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Blue Jackets Notes: Laine, Sillinger, Lindstrom, Tryouts

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While the Blue Jackets have taken care of most of their offseason business, there are a couple of matters for them to still attend to.  The biggest one is the Patrik Laine situation.  The winger has made it known that he would like to be traded and has been cleared from the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program.  However, GM Don Waddell indicated in an interview with Mark Scheig of The Hockey Writers that they are not particularly close to finding a change of scenery for him:

Well, he’s still a Blue Jacket today and as we speak, I don’t have anything (newsworthy of) interest, but nothing that I had to make a decision on yet. Just some teams do their homework and trying to talk with Patrick and his agent and he thought about giving full permission to talk to teams. So, but as we are talking, I don’t have anything that on the table that would even make any sense for the Blue Jackets to make that deal.

The 26-year-old was limited to just 18 games last season where he had six goals and three assists before being shut down due to shoulder surgery in December; he entered the assistance program just over a month later.  For someone who has a cap hit of $8.7MM, that’s far from a great return.

However, Laine has a track record of being a productive scorer.  He has three 30-goal campaigns under his belt and three more of at least 22, two of which came in 2021-22 and 2022-23, seasons where he missed at least 26 games due to injury.  With that in mind, there is some recent success which should be of some value for interested teams.  But until they can make the money work (either with Columbus retaining money, taking a pricey contract back, or both), it doesn’t look like this is going to come to a quick resolution.

One element that might be resolved quickly, however, is Cole Sillinger’s next contract.  A report from The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline surfaced a little more than a week ago that the two sides were close on a new deal.  That still hasn’t been made official yet but Waddell acknowledged that an agreement is nearly done:

Yeah, we’re real close. His agent has been very, there’s been lots of talks going on, all very positive talks. We’re all within the striking distance. It’s just a matter of they have a position, we have a position and there’s no doubt in my mind it’ll get worked out.

The 21-year-old was the 12th overall pick in 2021 and made the jump to the NHL right away, notching 31 points in his rookie year before struggling considerably in his sophomore season.  However, Sillinger was able to rebound somewhat last season, notching 13 goals and 19 assists in 77 games while logging over 16 minutes a night of ice time.  That said, this appears to be a situation where a short-term second contract makes sense for both sides to better assess what Sillinger’s true offensive upside will be.

Meanwhile, Waddell provided an injury update on prospect Cayden Lindstrom.  The Blue Jackets drafted the middleman with the number four pick in June following a strong, albeit injury-riddled, WHL season with Medicine Hat where he had 27 goals and 19 assists in just 32 games.  Lindstrom has been working his way back from a back injury but has not yet been cleared to resume skating.  Accordingly, the GM suggested that he might not participate in next month’s rookie tournament unless he is deemed fully recovered at that time.

Lastly, Waddell didn’t rule out the possibility of giving out one or two tryout agreements in the coming weeks.  However, he noted that his preference is to have smaller groups for training camps and with an overhaul of the coaching staff, having the smaller group makes more sense this time around.  That said, with eight exhibition games in an 11-day stretch, having a veteran or two to help meet the minimum quota probably wouldn’t hurt.

Blue Jackets Nearing Deal With Cole Sillinger

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The Blue Jackets are close to handling business with RFA forward Cole Sillinger. Aaron Portzline of The Athletic reports Columbus and Sillinger are within “striking distance” on a two-year contract.

Sillinger has been a staple on Columbus’ roster for the past three seasons after going 12th overall in the 2021 draft. The 6’1″ pivot’s 220 career appearances lead the class.

With his three-year entry-level contract going into effect immediately upon his post-draft season, this was the first summer that anyone selected in 2021 could have been eligible for restricted free agency. Other 2021 draft class RFAs this summer were Columbus’ Kent Johnson, who went seven picks ahead of Sillinger, and Lightning defenseman J.J. Moser. Kraken pivot Matthew Beniers, who went second overall, is also an RFA this summer and remains without a deal.

Last season, Sillinger seemed to get himself back on track after a major sophomore slump that saw him demoted to AHL Cleveland for a brief period. The 21-year-old set career-highs with 19 assists, 32 points and a -4 rating while averaging 16:07 across 77 games.

It was an important step to show that Sillinger likely still has a top-six ceiling, although his poor showing in the faceoff dot and middling possession metrics to date suggest he may be better served as a winger. Among Blue Jackets who took at least 100 faceoffs last season, Sillinger’s 46.3 FO% ranked fifth.

While he hasn’t established himself as a bonafide core piece for the Jackets yet, he is working his way into the conversation as a valuable role player at a young age. His 74 blocked shots tied captain Boone Jenner for the most among Columbus forwards in 2023-24, and his 119 hits ranked fourth on the team, as did his 157 shots on goal. His possession metrics trended in the right direction, too, yielding career-highs of 48.4 CF% and 46.6 xGF% at even strength.

Sillinger, who was born in Columbus while his father, Mike Sillinger, was playing for the Blue Jackets, would be an RFA upon expiry of a two-year contract. He’d only be 23 years old in the 2026 offseason and well-positioned to cash in on a long-term deal if he takes a significant step in his development.

The Canadian national will be part of a continued youth movement in Columbus this fall with a forward group that also includes the aforementioned Johnson, Yegor Chinakhov, Adam Fantilli, Kirill Marchenko, and Dmitri Voronkov.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Blue Jackets Hire Scott Ford, Mike Haviland As Assistant Coaches

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The Blue Jackets have hired Scott Ford and Mike Haviland to serve as assistant coaches under new bench boss Dean Evason this season, the team announced Thursday.

They replace the outgoing Josef Boumedienne and Mark Recchi, who Aaron Portzline of The Athletic previously reported would not be returning. The club’s other two assistants from last season, Jared Boll and Steve McCarthy, will be back in 2024-25 as expected.

Ford, 44, will jump behind an NHL bench for the first time. The British Columbia native had spent the last eight seasons in the Predators organization as an assistant coach with their AHL affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals.

Before transitioning to coaching, Ford played 522 AHL games across 10 seasons, 378 of which came with the Admirals. A burly right-shot defenseman in his playing days, Ford had played or coached for Milwaukee in parts of every season since 2008-09.

Ford also spent six seasons with Evason in Milwaukee as a player and coach. He played out the final three seasons of his career with the Admirals with Evason at the helm and began coaching as Evason’s assistant for three seasons before Evason departed in 2018 to take an assistant coaching role with the Wild.

Haviland, 57, brings considerably more coaching experience to the Columbus bench than his new colleague. He’s technically an internal promotion, having spent the last two seasons with their AHL affiliate in Cleveland as their associate coach.

Before that, the Middletown, New Jersey native was named the AHL’s Coach of the Year in 2007 with the Norfolk Admirals and later won the Stanley Cup with the Blackhawks as an assistant in 2010. Prior to joining Cleveland in 2022, Haviland spent seven years as the head coach of Colorado College.

Blue Jackets Coaching Notes: Dorsett, Recchi, McCarthy, Boll

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The rippling effects of the regime change in Columbus are beginning to be felt by multiple members of the organization’s coaching staff. Although no positions have been filled up to this point, we know of a few coaches who will not be on the bench with Dean Evason and the Columbus Blue Jackets next season.

Covering all of the departures, Aaron Portzline of The Athletic begins with Derek Dorsett who had been serving as the team’s development coach for the last few years. As his only professional coaching role to date, Dorsett became a development coach with the Blue Jackets and Cleveland Monsters for the 2021-22 season. Portzline outlines that Dorsett’s departure may not have as much to do with the head coaching change as it has to do with not having the necessary time to commit to the coaching role as a new father.

Dorsett may eventually return to the Blue Jackets organization as he lives in the Columbus area with his family. He made his professional debut with the Blue Jackets in the 2008-09 season and scored 27 goals and 65 points in 280 regular season games as a tough-nosed winger.

Other coaching notes:

  • The only assistant coach officially terminated by Columbus’ brass according to Portzline was Hall of Fame forward Mark Recchi. The long-time NHL forward began his coaching career relatively soon after his lengthy playing career ended after the 2010-11 season. Recchi began work as a development coach with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2014-15 before transitioning to the team’s assistant coach in 2017-18. After a brief two-year stint as an assistant coach with the New Jersey Devils, Recchi’s only year as an assistant coach with the Blue Jackets will be last season.
  • As reported a few days ago, Portzline confirms that assistant coach Jared Boll will be back with the organization next year. Additionally, Portzline notes that assistant coach Steve McCarthy will be back on the bench next season leaving Columbus with only one assistant coach vacancy heading into the 2024-25 campaign. The vacancies must get filled relatively quickly though as the league is quickly approaching the start of training camp in late September.

Poll: Which Team Will Acquire Patrik Laine?

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It’s been nearly two weeks since Columbus Blue Jackets forward Patrik Laine exited the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program. Laine and the Blue Jackets had previously agreed to look for a trade this offseason once he was released from the program, but Laine’s trade market appears to be stagnant. With an $8.7MM salary for the next two years, and with general manager Don Waddell not looking to retain 50% of his salary, only a handful of teams would be able to acquire him this summer.

It was only yesterday that Joe Smith and Michael Russo of The Athletic broached the possibility of the Minnesota Wild acquiring Laine before the start of next season. The Finnish sniper fills a serious need on the wing for Minnesota but their current salary cap table may put too many problems in their way. The Wild organization has approximately $750K in salary according to PuckPedia and may have to part with too much to put Laine into the mix.

One team that has both financial space and a need for Laine is the Montreal Canadiens. The team’s first line should be set in stone after a strong 2023-24 season but Laine could give the team a serious offensive boost on the second line. The Canadiens finished 26th in the league in goals per game with 2.83 during the 2023-24 season and Laine’s 0.425 GF/G average throughout his career would certainly be enticing. However, with Kirby Dach expected to fully bounce back from a lost season after tearing his ACL and MCL last year, Montreal may be content with plugging him back into the team’s second line.

The Anaheim Ducks have already acknowledged they will lean more heavily on their youngsters for offensive production next season. The organization can count Cutter Gauthier, Leo Carlsson, Mason McTavish, and Trevor Zegras in their top six but could still use a consistent goal-scoring threat. After failing to capitalize on Frank Vatrano’s 37-goal season via the trade market last year, the Ducks could move him to the Blue Jackets in a one-for-one swap. There’s plenty of indication that Vatrano will regress to the mean this year and Laine would give them one more year of control.

Other organizations could use Laine and theoretically fit him into the lineup (especially if Columbus retains his salary) but the clock is beginning to run out on a possible deal. The Blue Jackets have about a month and a half before training camp starts to move Laine to an interested party. Do you think it will be one of these teams or another one entirely?

PHR Chatter: The Blue Jackets’ Offseason

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The Blue Jackets were one of the most active teams last summer, acquiring Ivan Provorov and Damon Severson to bolster their blue line and drafting Adam Fantilli third overall after a nightmarish 2022-23 season. They also tabbed Mike Babcock to be their next head coach, kicking off months of off-ice instability that contributed to Columbus staying well below the playoff demarcation line with a 66-point campaign in 2023-24.

Before they could improve on the ice, the Blue Jackets had to name the pillars that will lead the team out of its rebuild. They’ve done so now, naming Don Waddell to take over as general manager after Jarmo Kekalainen was canned in February and bringing in Dean Evason to succeed Pascal Vincent as head coach, the latter of whom struggled in the post after unexpectedly taking over for Babcock before the season began.

But unlike last summer, the Jackets were mostly silent on both the trade and UFA markets aside from one name. That’s Sean Monahan, who they signed to a five-year, $27.5MM deal with one goal in mind – reignite Johnny Gaudreau. The two were an elite duo together during their days with the Flames, and in their younger years, helped each other to career-best seasons at the time in 2018-19.

Gaudreau has struggled in Columbus since signing a seven-year, $68.25MM contract in free agency in 2022, producing below expectations with 33 goals and 101 assists for 134 points in 161 games. He was over a point per game in his career before signing with the Jackets. Monahan, meanwhile, is on the upswing after seemingly beating the injury bug. His 26 goals and 59 points split between the Canadiens and Jets last season were his most since his career-high 34 goals and 82 points centering Gaudreau in Calgary five years ago.

Of course, there’s still one major box Waddell still needs to check off. A Patrik Laine trade is more inevitable than ever after the winger exited the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program late last month. But Waddell told Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch last week that talks are moving at a snail’s pace, no doubt influenced by Laine’s rich $8.7MM cap hit through the next two seasons. The sniper was a point-per-game player in Columbus as recently as three years ago, but injuries and his stay in the assistance program limited him to just 18 appearances last season.

To round out their roster, Columbus also brought in an old friend in veteran defenseman Jack Johnson to help stabilize their bottom pair. He played in parts of seven seasons with the Jackets, where he was a top-pairing fixture from 2012 to 2018. His 16 points and +15 rating with the Avalanche last season were both his best single-season totals since departing Columbus.

They’ll also likely get the first taste of Denton Mateychuk in the NHL. The 2022 12th-overall pick will be turning pro in the fall after a banner 2023-24 campaign that saw him win a Western Hockey League championship with the Moose Jaw Warriors, leading the playoffs with 19 assists in 20 games en route to being named the postseason MVP. His 75 points (17 G, 58 A) in 52 regular-season games with a +35 rating also earned him the Bill Hunter Trophy for the league’s top defenseman.

But aside from Evason and Monahan, the Jackets look nearly identical to how they finished last season, at least in terms of pieces projected to have a significant impact. Nine of their 10 leading scorers from last season are still rostered, save for Alexandre Texier. He was traded to the Blues in June.

No one is expecting the Blue Jackets to be playoff contenders this year, but it will be an important culture-setting season for the team as they attempt to return to relevancy. Part of that will be a significant bump in the standings, but even a 15-20 point increase from last year wouldn’t bring them within spitting distance of a wild card spot. Still, it would be an important step forward for the Blue Jackets’ young core as they begin to graduate from prospects to full-fledged NHLers.

Tell us what you think. Have the Jackets done enough to at least take a significant step forward in 2024-25? Did they make the right hires to address their coaching and GM vacancies? Head to the comments and share your thoughts on the summer in Columbus.

Does Patrik Laine Make Sense For The Minnesota Wild?

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Joe Smith and Michael Russo wrote in The Athletic (subscription article) earlier today that not only does disgruntled winger Patrik Laine make sense for the Minnesota Wild, but the team kicked the tires on him at the 2024 NHL Draft. Quite obviously, the major hurdle in bringing Laine to the ’State of Hockey’ is his $8.7MM salary for the next two years with the Wild organization owning approximately $750k in cap space according to PuckPedia.

To make a trade work with the Columbus Blue Jackets, the general manager of the Wild, Bill Guerin would have to convince Don Waddell to eat some of Laine’s salary. Waddell has been adamant up to this point that he knows he will have to eat some of Laine’s salary for the next two years to facilitate a deal but is not interested in eating the full 50%.

Assuming that Guerin can convince Columbus to eat 50% of Laine’s contract for the next two years, Smith and Russo assert that forward Frederick Gaudreau and his $2.1MM salary for the next four years will almost certainly head the other way. Gaudreau performed very well under Blue Jackets’ head coach Dean Evason during his time with Milwaukee Admirals of the AHL and between 2021-23 with Minnesota. The Wild wouldn’t miss much in their lineup if Gaudreau were sent the other way especially with the team bringing in Yakov Trenin on a four-year pact earlier this summer.

This is when a potential deal gets tricky for the Wild. The team could deal out forward Marcus Johansson and defenseman Jon Merrill to make the money work but Minnesota’s depth may not be adequate to defend a three-for-one swap. Smith and Russo argue that the team could look to move goaltender Filip Gustavsson in the deal but his inclusion may cause too many problems for Columbus in the long run.

Minnesota may have too many internal complications to make a move for Laine with how their salary cap structure currently stands. There is no surefire bet that Laine would even be a significant upgrade for the team either. Between 2021-23, Laine scored 54 goals and 117 points in 129 games for the Blue Jackets but injuries and off-ice struggles limited him to only six goals and nine points in 18 games last year.

If Guerin can confirm that Laine is fully recovered and ready to participate, there may be more reason to get aggressive on a potential trade. However, unless Guerin can pull off one of the craftier trades in the last several years, it does not appear the Wild will be able to get the job done.

Metropolitan Notes: Kolosov, Kakko, Boll

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While a report last weekend indicated that Flyers goaltending prospect Alexei Kolosov told the team he wouldn’t report to AHL Lehigh Valley in the fall, general manager Daniel Brière says the team doesn’t “have any confirmation that he’s not coming back” and expects him to be their third-string netminder this season, he told Sam Carchidi of Philly Hockey Now.

Kolosov, 22, signed his entry-level contract last summer but was returned on loan to Dinamo Minsk of the Kontinental Hockey League. Only after Dinamo’s season ended was Kolosov brought over to North America, where he finished the season with an .885 SV% in only two games for Lehigh Valley.

Last weekend, sources told Tony Androckitis of Inside AHL Hockey that Kolosov felt isolated after arriving in North America, a notion Brière refuted in his interview with Carchidi. “As we know, he’s coming back for camp in September,” the GM said. “He was not left by himself, and we thought everything was going good. If he wants to play hockey, he has to come back over. He’s under contract with us, so that’s why I don’t understand all the fuss. I guess a Russian team could say they’re not going to honor the contract. But he’s under contract with the Flyers and that’s where he’s going to have to play if he wants to play hockey.”

Kolosov, a third-round pick of Philadelphia in 2021, posted a .907 SV%, 2.39 GAA and 22-21-3 record with four shutouts in 47 games for Minsk last season.

Here’s more from the Metropolitan:

  • In a mailbag for The Athletic, Arthur Staple opines that Rangers winger Kaapo Kakko is stuck as a “buy-low” trade candidate after signing a one-year, $2.4MM deal for this season back in June. While Staple says there’s been some amount of documented interest in the 2019 second-overall pick on the trade market, he’s “not a player other teams are coveting.” The Finn averaged a career-low 13:17 per game under head coach Peter Laviolette last year amid the worst offensive showing of his five-year NHL resume, limited to 19 points (13 goals, six assists) in 61 games.
  • While the Blue Jackets settled on their next head coach with the hiring of Dean Evason last month, it didn’t mean the rest of the coaching staff was set in stone. The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline reported a couple of weeks ago that the futures of all three of their assistants, Jared Boll, Steve McCarthy and Mark Recchi, were up in the air pending meetings with Evason. Today, Portzline confirmed that Boll’s job is safe for next season, while McCarthy’s and Recchi’s futures haven’t been decided on. The Blue Jackets were already down an assistant after opting not to renew the contract of Josef Boumedienne.

Slow-Developing Trade Market For Patrik Laine

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Late last month, Blue Jackets winger Patrik Laine exited the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program which allows for there to be contact between Laine and Columbus.  With a known desire for a change of scenery, the team has granted permission for the winger to talk to other teams as well.

However, there hasn’t been much interest in Laine’s services just yet.  GM Don Waddell told Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch earlier this week that at this point, only one team has contacted him to express interest in acquiring his services.  Given where we are in the offseason, Waddell isn’t particularly surprised nor does he expect the situation to change in the near future:

At this time of the year, people are less responsive. So, I don’t really know. I think it’s going to play out for a while.

Laine’s situation is well-known at this point.  He played in just 18 games last season before being shut down due to shoulder surgery in December; he entered the assistance program a little more than a month after that.

The 26-year-old has been a high-end scoring threat in the past and is only two years removed from recording 56 points in as many games; he came close to the point-per-game mark in an injury-marred 2022-23 campaign as well.  However, Laine struggled in his limited action last season, notching just six goals and three assists.  Suffice it to say, this isn’t a situation where Columbus could be trading him at peak value.

Further complicating things is his contract, one which carries an AAV of $8.7MM for the next two years while his actual cash payout each year is $9.1MM (though $2MM of that has likely already been paid in the form of a signing bonus for this year).  Very few teams have that much cap space to absorb the contract outright.  Waddell has indicated his preference would be to make more of a pure ‘hockey trade’ but that might be hard to come by at this point.  To that end, the GM acknowledged that some retention might be required to ultimately push a move over the finish line:

We might end up eating some money. If I wanted to eat half, I could’ve traded him by now, but that’s not my first choice.

With rookie camps about six weeks away, executives will likely try to take some time away before getting ready for training camps.  Based on the tepid interest thus far, there’s a good chance that’s already the case.  As a result, while Laine is now free to speak to potentially interested teams, it looks as if it will take some time for a potential market to materialize.

Blue Jackets Sign Kirill Marchenko To Three Year Deal

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The Columbus Blue Jackets have re-signed forward Kirill Marchenko to a three-year deal worth a reported $11.55MM (as per team website). The new deal will give the 24-year-old a $3.85MM AAV over the contract’s lifetime and set him up for a nice payday if he blossoms into the player he believes he can become. The former second-round pick in 2018 was set to go to Arbitration later this week on July 31st but will no longer have to travel to Toronto after coming to an agreement.

In his first two NHL seasons, Marchenko has posted 44 goals and 23 assists in 137 games and cemented himself as part of the Blue Jackets young core going forward. His back-to-back 20+ goal seasons put him in rare company in Blue Jackets franchise history as Marchenko became just the second Columbus player ever to record two 20-goal seasons to begin their NHL career.

Marchenko’s rise to regular NHLer happened rather quickly after he started the 2022-23 season in the American Hockey League with the Blue Jackets affiliate the Cleveland Monsters. He tallied 19 points in 16 games and followed it up making his NHL debut in early December 2022. After his call-up, Marchenko went on a tear, setting a Blue Jackets record for most goals by a rookie with 21 in just 59 games.

This past year was a difficult season for the Blue Jackets, but Marchenko established himself by setting career highs in goals with 23 and assists with 19 while dressing in 78 games.

With a three-year deal in his back pocket, Marchenko and the Blue Jackets can turn their focus to next season and take the next steps in their progression. Marchenko has the skill and size to become an NHL power forward, but he will need to show he can produce better results against tougher competition if he wants to become a perennial 30-goal scorer in the NHL.

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