Season in Review: The Columbus Blue Jackets: The NHL’s Cannon Fodder
Nothing can go right in Columbus, can it? First, the future of the franchise demanded to be traded. Then, you somehow managed to trade him for the 2nd overall pick in 2016 and Jack Roslovic? What a deal for the Blue Jackets. It didn’t look too great this season, but it was still absolute robbery. Now another one of your top players wants out and you have to wonder why. Rick Nash, Artemi Panarin, Sergei Bobrovvsky, Matt Duchene, Pierre-Luc Dubois, and now Seth Jones? All cannon fodder to whatever the Blue Jackets are trying to do. There has to be something wrong in Columbus, but first, let’s talk about some individual players for this team.
Oliver Bjorkstrand is very good. He’s also on a very good contract. Before this season the Blue Jackets signed Bjorkstrand to a $5,400,000 AAV over the next 5 seasons. This season he outplayed that contract by scoring 18 goals and 44 points in 54 games. I thought that Bjorkstrand was good last season, but he has hit another level in Columbus this year. He’s a sniper who is great at driving the offensive play and works hard in his own end. Every team would want an Oliver Bjorkstrand on their roster, and hopefully, Columbus can keep him on theirs for the foreseeable future.
Fun fact, Jack Roslovic was the highest scorer from the Laine for Dubois deal by 13 points. 13. He put up 34 points in 48 games for the Blue Jackets this season, and I think that they've found a real keeper. He cooled down towards the end of the season, but so did everyone on the Blue Jackets. I expect him to be a solid middle-six player for this team moving forward, depending on whether they decide to play him at centre or on the wing. His defensive game is lacking so if I was Columbus I’d try him on the wing again next season.
Zach Werenski was as good as ever this season. Unlike his defensive partner, Werenski actually improved on his game yet again this season. Werenski’s offensive game has always been there, but he has slowly developed his defensive game over the past three years to the point where it’s almost as good as his offensive play. Werenski becomes an RFA after next season, and you have to hope that he’s not going to do what Dubois did. Getting Werenski an extension should be priority number one once they figure out what they're doing with Seth Jones.
Elvis Merzlikins was solid for Columbus once again this season. Both he and Korpisalo emerged for the Blue Jackets last season after Bobrovsky left for Florida, but they weren’t as impressive this season. Korpisalo was very bad, but Merzlikins certainly proved himself as a starter this year. He had a 0.916% Save% as a goalkeeper for Columbus in a season where they finished 28th in the NHL. They have to move one of these guys this offseason, and if I was the Blue Jackets I would try my best to keep Merzlikins over Korpisalo.
Yeah, there isn’t much work for Jarmo Kekäläinen when it comes to resigning his players this offseason. Alex Texier has been a great player so far for Columbus. He had a fantastic rookie season last year, but he took a step back in his sophomore season. That’s to be expected with a worse team and sophomore slumps are very common. Lehtonen may come back to Columbus, but I have no reason to believe that Del Zotto will want to stay a Blue Jacket. Patrik Laine is the big one here. Here are two quotes from Laine following the Blue Jackets season.
“I love it here. I want to stay here for sure” — Patrik Laine, May 10th
“Because of this season I can’t stand even a game of hockey…Everything that could go wrong went wrong” — Patrik Laine, May 11th
Now, that second quote comes from a Finnish translation, so it could not be exactly what Laine said. But who knows if he actually wants to stay or not, but I think he resigns. Columbus has ~$25,800,000 in cap space, so they can surely fit the likes of Laine under the cap. Hopefully, they can somehow attract a free agent or two to Columbus to help speed up whatever they’re doing to hopefully get back into the playoffs soon.
Despite being in a good spot and having some bright spots, this was a very bad season for the team and many of the individual players on the roster. Laine was one of them. He had the worst season of his young career, and it doesn't make any sense. I would say that in his last full season as a Jet, Laine was at his best. He became more of a playmaker while still being en route for 34 goals in a full season. This season he even had 3 points in his season-opening game with the Jets before being dealt to Columbus. He went on to score only 10 goals and 21 points in 45 games as a Blue Jacket this season. He had his worst defensive season, mixed with his worst offensive play-driving season when he finally got the ability to run his own line. Is this because Columbus didn’t have good enough players next to Laine? Maybe it’s because of how Tortorella told him to play? We’ll get these answers if he stays in Columbus for next season, so we have to wait and see. It would be a shame if Laine just isn’t good enough anymore, he looked like he could’ve been an all-time great goal scorer.
From one underwhelming season from a star from a Canadian market to another, what happened to Max Domi? Two seasons ago he broke out in Montreal, which was followed by a very meh season last year. He was still a good player though, and this year he just flopped. I keep forgetting that he was in Columbus this season. In 54 games he only scored 24 points, and while he did look like a serviceable middle 6 centre/winger, I don’t like what I have seen from Domi this season. Next year is his year to prove himself to the Blue Jackets, or else he’ll probably get a fairly cheap contract from some other team in free agency.
So, it’s finally time to talk about Seth Jones. He had a terrible, and I can not stress this enough, terrible season for Columbus this year. Yes, he may have had 28 points in 56 games, but that’s not from what he’s done. If you watched him play you could tell that he was a negative impact more than anything. Jones has been very overrated for a long time, and with the majority of people's opinions being that he is still a fantastic defenceman, I think that you have to move him now.
Putting Seth Jones’ terrible season behind, he has said that he won’t resign with Columbus after next season. What I would do here is trade Seth Jones before Free Agency kicks off this offseason. I don’t believe that Jones is going to be worth whatever a team overpays for him, but there are probably are a lot of teams that would want a player that they can sign to an extension now rather than gamble on a Dougie Hamilton, for example. Some teams that were eliminated from the playoffs in the first round, or ones that barely missed out, might see Jones as an easy opportunity to bolster their roster next season. Right now his value is pretty high, and I don’t think it’s going to get higher than it is right now. Your move, Columbus.