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Colorado Avalanche Sign Lukas Sedlak

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The Colorado Avalanche announced the signing of forward Lukas Sedlak to a one-year contract for 2022-23. The contract brings Sedlak back to the NHL after three years spent in the KHL. No financial terms have been disclosed as of yet.

Sedlak was actually signed through next season with Traktor Chelyabinsk, but the team terminated his contract early last month, opening the door for Sedlak to return. HC Dynamo Pardubice in the Czech Extraliga had snapped up Sedlak to bring him back to his home country just a few days after his contract was terminated, but Sedlak has apparently opted to take advantage of the assumed NHL out-clause in his Czech contract to return for a shot at an NHL role.

A solid 13th forward for three seasons with the Columbus Blue Jackets, Colorado will be just the second NHL organization Sedlak’s been affiliated with. Sedlak was Columbus’s property ever since the team drafted him in 2011 all the way until he left the team as a free agent in 2019. He’s been one of the top scorers in the KHL ever since, putting up 43 points in 49 games with Chelyabinsk in 2021-22.

Cheap, affordable veteran depth will be crucial for the Avalanche as the team’s Cup window looks to open for years to come. They’ll inevitably push closer and closer to the salary cap, requiring the usage of players like Sedlak to be able to step into the lineup occasionally and perform. While nothing more than a depth role should be expected, he’s shown the ability in the past to be a reliable NHL forward and he returns as a more experienced player.

Cleveland Monsters Promote Trent Vogelhuber

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The youngest head coach in the AHL is now Trent Vogelhuber after he was officially promoted by the Columbus Blue Jackets today as head coach of the Cleveland Monsters, their minor league affiliate.

Vogelhuber, 33, has served as an assistant with the club for the last four seasons and won a Calder Cup with the team in 2016 (then the Lake Erie Monsters). Drafted 211th overall in 2007, the Ohio native spent parts of seven seasons in the AHL before retiring in 2018.

Blue Jackets director of player personnel Chris Clark released the following statement:

We are thrilled to name Trent Vogelhuber as the next head coach of the Cleveland Monsters. Trent has done a terrific job as an assistant coach over the past four years, including leading the bench at times during this past season, and has earned this opportunity. He is extremely bright, hard-working and passionate about the game and we believe he will succeed in both developing our young players and putting a winning team on the ice for the passionate fans in Cleveland.

Getting to the head coach level already is a strong indicator that Vogelhuber will eventually be manning an NHL bench in some fashion, though that’s something for down the road. For now, his focus will be building on the work of veteran coach Mike Eaves, who stepped away from the club in April after three seasons behind the bench of the Monsters.

Columbus Blue Jackets Extend Jack Roslovic

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The Columbus Blue Jackets have signed Jack Roslovic to a two-year, $8MM contract extension, avoiding restricted free agency. The young forward will carry a cap hit of $4MM through the 2023-24 season, after which he will become an unrestricted free agent at the age of 27. Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen released the following statement:

Jack is an offensively gifted player with great speed and vision who has increased his production each season during his NHL career. He has made great strides in his all-around game, especially during this past season, and we are very pleased that he will continue to be an important part of our team as we move forward.

Roslovic, 25, hasn’t quite become the first-line center that some hoped he could be on draft day but did set new career-highs with 22 goals and 45 points this season. Doing that amount of damage with barely over 14 minutes a night is a pretty impressive feat, though he did receive heavy offensive deployment from the Blue Jackets coaching staff to get there.

Still, there is even more upside yet to unlock in the talented center, and this contract brings very little risk on the Blue Jackets’ end. The team had some cap space to play with even considering Patrik Laine’s upcoming deal, and a $4MM cap hit will be easily moved if they aren’t competitive by the time the deal is set to expire. It’s perhaps not ideal to be walking him directly to unrestricted free agency but Columbus is focused on the young core and will need to pay Cole Sillinger and Kent Johnson in the same summer.

The short term allows for lots of flexibility down the road, and some earning potential for Roslovic if his offensive output continues to improve. Should he hit the open market at 27 with a few 20+ goal seasons under his belt, there will be many teams clamoring to add him on a long-term deal. Columbus is giving themselves a way to cash in at that point if the right deal is there, or work out an extension if the group is competitive at that point.

Notably, this contract is going to be brought up in other RFA negotiations this summer around the league. There are many other players who have similar production to Roslovic, whose previous high was just 12 goals, and likely wouldn’t have normally been looking for a $4MM hit. Nicolas Roy, for instance, had six fewer points for the Vegas Golden Knights and is also a 25-year-old pending RFA. Pavel Zacha with the New Jersey Devils had 36 points in 70 games and has a longer history in the league, despite being the same age.

Other wingers like Denis Gurianov, Kasperi Kapanen, and Lawson Crouse have all had their own 20-goal seasons at some point, and are in the same age group. Roslovic’s contract could be a template for a safe extension that gets them to the open market or ammunition for the player to try and get a longer-term deal.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Patrik Laine Fully Recovered From Back Injury

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  • Patrik Laine is fully recovered from his back injury, according to Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch, though there are no further updates on a potential contract. Laine played just 56 games this season for the Blue Jackets, but was exceptional, recording 26 goals (including seven game-winners) and 56 points. The 24-year-old will be a restricted free agent this summer coming off his one-year, $7.5MM contract for 2021-22.

Offseason Checklist: Columbus Blue Jackets

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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.

Columbus Blue Jackets Sign Joona Luoto

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After just seeing his last NHL contract terminated in 2021, Joona Luoto is back. The young forward has signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets. The contract carries a $750K salary in the NHL and a $300K salary in the AHL, according to Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch.

Luoto, 24, played 16 games for the Winnipeg Jets in 2019-20 but was limited to minor league work the following season and then ended up terminating his entry-level deal in September after it was clear he wouldn’t be making the squad. That led him back to Finland, where he played for his hometown Tappara Tampere and showed exactly why he was an interesting undrafted signing in the first place.

In 14 playoff games, Luoto scored eight goals and 17 points, winning the Jarri Kurri award as the best postseason player. His club won the league championship (his second Liiga title), and now he’s joining a new NHL organization with obvious ties to Finland. Not only does general manager Jarmo Kekalainen hail from there but Tampere is also the hometown of Blue Jackets star Patrik Laine. In fact, the two played for years together at the minor and junior levels.

Whether he makes an impact at the NHL level next season remains to be seen, but Luoto will at least get another chance on this side of the pond. If he scores even a single point, he will have eclipsed his time in Winnipeg; he was held scoreless in all 16 appearances so far.

Dean Kukan Signs In Switzerland

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June 1: As expected, Kukan has officially signed with the ZSC Lions. What may not have been expected was the length of the contract. Kukan has inked a five-year deal with the Swiss club, essentially ending his NHL career entirely.  The undrafted defenseman will finish with 153 regular season games.

May 20: Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Dean Kukan is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent this summer, and he isn’t expected back. While playing for Switzerland at the World Championship, Kukan told SRF that he will return home next season to play in the National League, though wouldn’t confirm which team.

Kukan, 28, was a regular in the Blue Jackets lineup the last few seasons, playing in 41 games this year. Signed to a two-year, $3.3MM deal in 2020, he would have entered the market as an interesting depth option that has more than 150 games of NHL experience. Still, even the Blue Jackets never iced him much, with Kukan averaging just over 16 minutes a night this season, and he provides almost no offensive upside with 30 career points.

It will be interesting to see how long his new contract is, and if it will essentially end his career in North America. Given he will turn 29 in July and obviously wants to return home, this season may have been the last we’ll see him in the NHL.

Undrafted, he came up through the ZSC Lions program before heading to Sweden back in 2011, meaning this will be quite the homecoming for the 2016 Calder Cup champion.

Overseas Notes: Blankenburg, Verbeek, Merkulov

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Nick Blankenburg’s World Championship is over. Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch reports that the Blue Jackets’ rookie defenseman has left Team USA due to injury. Blankenburg sustained a knee injury during the international tournament in Finland and decided to return home. However, Hedger adds that the injury is not supposed to be severe and that Blankenburg’s health by the start of next season is not in doubt. Even with the early exit from the Worlds, Blankenburg has had quite the unforgettable year. The 24-year-old defender had a career season as the senior captain of Michigan, recording 14 goals and 29 points in 38 games en route to a Frozen Four appearance. He then signed with Columbus as an undrafted free agent and proceeded to record three points in seven NHL games down the stretch. Blankenburg earned a spot with Team USA at the World Championship and played in four games with the team. He will look to continue his success streak by winning a regular role with the Blue Jackets next season.

  • Hayden Verbeek’s uncle may be the new GM of the Anaheim Ducks, but the young forward won’t wait around for NHL free agency in hopes of a family deal on a new contract. Verbeek has opted to leave North America altogether and sign a one-year deal with Slovakian club HK Spisska Nova Ves, the team announced. Verbeek is no stranger to Slovakia, having played in the Extraliga early in 2020-21 while awaiting the delayed AHL season. While Verbeek played exclusively in the AHL after returning last year, he did spend some time in the ECHL this season, which could have been the deciding factor in his move overseas. Four seasons into his pro career, including the first three on an NHL contract, Verbeek has played largely in the AHL but has been demoted to the ECHL in three seasons and has seen no NHL action. Looking for a more consistent role in a top league, Verbeek will try his hand again in Slovakia next season.
  • When Georgi Merkulov, a star prospect out of the MHL, left Russia in 2020 to embark on a development path in North America with the USHL’s Youngstown Phantoms and then the NCAA’s Ohio State Buckeyes, the odds that he would one day star in the KHL slipped. Then-rights holder HK Sochi decided to trade Merkulov to Amur Khabarovsk, doubting that he would ever suit up for the team. When Merkulov surprisingly turned pro after just one college season, signing with the Boston Bruins this spring, those odds fell even further. Amur has now decided to move on as well. KHL powerhouse CKSA Moscow, whose youth system Merkulov developed in, has decided to take a long-term gamble, acquiring the rights to their former prospect, per the KHL. In exchange, Amur received minor league defenseman Ilya Dervuk. Merkulov recorded 20 goals and 34 points in 38 games this season for Ohio State as one of the top freshmen in the NCAA and then added five points in eight AHL games with the Providence Bruins. Boston certainly hopes that this scoring prowess translates to the NHL and that these KHL trades are ultimately meaningless.

Columbus Blue Jackets Sign Marcus Bjork

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The Columbus Blue Jackets have entered the early free agency mix, adding to their blue line with an overseas addition. Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch relays a team press release announcing that Swedish defenseman Marcus Bjork has signed a one-year entry-level contract with the Blue Jackets. The 24-year-old has spent the past four seasons in the SHL.

Bjork will not be entirely new to North American hockey when he arrives in Columbus next season. In 2016-17, the young defender began the season with the USHL’s Omaha Lancers. However, he returned to Sweden after just eight games. The following year, Bjork played in Sweden’s second-tier pro league, the Allsvenskan, and earned Defenseman of the Year honors by leading the league’s defensemen in goals and points. The breakout campaign earned him a contract in the SHL, but he didn’t immediately continue his upward trajectory. Bjork has found more success in recent years with Brynas IF however, recording 39 points in 116 games over parts of three seasons.

The Blue Jackets clearly like what they have seen from Bjork, whose game has balanced out since his younger years as well. At 6’3″ and over 200 lbs., Bjork brings good size and physicality to go with his offensive game. While he may take some time to adjust to the NHL – or perhaps more likely the AHL – Bjork could become a nice two-way piece for Columbus. He joins a young blue line that includes Zach Werenski, Andrew Peeke, Jake Bean, Adam Boqvist, Nick Blankenburg, and Jake Christiansen as NHL options under 25.

Korpisalo On Track To Be Ready For Training Camp

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  • Blue Jackets goaltender Joonas Korpisalo told Bailey Johnson of the Columbus Dispatch that his recovery from hip surgery is on track and that he should be ready for the start of training camp. He indicated he had been playing through the injury for the last four seasons with the issue worsening until it was decided that surgery was the best way to go.  He’ll get one more opportunity with Columbus after they signed him to a one-year, $1.3MM deal on Friday.

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