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Columbus Blue Jackets Sign Pierre-Luc Dubois

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2:05pm: Well that’s one way to negotiate. The Blue Jackets have signed Dubois to a two-year contract that will carry an average annual value of $5MM. GM Jarmo Kekalainen released this statement:

Pierre-Luc is a talented, young player with great potential, and we look forward to his continued growth and development, and the valuable contributions he will bring to our team. I’d like to thank my staff, as well as Pat Brisson and his group, for their professionalism and efforts to finalize this agreement prior to the start of training camp to ensure that the focus moving forward is on our team and achieving its goals for the upcoming season.

The contract will pay Dubois $3.35MM for the upcoming season and $6.65MM for 2021-22. The bridge deal will leave him a restricted free agent once again at its expiry and allows Dubois to join Columbus training camp on Sunday. Though there still may be rumblings about his future, this appears to have been the last gasps of a long negotiation leaking out. The Blue Jackets now have him signed for two seasons and under control for at least two more after that through restricted free agency and arbitration.

As noted, Columbus still has plenty of cap space to work with this offseason if they wanted to bring in any additional players.

12:00pm: Training camp for the Blue Jackets is just a few days away, but Pierre-Luc Dubois isn’t in Columbus. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic reports today that Dubois has left the area and remains unsigned, also noting that there are “rumblings” the star forward could be looking for a change of scenery. Still, even LeBrun notes that those rumblings could be “wishful thinking” from other teams.

Aaron Portzline of The Athletic tweets that for weeks and as recently as yesterday, the team and Dubois’ representatives had been optimistic a deal would be done for camp. Dubois had even been skating in Columbus preparing for the season but has now left (Portzline reports he has not gone back to Canada). Of course, leaving Columbus does not necessarily mean he will not be signing a contract or that he will miss training camp, but it certainly doesn’t seem like a positive indicator that he’ll be there when things open next week either.

Dubois, 22, registered just 49 points in 70 games last season but showed exactly the kind of game-changing force he could be in the playoffs for the Blue Jackets. With ten points in ten postseason games he easily led the club, often appearing as the most dangerous player on the ice. That was true even when skating against some of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ high-priced talent, who received huge pay raises when they hit restricted free agency. That’s exactly the situation Dubois is in and though he may not have quite the same history—plus is negotiating in a unique, financially depressed year—he is likely still looking for a huge contract given his performance so far.

It’s not to say that the Blue Jackets won’t pay that, but remember they have had standoffs with successful young RFAs in the past. In 2017, Josh Anderson missed training camp before signing a three-year deal with the Blue Jackets in early October. When he was set to reach the market again this offseason, the Blue Jackets traded him to the Montreal Canadiens, where he promptly scored a seven-year deal.

The Blue Jackets do have plenty of cap space if they eventually get a contract done with Dubois. The team currently sits about $9MM under the $81.5MM ceiling, with Gustav Nyquist expected to miss most of, if not all of the upcoming season after shoulder surgery. Brandon Dubinsky is also not expected to play again thanks to a chronic wrist problem, meaning if the team ever needed long-term injured reserve flexibility, they could have plenty.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Three Players Clear Waivers

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December 30: All three players have cleared waivers.

December 29: Another day, another minor league forward on waivers. The Columbus Blue Jackets have placed Calvin Thurkauf on waivers for the purpose of a loan to EV Zug in Switzerland for the remainder of the 2020-21 season. Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports reports that Michael Carcone and Frederic Allard of the Nashville Predators have also been placed on waivers.

Thurkauf, 23, was a seventh-round pick of the Blue Jackets back in 2016 that slowly worked his way through the minor leagues and made his NHL debut last season. Though he failed to score a point in three games, even making it that far was an impressive accomplishment for the young Swiss forward. This year in 19 games with Zug EV, he has four points and will continue his development overseas should he clear tomorrow.

Carcone, 24, was only just acquired by the Predators earlier this month in a minor trade with the Ottawa Senators. The career minor leaguer had 27 points in 59 games with the Belleville Senators last season and is likely ticketed for the Milwaukee Admirals whenever the AHL season gets underway.

Allard meanwhile is already playing in Austria, where he will likely continue should he clear waivers. The 23-year-old defenseman has played three seasons for the Admirals but is still waiting for his first NHL opportunity. A third-round pick from 2016, he has three points in 11 games for EC VSV in the Austrian professional league this season.

Mark Letestu Announces Retirement

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Mark Letestu never tallied more than 16 goals in a season, but the forward still put together an impressive NHL career as a key utility player, appearing in 567 games. However, that time looks like it’s over as The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline (subscription required) writes that Letestu is retiring.

“The tool bag … it’s had enough,” Letestu told The Athletic on Sunday. “I skated good enough. I shot the puck really well. I thought the game really well. But I got a lot of breaks along the way, too, right from the very start. Luck is a big part of all of it, absolutely, but I also took advantage of those opportunities and played well when I needed to. I got a lot of time out of being a short, slow guy in a fast man’s league.”

The 35-year-old Letestu hasn’t seen much NHL action since playing 80 games between Edmonton and Columbus in 2017-18. He stayed with Columbus for the 2018-19 season, but spent most of that time with their AHL affiliate, the Cleveland Monsters, playing 64 games there, while only appearing in two games with the Blue Jackets that year. Last year wasn’t much better as Letestu signed with the Winnipeg Jets last offseason, but even with their injury woes, Letestu still only played seven games for the Jets.

Letestu originally signed with the Pittsburgh Penguins, eventually playing four years for the Columbus Blue Jackets. He signed with the Edmonton Oilers in 2015 and played with the Oilers for three seasons before the Blue Jackets reacquired him at the trade deadline in 2018 to help out in their playoff hopes. He was known as a jack-of-all trades forward, who could operate in any situation on the ice, making him quite valuable to any team that had him. His best season was in 2016-17 with the Oilers when he tallied 16 goals and 35 points (along with 11 points in 13 playoff games). In all, Letestu scored 93 goals and 210 points over his 12-year career.

Blue Jackets Sign Michael Del Zotto To PTO

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If defenseman Michael Del Zotto wants to play in the NHL this coming season, he’ll have to earn a contract via the tryout route to do it.  The Blue Jackets announced (Twitter link) that they’ve inked the veteran to a PTO agreement with an invitation to training camp.

The 30-year-old spent last season with Anaheim, his second stint with the team after they moved him to St. Louis before the 2019 trade deadline.  Del Zotto was originally expected to be in a reserve role but he still managed to play in 49 games with the Ducks last season and held his own, putting up 15 points (2-13-15) while logging 18:43 per night.  Early in his career, he was more of an offensive-minded blueliner but has only surpassed the 20-point mark twice over the past seven seasons.

Columbus has seen a bit of turnover on their back end this offseason with Ryan Murray being traded to New Jersey and Markus Nutivaara getting dealt to Florida with no one being brought in to replace either of them.  However, their top six appears to be set which means Del Zotto will likely be contending with the likes of Gabriel Carlsson, Gavin Bayreuther, and Adam Clendening for the seventh spot on the depth chart.

Del Zotto may benefit from the recent creation of taxi squads for the upcoming season.  Even if he isn’t able to crack their opening roster, he’s someone that could still skate with the team and be used in a pinch whenever injuries strike.  With training camps on the horizon, he certainly won’t be the only experienced veteran that is forced to turn to this option in the coming days.

Markus Hannikainen Signs With Jokerit

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Former Columbus Blue Jacket and Arizona Coyote Markus Hannikainen is headed home to Finland and to the club he grew up with. Seemingly unable to find a new NHL contract, Hannikainen has signed with the KHL’s Jokerit of his hometown of Helsinki. The veteran forward appears to be fully committed as well; the team has announced that Hannikainen has returned on a “long-term” contract. The 27-year-old has spent the past five seasons in the NHL and AHL but previously spent six years with Jokerit at various levels of Finnish hockey.

Were it not for the flat salary cap and the current lull in the NHL free agent market, perhaps Hannikainen may have been able to find another contract in North America. However, his return overseas should not come as a surprise as his career appeared to be trending in that direction. A hard-working, two-way winger whose defensive zone ability far exceeded his point totals – even as a younger prospect – Hannikainen finally broke out offensively as a pro after leaving Jokerit to join the Liiga’s JYP in 2014-15. He turned that success into an entry-level deal with Columbus, the first of three contracts he would sign with the club over three years. Hannikainen even played in four games with the Jackets in his first season in North America. As the years went on, Hannikainen began to carve out a regular role for himself in Columbus – or so it seemed. Even as his games played jumped four to 10 to 33 and finally to 44 (and a full season in the NHL) in 2018-19, the forward’s role with Columbus was always limited to meager fourth line minutes and very little offensive opportunity. As a result, the Blue Jackets did not hesitate to leave Hannikainen in the AHL this past season when they were able to upgrade their forward corps. After months without an NHL appearance, Hannikainen was traded to the Arizona Coyotes in February and the ’Yotes also opted to leave him in the minors. A two-way contract this off-season would not have been out of the question for the veteran, but between his limited NHL results and lack of offensive ability he was always going to have to prove himself in the AHL to get back to the top level.

Instead, Hannikainen has decided to return home where a guaranteed role is waiting and where he can maximize his offensive potential. While Hannikainen has a long history with Jokerit, this will be his first experience in the KHL after the club shifted leagues during his NHL absence. The level of competition should be higher this time around, but the experienced winger has several NHL seasons to his credit now as well. He also joins a talented team whose roster includes a laundry list of NHL vets including recently re-signed leading scorer Brian O’Neill and the likes of Nicklas Jensen, Jordan Schroeder, Jesse Joensuu, Iiro Pakarinen, Henrik Haapala, Saku Maenalanen, Peter Regin, Viktor Loov, Alex Grant, and Anders Lindback. The rich get richer with the addition of Hannikainen to a team that should compete for years to come in hope of winning their first Gagarin Cup.

Snapshots: Dubois, Granlund, Ducks, Lee

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With progress finally being made toward starting the 2020-21 season, the pressure is mounting back up on those teams who still have players to sign and payrolls to manage. One of those teams is the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Jackets have plenty of salary cap space with nearly $9.25MM of remaining room for a 22-man roster, but they have yet to sign perhaps their most important forward, restricted free agent center Pierre-Luc Dubois. Coming off his three-year entry-level contract, in which he recorded 18+ goals and 48+ points each season, culminating in a point-per-game showing in the 2020 postseason, Dubois has established himself as a centerpiece for Columbus and the team hopes he will serve in that role for many years still to come. Whether Dubois signs that lucrative long-term extension this off-season or instead opts for a shorter bridge deal remains to be seen. Either way, the team needs to get the talented young pivot under contract soon before the new season begins. Fortunately, NBC Sports’ Adam Gretz reports that the Blue Jackets are not concerned about coming to terms on a new deal with Dubois. GM Jarmo Kekalainen stated that he is “confident” that Dubois will have a new contract not only before the puck drops on the new season, but even before the first day of training camp. This would likely mean that a deal is expected before the end of the month, with training camps projected to open shortly after the calendar flips to January. Kekalainen compared the situation to that of star defenseman Zach Werenski last season; Werenski went much of the off-season with seemingly little progress on a contract extension, but signed a new deal just days before training camp. Gretz notes that the Blue Jackets have shown that they are not afraid to play hardball with their restricted free agents, but will have to be careful with Dubois. The young center is a pivotal piece of the team moving forward. Columbus has the cap space to lock Dubois up long-term at a higher cap hit now, but if the two sides do agree to a shorter term deal the hope is that there is a mutual goal to sign that long-term deal down the road.

  • Gretz also reports that one of the top remaining unsigned free agents, forward Mikael Granlund, is expected to make a decision on his next team sooner rather than later. In fact, a contract could be signed in the coming days. Gretz writes that Granlund would like to get his family settled before the season, possibly even before the Christmas holiday, which could lead to an impending resolution to his free agency. Depending on the asking price, Granlund should have no shortage of suitors. The Blue Jackets have actually been cited by many as a top option for Granlund. If they do sign a more affordable, short-term deal with Dubois as many expect, Columbus could use their remaining cap space to add Granlund. The team had hoped to add at least one if not two top-six forwards this off-season which they have failed to do so far, only swapping out Josh Anderson for Max Domi. 
  • The Anaheim Ducks are another team with moves to make before the season begins. The Ducks are currently over the salary cap upper limit according to CapFriendly and that is with a roster that currently excludes a backup goalie. Anthony Stolarz is the favorite for the job behind starter John Gibson, but the team is likely to make an addition given their lack of depth behind that duo and their need for a goaltender with term on his contract beyond this season to expose in the upcoming 2021 NHL Expansion Draft. If the Ducks do not add another goaltender, the pressure will fall on Roman Durny, who Anaheim assigned to the ECHL’s Tulsa Oilers today, and Olle Eriksson Ek, who started in Tulsa’s season opener this weekend. Eriksson Ek and Durny shared the net in the ECHL last season, but would be slated to do so this year in the AHL if no further moves are made and would battle to be the next man up to the NHL behind Gibson and Stolarz. Durny, 22, Eriksson Ek, 21, and Lukas Dostal, 20, are all talented prospects but their lack of experience does not inspire much confidence in Anaheim’s net depth if an addition is not made. The Ducks should be scouring the free agent and trade markets for help, even as they work to cut salary from the NHL roster.
  • Even as the NHL and NHLPA close in on an agreement to begin the new season, there hasn’t been much concrete information in the media on the actual start dates of training camp and the safety procedures leading into those camps. Perhaps the teams of those players on loan are hearing more than everyone else though. HC Slovan Bratislava of the Slovakian Extraliga has announced that Pittsburgh Penguins defensive prospect Cam Lee has been returned from his loan. In doing so, the club stated that Lee will begin his quarantine later this week and that training camp physicals will take place before the end of the month. At the very least, that makes it sound as though camps will be up and running in early January as hoped, if not sooner.

What Your Team Is Thankful For: Columbus Blue Jackets

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We’ve now made it past Thanksgiving and the holiday season is right around the corner. Like the last few years, PHR will take a look at what teams are thankful for but this year comes with a bit of a change. Normally teams would have an idea of where their season was heading, coming up on the one-quarter mark with mountains of statistics to analyze. Instead, in this unprecedented year, the season hasn’t even begun. We’ll still take a look at what each group is excited about and what they could hope for once the calendar turns to 2021.

What are the Blue Jackets most thankful for?

Strong management and coaching.

If someone were to try and choose the best general manager/head coach tandem in the league to build a franchise around, the Blue Jackets duo of Jarmo Kekalainen and John Tortorella may be right up near the top. When Kekalainen took over in February of 2013, the Blue Jackets had experienced just a single winning season in their history. 2009 was their only time in the playoffs and they were swept out of the first round without winning a game.

In his seven full seasons running the front office, the team has put up six winning seasons and reached the playoffs five times. It’s no coincidence that four of those appearances have been since Tortorella took over partway through the 2015-16 season. Time and again when the rest of the hockey world zigs, Kekalainen zags, usually to strong results. Though the duo hasn’t been able to take Columbus to the promised land: “in Jarmo we trust.”

Who are the Blue Jackets most thankful for?

Pierre-Luc Dubois.

While acquiring Seth Jones in 2016 still may be Kekalainen’s most important move, the selection of Dubois later that year may be his most impressive. After Auston Matthews and Patrik Laine were off the board, everyone was expecting the Blue Jackets to select Jesse Puljujarvi with the third selection in the NHL entry draft. Puljujarvi was a consensus top prospect that was supposed to become a premier power forward in the league and to boot, he was Finnish just like Kekalainen. When the Blue Jackets GM strode to the podium and proudly selected Dubois instead, perhaps the hockey world should have been tipped off to what was coming for the eventual Edmonton Oilers forward.

Puljujarvi has struggled and fought his way to 37 points in 139 NHL games, while Dubois has become a legitimate first-line center in Columbus. While his offensive production still lags behind Matthew Tkachuk (selected sixth) and Alex DeBrincat (39th), there’s little doubt that Dubois is one of the most valuable players available from the 2016 draft and was a homerun selection for Kekalainen. The 22-year-old forward is still awaiting his next contract, but he showed exactly the type of player he could be this summer when he led Columbus with 10 points in 10 postseason games while averaging nearly 23 minutes a night.

What would the Blue Jackets be even more thankful for?

A commitment to Columbus.

Quite dramatically in the summer of 2019, the Blue Jackets were forced to say goodbye to Artemi Panarin, Sergei Bobrovsky, Matt Duchene, Ryan Dzingel, and others in free agency. Though the team is still strong and several of the deals signed by those players look troublesome, it still would have been huge for them to sell Panarin on the city of Columbus. It’s not that the Hart Trophy candidate ever spoke badly of the market, but when the bright lights of New York came calling, he left.

After being eliminated from the postseason that year, Kekalainen spoke to reporters including Michael Arace of the Columbus Dispatch about what he wanted, something that some could argue he still hasn’t found:

I think it’s important moving forward that we’re going to have guys that are proud to be Blue Jackets and proud to be living in Columbus and loving it here. That’s really important — that they bleed blue, or whatever you want to call it.

Yeah. The guys that want to be here are going to be here and the guys that don’t want to be here, good luck.

That commitment will be tested soon. After the 2021-22 season, Jones will be an unrestricted free agent and likely the most sought-after commodity on the market if he gets there. Max Domi, Boone Jenner, Dean Kukan, Elvis Merzlikins, and Joonas Korpisalo are all scheduled to hit the market at the same time. Zach Werenski will be an RFA. Will they decide they want to be in Columbus, or will Kekalainen be wishing more good luck?

What should be on the Blue Jackets’ holiday wish list?

Another weapon.

Just over a month ago, Gustav Nyquist underwent shoulder surgery and was given a five-to-six month recovery timeline. That means he won’t be available for a good chunk of this season, taking away Columbus’ second-highest scorer. Sure, Oliver Bjorkstrand looks like he’ll quickly take over that role (if not pass Dubois entirely) but the Blue Jackets need more at the offensive end of the rink.

Specifically, there’s no reason a team that boasts powerplay quarterbacks like Jones and Werenski should be near the bottom of the league in conversion. The Blue Jackets scored on just 16.4% of their man-advantage situations last season, fifth-worst in the league and unacceptable for a team looking to contend in the playoffs. They need to find a go-to option when a penalty is put on the board and there are still some available on the open market (cough–Mike Hoffman–cough). It doesn’t necessarily need to be a UFA mercenary, but something has to be added.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Salary Cap Deep Dive: Columbus Blue Jackets

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Navigating the salary cap is one of the more important tasks for any GM.  Teams that can avert total cap chaos by walking the tightrope of inking players to deals that match their value (or compensate for future value without breaking the bank) remain successful.  Those that don’t see struggles and front office changes.

PHR will look at every NHL team and give a thorough look at their cap situation heading into the 2020-21 season.  This will focus more on players who are regulars on the roster versus those who may find themselves shuttling between the AHL and NHL.  All cap figures are courtesy of CapFriendly.

Columbus Blue Jackets

Current Cap Hit: $72,274,125 (under the $81.5MM Upper Limit)

Entry-Level Contracts

F Emil Bemstrom (two years, $925K)
D Andrew Peeke (one year, $917K)
F Alexandre Texier (one year, $898K)
F Liam Foudy (two years, $894K)

Potential Bonuses

Bemstrom: $850K
Peeke: $850K
Foudy: $375K
Total: $2.08MM

Despite not having brought in much young talent the past few years in the draft, the Blue Jackets do still have a number of young players who could make a quick impact on their franchise. Bemstrom, a fourth-round pick from 2017, came over from Sweden last year at the age of 20 and played in 56 games, scoring 10 goals in his rookie season. He should continue to force his way into the more and more minutes and the speedy forward could eventually develop into a 25-goal scorer. Texier is another quick-moving forward who could develop into a future core piece of the team. Despite dealing with a back injury, Texier scored six goals in 36 games as a 20-year-old. Foudy played most of last season in the OHL, but did get a chance to appear in two games for Columbus, but the 2018 first-rounder is also a candidate to challenge for playing time with the Blue Jackets next season.

Peeke, on the other hand, looks to already be penciled into the Blue Jackets’ blueline. With the departures of Ryan Murray and Markus Nutivaara, Peeke will get every opportunity to claim one of the third pairing openings. The 22-year-old looked impressive in 22 appearances last year and could eventually work his way towards a top-four spot.

One Year Remaining, Non-Entry-Level

F Brandon Dubinsky ($5.85MM, UFA)
F Nick Foligno ($5.5MM, UFA)
D David Savard ($4.25MM, UFA)
F Riley Nash ($2.75MM, UFA)
F Oliver Bjorkstrand ($2.5MM, RFA)
F Mikko Koivu ($1.5MM, UFA)
F Mikhail Grigorenko ($1.2MM, UFA)
F Kevin Stenlund ($874K, RFA)

The Blue Jackets have quite a bit of salary coming off the books next season. First off the list will be Dubinsky who has scored just 12 goals since the 2017 season as he has been dealing with a wrist injury and recently general manager Jarmo Kekalainen said he wasn’t likely to ever play professional hockey again. That frees up a lot of cap room. Foligno is a different matter, however, as the 33-year-old may have seen a slight decline in his play recently, but the team will likely do what it can to retain their captain, who has been a key figure for the team both on and off the ice, even if he may be moving to the bottom-six of the lineup in the near future.

The team will also have to make a decision on Savard, who is one of the team’s top defensive players. The 30-year-old doesn’t help much offensively, but is a minutes eater who has been a key piece to the team’s top-four.

On the restricted front, the team’s top RFA next offseason will be Bjorkstrand, who has scored 20 or more goals for two straight seasons and is starting to come into his own. The 25-year-old posted 21 goals in 49 games last year, on pace for a potential 35-goal season had an ankle injury and the pandemic not cut into a chunk of his season.

Kekalainen also took a couple fliers, signing veteran Koivu and KHL star Grigorenko to one-year deals. Koivu should provide the team with key leadership and be able to help out the team’s bottom-six and penalty kill, while the Blue Jackets are hoping that Grigorenko, a former lottery pick in 2012, might be able to make it work in North America on his second attempt. The Russian, now 26, could never find his niche in the NHL and returned to the KHL, where he tallied 38 goals and 93 points combined in his last two seasons for CSKA Moscow.

Two Years Remaining

D Seth Jones ($5.4MM, UFA)
F Max Domi ($5.3MM, UFA)
D Zach Werenski ($5MM, UFA)
G Elvis Merzlikins ($4MM, UFA)
F Boone Jenner ($3.75MM, UFA)
G Joonas Korpisalo ($2.8MM, UFA)
D Dean Kukan ($1.65MM, UFA)
D Scott Harrington ($1.63MM, UFA)
F Eric Robinson ($975K, UFA)
F Nathan Gerbe ($750K, UFA)
D Gabriel Carlsson ($725K, RFA)

The Blue Jackets have quite a few key players hitting unrestricted free agency in a couple of years and will have to find a way to sign some of them to long-term deals. At the top of that list are their two star defensemen in Jones and Werenski. Jones has been one of the most dominant players on the team’s stifling defense and plays quite a key role on offense as well. The blueliner scored six goals and 30 points in just 56 games, but was sorely missed when he went down with an ankle injury in February. His partner, Werenski stepped it up, especially on offense last year, breaking the 20-goal mark for the first time and in just 63 games last year. The two together form one of the top defensive lines in hockey. Both will require quite a large sum of money to re-sign, but the Blue Jackets look like they should have money to spare to sign both of them.

Columbus also acquired Domi from the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for disgruntled forward Josh Anderson and now have two years to decide if the 25-year-old forward can make the most of the next two seasons. Domi scored 18 goals with Arizona in his rookie year, but then failed to break 10 goals for the next two seasons. Then he was traded to Montreal where he put up 28 goals in his first season there only to post 17 goals the following season and fall out of favor. Now on his third team, the Blue Jackets hope that Domi can put it all together and be the team’s No. 2 center long-term. The team will also have to decide whether Jenner is worth holding onto. After scoring 30 goals in the 2015-16 season, the 27-year-old has seen his offense decline almost every year as he posted just 11 goals last year.

The team may also be forced to make a decision in net in two years as well. The Blue Jackets got a real boost when both Korpisalo, the previous year’s backup, and Merzlikins, the team’s top goalie prospect took over for Sergei Bobrovsky only to watch both flourish. With both locked in for another two years, the team has time to decide which one to keep as neither are making too much money. Although there was talk during the season that Columbus might be willing to move one of its netminders for some offense.

Three Years Remaining

F Gustav Nyquist ($5.5MM, UFA)
D Vladislav Gavrikov ($2.8MM, UFA)

Nyquist was brought in last offseason to offset the losses of Artemi Panarin, Matt Duchene and Ryan Dzingel. The 31-year-old put up 15 goals and 42 points in 70 games last season, which is solid for a middle-six forward, but the team is hoping that can be on pace for better numbers next season. Kekalainen brought in Gavrikov last  year on a one-year entry-level deal and that paid off as he quickly earned a bottom pairing role for the season, using his size and defensive abilities to his advantage. He fared well when pressed into a top-four role and was rewarded in the offseason with a three-year extension and likely will take a bigger role next year with Murray gone. Read more

Mikael Granlund Drawing Interest From Several NHL Clubs

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Mikael Granlund is one of the most high-profile free agents still unsigned and his continued availability remains a major surprise. However, while he may not have a deal done, there continues to be interest from around the league. Fox Sports’ Andy Strickland writes that the Columbus Blue Jackets and Carolina Hurricanes are among the teams that remain interested in employing Granlund for next season.

In PHR’s Free Agent Profile of Granlund, we noted that the Blue Jackets made sense as a landing spot. In fact, they seemed like the best potential fit for the talented forward. Columbus had hoped to add multiple game-changing forwards this off-season and cleared the cap space to do so. Yet, thus far they have only added one impact forward in Max Domi and it cost them Josh Anderson. The Blue Jackets still have more than $9MM in cap space to spend this off-season. Re-signing RFA Pierre-Luc Dubois could eat up a considerable amount of that depending on the term that the two sides settle on, but Columbus could still find some flexibility to bring in Granlund as their second major addition up front.

Granlund would be a good fit in Carolina as well, but the calculus is far more difficult. The Hurricanes have under $1MM in cap space and that is only  considering the salary committed to 22 players as it is. Without any LTIR candidates or obvious options to bury in the AHL, the Hurricanes would likely need to make a trade to offload some salary if they want to bring in Granlund. The team may be hesitant to make such a move seeing as their forward corps is already in pretty good shape heading into next season.

Strickland also mentions that the Nashville Predators are keeping tabs on Granlund, but cautions that a return to the team may not be the priority for the Preds as it likely wouldn’t be for Granlund either. Nashville has considerable cap space and the need at forward, but Granlund did not play very well with the club after coming over from the Minnesota Wild in 2018-19. This likely factors in to Strickland’s belief that the Predators are also interested in top remaining UFA Mike Hoffman and are more likely to sign him than Granlund. Granlund also seems more likely to opt for a fresh start outside of Nashville.

One team believed to be a good fit for Granlund but not specifically mentioned by Strickland are the Boston Bruins. Given their existing need for secondary scoring, the injury questions surrounding David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand, and some familiarity for Granlund in ex-teamates Charlie Coyle and Craig Smith, the Bruins seem like a strong fit. However, they don’t appear to be at the top of Granlund’s list of suitors right now. Among the “other teams” that Strickland mentions but does not name could include the Florida Panthers and San Jose Sharks and cap-comfortable rebuilding teams like the New Jersey Devils, Los Angeles Kings, Detroit Red Wings, and Chicago Blackhawks. At this point, any team who lands Granlund has a good chance of landing an elite player at a bargain rate.

Vegas Golden Knights, Columbus Blue Jackets Confirm Positive COVID-19 Tests

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Last night, the Vegas Golden Knights confirmed to Frank Seravalli of TSN that four players recently tested positive for COVID-19. The team explained that all four have been self-isolating and are recovering, but that the off-ice player areas at the Golden Knights facility would be closed through the Thanksgiving weekend. That includes the locker room, lounge, gym, training room, and video room. Seravalli adds that several family members of Golden Knights players have also tested positive.

Today, Seravalli has more coronavirus news. The Columbus Blue Jackets have had a “significant” number of players test positive over the last seven to ten days. The team has released this statement:

The Blue Jackets had several players recently test positive for the COVID-19 virus. Those players immediately began to quarantine and the club closed its off-ice facilities at Nationwide Arena beginning the week of November 16. No voluntary workouts were scheduled this week due to the Thanksgiving holiday. The organization has and will continue to follow all recommended guidelines aimed at protecting the health and safety of our players, staff and community at large as set by the NHL, local, state and national agencies. The club anticipates players returning to our facilities next week for voluntary on- and off-ice workouts.

Obviously, the desire is to have all of the players safely prepare for the upcoming season without contracting the disease, but as we’ve seen with other sports this year, that is unlikely. The MLB got through a 60-game season and playoffs, eventually crowning the Los Angeles Dodgers as World Series champions despite several COVID-19 outbreaks that were contained and dealt with around the league. The NFL is continuing their own season, despite many players testing positive for the disease throughout the season.

The NHL, if it is to hold its season outside of a bubble, will likely have to deal with the same situations. When teams were originally preparing for the return to play postseason this summer, there were several outbreaks that kept players off the ice and away from the rink. The St. Louis Blues for instance explained after being eliminated that around one-fifth of their roster had tested positive at some point before entering the bubble. The Golden Knights and Blue Jackets will likely not be the last to announce outbreaks as things start ramping up again.

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