The offseason has arrived for half of the league’s teams that weren’t playoff-bound plus those who were eliminated over the first couple of rounds. It’s time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming months. Next up is a look at Columbus.
This season was a bit of a mixed bag for the Blue Jackets. They weren’t expected to contend as their rebuild continued but managed to have their highest-scoring season in franchise history despite the exodus of veteran talent and they integrated several promising youngsters into their lineup. However, despite that, they still missed the playoffs by 19 points. At this point, it seems unlikely that they’ll make some big swings to try to get into the thick of the Wild Card race but instead, they’re more likely to stay the course which is to slowly build up; their checklist has that in mind.
Add Grit
Jakub Voracek has been around the league for a long time (14 years) so he should know a thing or two about roster composition. Following the season, he told reporters including Jeff Svoboda of the Blue Jackets’ team site that the team has struggled when it comes to physicality and it’s something he’d like to see addressed so let’s start with that on their checklist.
Generally speaking, a team that has as young of a core as the Blue Jackets do (they had the lowest average age in the NHL going into the season and only got younger as the year went on) should want to insulate those players with a bit of toughness. That doesn’t necessarily mean a throwback enforcer but a power forward or two that can play in the bottom six and still be a contributor. Those players aren’t in as short supply as impact power forwards so they should be able to find some. That won’t necessarily drastically improve their chances of winning in the short term but if it gives their younger players a little more confidence, there could be some benefits from those additions.
Re-Sign Laine
Last offseason, re-signing Patrik Laine was a priority and since he simply accepted his one-year qualifying offer, it’s back at the top of their list this time around as well. While the value of the qualifier remains unchanged at $7.5MM, the 24-year-old has more leverage this time around. He’s now one year away from unrestricted free agency and could simply accept his qualifier again (or file for salary arbitration) and ensure that he’d have a chance at hitting the open market in the prime of his career.
As a result, GM Jarmo Kekalainen will soon be engaging in serious discussions with Laine’s camp on a new deal if he hasn’t done so already. If the winger wants to keep his options open instead of committing to a long-term deal, then the team will have to give serious consideration to trading him this summer; doing so by the draft would be preferable as some picks would almost certainly be part of any package.
Even if Laine is willing to sign a long-term contract, finding a number that works for both sides will be tricky. This season was Laine’s first point-per-game campaign but he missed 26 games due to injury. If we look at his career average on a per-82 extrapolation, Laine checks in at 35 goals and 31 assists. Those are certainly good numbers but the market value for a player with that type of production isn’t far off the $7.5MM he made this season. For him to forego testing the market, the Blue Jackets will need to come in above that but at what point does that become too much of an overpayment to justify (even with their current cap flexibility)?
Right now, for Columbus, Laine’s contract should be their top priority. While there’s no firm deadline to get something done, if they want to know where things stand by the draft, that’s now less than six weeks away while free agency opens up a week after that.
Add Defensive Help
The good news for the Blue Jackets this season was that they set a franchise record for goals scored. The bad news for them is that they also set a franchise record for the most goals allowed. With several young forwards with room to continue developing, there’s some hope to maintain or even improve upon their offensive production.
However, there isn’t a lot of room for optimism to significantly improve that defensive number as things stand. Their goaltending tandem remains intact with Elvis Merzlikins and Joonas Korpisalo with neither netminder coming off a particularly strong season. Both are capable of being better but with the back end Columbus currently has, that improvement might not be too big.
Accordingly, this is an area that needs to be addressed. They have a decent core of younger players which is fine for a rebuilding team but as they look to emerge from that, some veterans that are capable of playing an impact role should be added. It probably won’t all come in one summer – this process will likely be gradual – but an emphasis on bringing in someone capable of playing the penalty kill and in key defensive situations would certainly help to stabilize things in the short term.
Gavrikov Extension Talks
Over his three years with the Blue Jackets, Vladislav Gavrikov has worked his way into a prominent role on the back end. But because he waited until the age of 23 to come to North America, he’s already just a year away from unrestricted free agency after Kekalainen curiously signed him to a bridge contract that walked him straight to UFA eligibility.
With Seth Jones, David Savard, and even Ryan Murray departing in recent years, Columbus has seen some important defenders leave. They did well to get good assets back for Jones and Savard in trades but the talent coming in hasn’t been close to the talent that left. To lose Gavrikov next summer or even at the trade deadline would deal them another blow.
As a result, trying to work out an extension will be fairly high on Kekalainen’s to-do list, especially as the offseason progresses. He’s going to be in line for a nice raise on his $2.8MM AAV especially coming off the year he had (33 points in 82 games while averaging over 22 minutes a night) but his salary for next season – $4.2MM – serves as a reasonable starting point for talks. A multi-year offer a little above that rate (in the $4.5MM to $4.75MM range) might be enough to get it done and ensure that a key piece of their defensive squad is a pair of the post-rebuild future.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. Contract information courtesy of CapFriendly.
Hardly anything I could add to this other than to say if Laine and Gavrikov do not commit long term, the Blue Jackets risk losing the fan base confidence to the point of eternal cynicism.
Laine at 2 x$7.75, trade him at the TDL unless he shows he wants to stay and is productive.
Laine has repeatedly said he wants to stay and the CBJ just signed his best friend from Tampere, Finland, which was seen as an encouraging sign of progress in contract talks. He looked like a more complete player last year despite losing time to injury and the death of his father. The only worry for me is whether Jarmo overpays. I think it ends up at $8-9M for 6-8 years.