league and his performance the last couple of years should have him in that mix. Is he willing to sign an extension (and are the Blue Jackets willing to pay the asking price)?
If Columbus is in the playoff mix by the trade deadline, they’re going to have some interesting decisions to make. Do they use both players as internal rentals and run the risk of losing them for nothing to make a run? Or, do they deal them for the best return they can get and opt to forego short-term success for longer-term assets? This is going to be one of the more intriguing stories around the league to follow this season.
Overall Outlook: For the most part, the Blue Jackets are bringing back the same roster as last season and that team was good enough to be in the mix for one of the three divisional playoff spots right to the very end. It’s hard to imagine that this won’t be the case again at least up until the trade deadline when they’ll have to make a call on what to do with Panarin and Bobrovsky.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.