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Columbus Blue Jackets Sign Billy Sweezey

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All the hard work for Billy Sweezey has finally resulted in an NHL contract. The Columbus Blue Jackets have signed the undrafted defenseman to a two-year, two-way contract that will kick in for the 2022-23 season. Sweezey is currently playing for the Cleveland Monsters on an AHL contract.

In 2015-16, the 6’2″ Sweezey was an overage player for the USHL’s Chicago Steel, where he racked up 131 penalty minutes in 55 games, mostly there for his size and toughness. He took his talents to Yale after that and played four years, never scoring more than one goal in a single season. He’d leave college in 2020 with just three goals and 29 points in 127 games. Last season he played with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, where he once again was just a depth player scratching and clawing for playing time.

This year with Cleveland, that’s changed, at least somewhat. Sweezey, now 26, has four goals and ten points in 45 games to go along with 68 penalty minutes as one of the toughest defenders in the league. Playing regular minutes, his size, strength, and physicality have now made him a legitimate call-up option for the Blue Jackets, though he won’t be eligible until next season.

A deal like this certainly isn’t a franchise-altering move, but it does reinforce that players can work their way up the Blue Jackets depth chart if they work hard enough. That helps encourage other undrafted talents to join the organization and meanwhile, provides some extra defensive depth for the NHL club.

AHL Shuffle: 03/05/22

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It is a busy Saturday across the NHL with 10 games on the docket over the course of 12+ hours. The St. Louis Blues and New York Islanders kick things off at 11:30am CT, followed by at least one game starting nearly every hour from 2:00pm CT until the Calgary Flames and Colorado Avalanche square off in one of the most highly-anticipated match-ups of the season thus far at 9:00pm CT. If all of these teams aren’t too busy preparing and the other dozen not playing aren’t too busy themselves watching all the action, perhaps we will see some roster movement today.

Atlantic Division

Metropolitan Division

  • The Columbus Blue Jackets have demoted defenseman Jake Christiansen, a player who has been up and down regularly this season. The team announced that Christiansen has been reassigned to the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters, where he has played in 39 games this year. While he has only suited up for four with the Blue Jackets, Christiansen has spent considerable time on the NHL roster.
  • Kevin Hayes is back with the Philadelphia Flyers. The veteran center has been out since mid-January after undergoing surgery and his recovery exceeded the expected three-to-four week projection. However, he has finally been activated from the injured reserve. Philadelphia may not have many playoff hopes left this season, but will be glad to have a locker room leader back. The timing is poor for Wade Allison, who has also been activated from the IR but with Hayes taking the open NHL roster spot, Allison will head to the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Allison suffered a knee injury in his season debut back in January and has been out ever since, but certainly hoped to return to the Flyers lineup after playing in 14 games as a rookie last season.
  • The New York Islanders recalled two players in time for their game against the St. Louis Blues earlier today, a 2-1 win for New York. Forward Otto Koivula was recalled from Bridgeport and played in the game for the Islanders, who were without forwards Mathew Barzal and Anders Lee. This was just Kiovula’s fourth game of the season, last playing December 2nd for the Islanders. Defenseman Parker Wotherspoon was also recalled from Bridgeport, but was immediately sent back down after the game. Wotherspoon has yet to make his NHL debut, but has been a solid contributor for Bridgeport the past few seasons.
  • The Carolina Hurricanes recalled goaltender Alex Lyon from the AHL’s Chicago Wolves on an emergency basis. The 29-year-old Lyon has only played in two games this year for Carolina, but has had an impressive 23 games in the AHL, carrying a 2.14 goals against average and .911 save percentage. Lyon’s emergency recall suggests that one of Antti Raanta or Frederik Andersen are unable to go for Carolina tomorrow night.

Central Division

Pacific Division

  • The Edmonton Oilers recalled defenseman Philip Broberg from the Bakersfield Condors of the AHL. Broberg was immediately inserted into the Oilers lineup as they square off against the Montreal Canadiens at home. The 20-year-old Broberg has just one point in 17 games this season for Edmonton, but has excelled in the AHL, tallying 19 points in 27 games.

Trade Candidate: Max Domi

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With the trade deadline now less than a month away, we continue our look at some of the players who have a good chance of being on the move between now and March 21st.

Last season wasn’t a great one for Max Domi.  He struggled to fit in with the Blue Jackets in his first year with the team and certainly didn’t live up to his contract.  Then he suffered a long-term injury and the combination of that was enough to cause Seattle to pass on him for free in expansion (where they instead picked someone that went back to Columbus days later as a free agent).  However, this season has gone a bit better for him which may be enough to help him land a new home with a playoff-bound team in the near future.

Contract

Domi is in the final season of a contract that carries a $5.3MM AAV.  He has a $6MM salary and will be an unrestricted free agent in July.  As his deal only covered RFA-eligible years, he wasn’t eligible for any type of trade protection.

2021-22

Domi went through a bit of a roller coaster in the early going this season.  He came back from shoulder surgery much earlier than expected and was in the lineup on opening night, collecting three points.  Then he had a fractured rib and soon after returning from that, he landed in COVID protocol, missing another three weeks.

Since then, Domi has managed to stay in the lineup, albeit not quite in the role GM Jarmo Kekalainen envisioned when he acquired the 27-year-old from Montreal in 2020.  He has played exclusively on the wing this season instead of filling a spot down the middle as originally planned.  Domi has also spent time on all four lines without really being able to settle into one spot.

Domi has also been very unproductive on the power play.  He has played over 56 minutes on the man advantage this season and has one assist to show for it.  That’s the negative slant.  The positive slant is that all but one of his points have come at five-on-five and the role that contending teams will want him to fill is one that even strength production is more important than producing on the power play.

Season Stats

44 GP, 9 goals, 16 assists, 25 points, -1 rating, 30 PIMS, 65 shots, 13:24 TOI, 47.4 CF%

Potential Suitors

While Domi can play in the top six if needed (he has at times throughout his career), that’s not the role teams should be eyeing him to play.  With that in mind, his suitors should be those that want him for more of a depth spot in their lineup.  That said, Domi’s price tag for that role will limit the number of teams who could realistically fit him in without having to move a roster player the other way.

In the East, I had the Bruins pegged as a possible suitor for Domi at the beginning of the season where his positional flexibility can be useful.  He won’t be their top target but he would add some scoring to their bottom six.  The same can basically be said for the Panthers if some of their stronger targets go elsewhere.  The Rangers have the cap room to add a few pieces and they’re a team that would benefit from adding some offensive skill to their bottom six while still trying to fill other areas.  The Maple Leafs have come up as a speculative fit as of late but depth scoring isn’t their top need; they’d need to strike out on filling those and have Jake Muzzin stay on LTIR for the rest of the season for that to really be an option.

Out West, the Kings may be more inclined to do a smaller deal or two that doesn’t involve giving up any longer-term assets and play it safe.  That’s more of the range that Domi should fit in as he won’t command a significant price in return.  The Predators also have ample cap space and could stand to upgrade their bottom six.  They’re another team where it doesn’t seem likely that they’ll make a big splash so some smaller, safer moves like this may be more in their wheelhouse.

Likelihood Of A Trade

At this point, it doesn’t seem like Domi is a strong candidate to return to the Blue Jackets.  While Columbus has been on a bit of a nice run as of late, they’re still longshots to reach the playoffs.  As long as they’re willing to retain on the contract, there’s a very good chance that Domi is in another uniform after the deadline.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Adam Boqvist Placed On IR

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  • The Blue Jackets announced that they’ve placed defenseman Adam Boqvist on injured reserve due to an upper-body injury. The injury was sustained back on Sunday against Pittsburgh and the placement was back-dated to that point.  As a result, Boqvist could be activated as soon as Monday for their game against Toronto.

Alexandre Texier To Miss Several More Weeks

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While Blue Jackets forward Alexandre Texier was originally expected to miss four weeks with a finger injury (a time period that has come and gone), Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch reports (Twitter link) that the 22-year-old is still a few weeks away from returning.  Texier is having the best season of his career so far with 11 goals and nine assists in 36 games but this injury will have taken away that momentum.

Texier has found his name in recent trade speculation with teams calling about him but the injury won’t help things on that front either.  On that front, Hedger adds in a follow-up tweet that the team has no interest in moving him.  He has long been viewed as a future building block for the Blue Jackets and since he has shown some promising signs in his development this season, it’s understandable that they’d want to keep him around.

Columbus Blue Jackets Taking Calls On Alexandre Texier

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In the Eastern Conference, the playoff picture has looked set in stone for quite some time. Even now, with the Columbus Blue Jackets on an 8-2 run in their last ten, they’re still nine points behind the Boston Bruins for the last wild card position. That’s an impressive feat after struggling to find any consistency through the first half but it still might end up in a missed postseason, regardless of what they do in the coming weeks.

You can understand then, why teams may be calling the Blue Jackets to inquire about some of their players. Today, Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff reports that the team has been taking calls on Alexandre Texier for the last little while, though the asking price is still quite high. Seravalli notes that to pry Texier out of Columbus, it would take a first-round pick and a roster player.

Selected 45th overall in 2017, Texier is something of an enigma. After lighting up the Finnish league as a teenager, the French forward made the jump to North America and quickly forced his way into the Blue Jackets lineup. In 2019, he played in eight of the team’s ten playoff games at age-19, including the entire four-game sweep of the powerhouse Tampa Bay Lightning. In that deciding game four, Texier opened the scoring on the powerplay and added an empty-net goal to help seal it. He was still 19 at the time.

Since then, things haven’t gone quite as smoothly. Since the start of the 2019-20 season, Texier has ended up on injured reserve three times and has just 48 points in 121 games. There is so much obvious skill in his 6’1″ frame, but his play has been inconsistent even when he’s healthy enough to contribute.

This season, he has doubled his career goal total with 11 tallies in 36 games, but once again finds himself on the shelf due to injury. He has been out since January 26 with a broken finger, and even before that had been held scoreless in his last five games.

The key to any team’s interest in Texier–to go along with oodles of potential–is that he’s also signed for next season at a very reasonable $1.525MM cap hit. If you could add him to a talented lineup and keep him healthy, there’s a very good chance that the 22-year-old vastly outperforms that number. After this contract is finished, Texier will still be an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent, meaning it’s not anywhere near the kind of trade that will see rentals swap teams at the deadline.

Again though, the Blue Jackets are in no rush here. Just as they don’t have to make a decision about Patrik Laine until the offseason–the star sniper is a restricted free agent just one year away from the open market–they also won’t be pressured into a deal for the even-younger Texier. If the asking price is actually as high as Seravalli reports, Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen is making it very clear that he isn’t desperate to move the young forward.

Blue Jackets’ Daniil Tarasov Out For Remainder Of Season

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Columbus Blue Jackets netminder Daniil Tarasov will miss the remainder of the season as he recovers from right hip surgery, the team announced today. Tarasov’s recovery timeline is six months.

The news isn’t entirely unexpected. Tarasov has been on the shelf for a little while now, last playing for the Blue Jackets on New Years’ Day after a three-game string in early December.

The 22-year-old, who was drafted 86th overall in 2017 by the team, had a strong showing this year, posting a .937 save percentage despite only being credited with two losses and no wins.

Columbus, for the time being, will need to continue to rely on NHL/AHL tweener veteran Jean-Francois Berube between the pipes. He’s recorded two wins in his past two starts, his first such victories in the NHL since 2018. Their NHL tandem in Elvis Merzlikins and Joonas Korpisalo are both day-to-day with lower-body injuries.

Tarasov should be ready to go for training camp for 2022-23 and stands a chance to win an NHL spot, especially considering Korpisalo’s pending unrestricted free agent status.

Blue Jackets Notes: Nash, Laine, Korpisalo

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The Columbus Blue Jackets will be raising Rick Nash’s No. 61 to the rafters on March 5. Nash will become the first player in franchise history to have his jersey number retired and it will just happen to be when the Blue Jackets are facing the team he finished his career with. The Boston Bruins will be present for the ceremony, a team that Nash played just 23 games for before hanging up his skates in 2018.

The franchise leader in games played, goals, assists, and points, Nash is the first player that comes to mind when many picture the Columbus organization. He currently serves as the team’s director of player development and is involved heavily in the front office, as he continues on his post-playing career.

  • If Nash was the most talented goal scorer in Columbus history, Patrik Laine might already be number two. The enigmatic forward has been on an absolute tear lately, including scoring two goals last night. One of those was another overtime winner, marking the sixth time he’s scored the game-winning goal this season. Through 31 games, Laine has 18 goals and 35 points, showing exactly why he was selected second overall in 2016. That outstanding play is coming at the perfect time for the 23-year-old Finn, who is set to become an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent in the offseason. Aaron Portzline of The Athletic recently asked Laine if he would be open to signing a long-term contract, to which he responded “of course” and that he likes everything about Columbus.
  • The Blue Jackets have placed Joonas Kospisalo on injured reserve retroactive to February 15, meaning they’ll hit the road with Elvis Merzlikins, Jean-Francois Berube, and Jet Greaves. Berube was excellent again last night, stopping 39 of 42 shots from the Toronto Maple Leafs to earn his second win in as many games. This latest issue for Korpisalo only complicates his position as a trade deadline target, though likely not as much as his inconsistent play this season. The 27-year-old pending UFA has an .887 save percentage 18 appearances.

Columbus Blue Jackets Sign Jet Greaves

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The Columbus Blue Jackets have signed Jet Greaves to a three-year entry-level contract, and will recall him to serve as backup for this evening’s game. Greaves will be behind Jean-Francois Berube, who gets his first NHL start in several years as both Joonas Korpisalo and Elvis Merzlikins deal with injury.

Greaves, 20, had been playing on a minor league contract, splitting the season between the Kalamazoo Wings and Cleveland Monsters. In the AHL, the undrafted goaltender put up a 4-6 record in 13 starts, posting an .898 save percentage. This is his first year of professional hockey after two years with the Barrie Colts, neither of which were all that exceptional. Suddenly he finds himself on the way to the NHL, with the Blue Jackets dealing with a depth issue at the position.

The only other goaltender that could have been recalled by the Blue Jackets is Cam Johnson, who is on a one-year, two-way deal himself. But Johnson has spent most of the year in the ECHL and actually played last night for Cleveland, allowing three goals on 18 shots. Given the lack of options, Greaves finds himself the beneficiary of a three-year deal that makes him an NHL goaltender, at least for the day.

The entry-level contract will keep him in the organization through 2023-24, not bad for a 6’0″ goaltender that has just 28 games of professional experience under his belt.

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