Columbus Blue Jackets News Clips

February 29, 2020

Columbus Blue Jackets PAGE 02 The Columbus Dispatch: Blue Jackets get good injury news, for once, with return of two regulars

PAGE 04 The Columbus Dispatch: Captain Nick Foligno leads Blue Jackets with toughness, heightened performance

PAGE 06 The Columbus Dispatch: Wild 5, Blue Jackets 0 | Rematch even worse than the original for Jackets

PAGE 07 The Athletic: A sputtering defense, its impact on offense, and other Blue Jackets observations

Cleveland Monsters/Prospects

NHL/Websites PAGE 11 The Athletic: Duhatschek Notebook: Making sense of the deadline, 5 low-cost adds worth watching

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The Columbus Dispatch: Blue Jackets get good injury news, for once, with return of two regulars

By Brian Hedger – February 28, 2020

They’ve had so many injuries, for so long, that it feels strange for the Blue Jackets to actually welcome back familiar faces.

Since mid-December, the Jackets have mostly added to their injury list, which has included fractures, sprains and the ever-enjoyable “upper” and “lower” body injuries.

They led the NHL with 375 man-games lost to injury entering the rematch Friday night against the Minnesota Wild, but there was finally some positive injury news from Nationwide Arena.

The Blue Jackets gained some needed strength down the middle, getting centers Alexander Wennberg and Riley Nash back in the lineup against the Wild, both after upper-body injuries.

“Wenny was playing, as I said when he went out, probably his best hockey,” coach John Tortorella said of Wennberg, who had begun to contribute more offensively before his injury Feb. 2. “(He) helps us in the middle of the ice, somewhere we’ve been bouncing people around, so we’re anxious to get him back in. Nasher, too.”

Nash’s injury happened Monday in the first period of a 4-3 overtime win against the Ottawa Senators. Attempting to deliver a big hit behind the net, he absorbed a shoulder in the head and left the game.

Nash missed only one game, a 5-4 loss Tuesday at the Wild, but his absence was felt.

The fourth line he usually centers chased the puck in most of its shifts and only logged about eight minutes of 5-on-5 action. The hope was that getting two centers back would help the Blue Jackets drive puck-possession again and spread out some of the ice time among all four lines.

Nash and Wennberg are also penalty-killing forwards who are sound defensively.

That’s not going to move many needles, the way that getting back Cam Atkinson (ankle), Oliver Bjorkstrand (ankle fracture) or Josh Anderson (shoulder) would, but it’s two solid NHL veterans and good news, for once, on the injury front.

“They’re two really good players for us,” said Pierre-Luc Dubois, a third-year center who led the team with 46 points (18 goals, 28 assists). “The guys who have come up from Cleveland (to fill in) have played well, and it’s no slight to them, but these guys have been there for us, done a really good job for us this year, and we’ve been through a lot. So to have them back, it feels good.”

Playing it safe

Another big gift who has returned from the Jackets’ pile of injuries is goaltender Joonas Korpisalo, who missed 24 games and nearly eight weeks because of a meniscus tear.

The 25-year-old was to get the start in net Friday against the Wild, which was his first start and second appearance since returning Monday in relief of rookie Elvis Merzlikins, who was injured against Ottawa.

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After making 15 saves on 16 shots to earn the win in OT, Korpisalo was the backup Tuesday at Minnesota.

He was expected to start against the Wild at Xcel Energy Center, but Merzlikins’ injury shifted the plan. Matiss Kivlenieks, an emergency recall from the Cleveland Monsters, started instead and faced 40 shots, allowing five goals.

“I just got back from the injury, so I understood it,” said Korpisalo, who went 17-10-4 and earned his first NHL All-Star invitation before the knee injury. “It’s better to be safer right now than to just go 100% and crank it right back up. It’s been healing safely and feels good now. I’m 100%, but I understood it. I’m ready to play, though.”

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The Columbus Dispatch: Captain Nick Foligno leads Blue Jackets with toughness, heightened performance

By Brian Hedger – February 28, 2020

The bruises are still there, yellowish and purple now, but Nick Foligno’s face is starting to heal.

"Getting there," the Blue Jackets captain said Thursday, before a team meeting and optional on-ice practice. "My sunglasses are going away."

Thursday was a week out from the play that cause his double black eyes, when a hard wrist shot from teammate Gustav Nyquist deflected off the stick of Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov 1:29 into the third period and smashed into Foligno’s face. The visor on his helmet took the initial brunt, cracking in the process, but the puck clearly left its mark on his face.

"I’ve never had that happen before," Foligno said. "I don’t really want to talk about it, but it’s just part of hockey. You’re bound to get hit in the face a few times. I’ve had it a lot (worse) than that, just probably not as scary as this last time, with the visor breaking. So I’ll count my blessings."

The Blue Jackets should, too.

Foligno returned a few minutes later and finished the game with gauze stuffed up his nostrils and a bleeding cut on the bridge of the nose. He hasn’t missed a shift in three games since, looking like the toughest hockey player who’s ever lived, and has led the charge during a stretch with 10 lineup regulars out and the Jackets clinging to life in a playoff race that’s nearing the final month.

Going into a game Friday against the Minnesota Wild, a rematch at Nationwide Arena after a 5-4 loss Tuesday at Xcel Energy Center, Foligno is doing everything he can to keep the season from slipping away.

He has scored goals in three of the past four games, taking his season total from six to 10, and his ice time has skyrocketed in the absence of injured forwards Cam Atkinson, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Josh Anderson and Alexander Wennberg.

"In a very important time of the year, he has stepped up his play," coach John Tortorella said. "He’s gotten more minutes. He’s had a very inconsistent year, but he certainly knows the urgency this team needs to have, and I think is leading the way that way."

That much was clear after the loss to the Wild.

The Blue Jackets were dominated for two periods, falling behind 4-1 while looking physically and mentally exhausted. They stormed back in the third period to score three times and force Wild goalie Alex Stalock to make a couple of difficult saves to prevent overtime.

Foligno, who had tied it 1-1 in the first period, refused to accept excuses about tired legs, mental fatigue or the call-ups from Cleveland to replace a glut of injured regulars.

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"I just believe in this group," he said two days later. "I really do. I think all the work that we’ve put in, all the mental grind that we’ve gone through, starting in training camp, prepares you for this. So use it to your advantage. The reason why we go through hell in training camp is to be ready for moments like this."

And the reason Foligno is the captain of this team is captured in unrelenting statements like those, not to mention his play despite the current state of his eye sockets. To watch Foligno take a shot to the face and just keep on chugging is to watch these Blue Jackets, as a whole, keep slugging away despite teammates dropping left and right.

"He’s our captain, leading us on the ice and off the ice," said goaltender Joonas Korpisalo, who along with rookie Elvis Merzlikins has put his own spin on the Jackets’ tradition of post-victory goalie hugs with Foligno. "He’s just an all-around great guy. Loves goalies, obviously. You know, that’s a goalie’s best friend right there."

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The Columbus Dispatch: Wild 5, Blue Jackets 0 | Rematch even worse than the original for Jackets

By Brian Hedger – February 28, 2020

It was supposed to be a do-over, a second chance for the Blue Jackets to make up for a horrendous start Tuesday at Minnesota that led to a frustrating loss at Xcel Energy Center.

Instead, Friday night at Nationwide Arena was more of a replay, except the ending was worse. The Wild built a 4-0 lead after two periods, similar to a 4-1 lead at the same point Tuesday, and this time cruised to a 5-0 victory over the Jackets on ’90s Throwback Night.

Joel Eriksson Ek and Jared Spurgeon scored goals 36 seconds apart for a 2-0 lead just over six minutes in, then got two more goals in the second by Ryan Hartman at 10:52 and Zach Parise at 12:30 to go up 4-0 and silence the arena.

Joonas Korpisalo, making his first start for the Blue Jackets since suffering a torn meniscus in a shootout Dec. 29 against Chicago, allowed all four goals on 15 shots and was replaced by rookie Matiss Kivlenieks after Parise scored.

Alex Stalock started for Minnesota and made 24 saves to pick up his second victory in a row against the Blue Jackets, who didn’t fare any better despite getting centers Alexander Wennberg and Riley Nash back from upper-body injuries.

The Jackets remain stuck on 76 points and came into the game clinging to the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. The Carolina Hurricanes and New York Rangers each have 74 points. The Hurricanes also have three games in hand and the Rangers two.

Despite one of their worst efforts of the season, the Jackets are still in the hunt with 16 games left, but they are backsliding quickly. They’ve lost nine of their last 10 games (1-4-5), and these two losses are the first consecutive regulation losses they’ve had since dropping four in a row between Nov. 30 and Dec. 7.

Unlike the game Tuesday, when the Blue Jackets stormed back against the Wild with three goals in the third period, there was no inspired comeback. The Wild pushed it to a 5-0 lead on a goal by Kevin Fiala at 12:20, and Stalock polished off his fourth shutout.

Minnesota won its third straight game, fifth in the past six, and has scored 17 goals in its past three games, tying a franchise record for goals in a three-game span.

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The Athletic: A sputtering defense, its impact on offense, and other Blue Jackets observations

By Alison Lukan – February 28, 2020

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ten observations from the Blue Jackets’ 5-0 loss against the Minnesota Wild on Friday at Nationwide Arena:

1. Failure to launch

Let’s be clear. The Blue Jackets know where they stand. Postgame, Nick Foligno not only mentioned still being in a playoff spot (thanks to losses by Carolina and the New York Rangers), but he also mentioned having games in hand and having to be “in the hunt.” So the biggest concern for this team right now isn’t where it stands, it’s that it isn’t elevating its play to match the work that lies ahead.

This is a club that got into playoff contention by playing “playoff hockey” most of December and January. It showed battle, grind. That’s not present right now.

“I think that’s really what’s lacking in that understanding of how hard it is this time of year,” Foligno said. “Everyone’s now trying to jockey for position and the teams that are right there pushing … there’s an elevation to everyone’s game and I don’t think we’ve done it. I don’t think we’ve elevated ours. I think we’re stuck in ‘it’s going to come to us’ mode, and it’s not.”

Head coach John Tortorella called his team’s effort “lackluster.” While the group has had a rough schedule of late — eight games in 13 days including related travel — the team had Wednesday off, an optional skate Thursday, followed by a morning skate prior to Friday’s game. But the energy still wasn’t there.

“I thought we handled the situation right, but we had shit,” Tortorella said. “There was no energy. We didn’t have the ability to do anything tonight.”

How did that manifest in the game versus Minnesota?

2. Hemmed in

When this season started, the mantra was that the defense was the engine of the team. But if you thought that just meant prevention of offense against, you were missing the entire picture. Players such as Zach Werenski, Seth Jones and Ryan Murray, in particular, are masters at gaining possession of the puck in their own end and immediately getting it out and moving toward the offensive zone.

But the Blue Jackets haven’t been as effective at transitioning the puck of late, often spending long stretches in their own zone and struggling with failed exit attempts that put the puck right back on opponents’ sticks.

“I think obviously when we exit our zone clean it leads to more possession entries in their zone and whatnot,” Werenski said. “So I think we definitely have to sharpen up on that and take more pride in that. Breakouts, closing guys out one-on-one in the corner, all the little things.”

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Ineffective transition cost Columbus on two of the first three goals against. The Wild’s first score came off a series of lost battles that culminated in Minnesota coming back into the Jackets’ zone and setting up for the Joel Eriksson Ek score.

But there was perhaps no better example than the Wild’s fourth score to make it 4-0. The Jackets gain control of the puck and push for transition, but Stefan Matteau can’t get the puck out, and because Werenski and others were driving toward offensive play, Zach Parise is left all alone net front for the easy score.

“I think sometimes in the season, especially when you’re down a couple goals you can shy away from (proper transitional play),” Werenski said. “You kind of cheat for offense. We’re cheating a little bit. It comes back to bite us.”

3. Stuck in the middle with you

The bigger struggle about the Jackets being stuck in their own zone is what’s happening when they are there. This season, part of the defensive focus that Tortorella and staff have been preaching is to clear out the middle of the ice, specifically, a lane that is bound by imaginary lines on either side that connect the faceoff dots on the left and the right.

“When a team attacks the middle, you’re kind of giving it to them,” Werenski said. “We’re a team that likes to push teams to the outside, and then give them the outside, bad angle shots.”

You can see how effective the Blue Jackets have been at this. In this shot map, blue represents where shots are happening at a rate below league average, and red indicates where they are happening at a rate above league average. Most of the season, the middle lane has been protected by Columbus with very few shots coming from those areas.

But the Wild found a way to crack that code. Here’s where Minnesota’s shot came from this game.

That’s almost a reverse of how the Blue Jackets have played this season.

“That’s the patience of it,” Tortorella said. “That’s the way we have to play, when it seems like we don’t have energy, I think your concentration goes away also. I thought we watched. Our positional play was not good.”

4. Double-crossed

That’s not all Minnesota did. Part of protecting that middle lane of the ice is allowing the puck to move through it, not just allowing shots from those locations. The more a team can get a puck moving side to side, the more it challenges not only the defense, but also the goaltender, which is why Columbus wants to shut those kinds of plays down.

The Wild were able to move the puck laterally through the seams almost at will — particularly early when they were pressing for a comfortable lead.

“It’s tough,” David Savard said. “(Minnesota) plays (what) feels like a slower game. They use the D-to-D (pass) more and it’s hard to get our gap, or maybe our timing was wrong. But we have to find a way to stop those plays, if not, it’s how much trouble we get into.”

5. The impact

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What’s the result? The Blue Jackets end up doing everything they don’t want from a defensive perspective: getting stuck in their zone, allowing opponents to play and shoot in a less than ideal way, and the goals pour into Columbus’ net.

The five goals against were the most Columbus has given up on home ice this season. That total is also tied with the Oct. 5 game in Pittsburgh for the worst goal differential (-5) this season.

The Blue Jackets have now given up five goals in their past two contests and three times in their past six games.

6. Have a chance?

With so much not working defensively, it’s been a struggle for the Blue Jackets to create offensively. If you can’t get the puck out of your zone, even getting to the offensive zone is a struggle, which of course limits your ability to create.

“I think it’s kind of funny when we’re very sharp in our D zone it’s crazy the offense we create off that,” Werenski said. “If we can clean up our D zone, clean up our exits, we’re going to start scoring some more goals cause it’s definitely obvious when you do have a clean exit, what comes of it. We get usually a pretty good scoring chance.”

7. Upping the ante

With so few scoring opportunities, each one gained raised in importance and reduced the margin for error. Unfortunately, the Blue Jackets were on the wrong end of that equation early on. Already down 1- 0 6:12 into the game, Vladislav Gavrikov tried to feed the puck into a scoring position but instead, the Wild jumped on the turnover and led an odd-man rush the other way for the 2-0 lead 6:46 into the game and 34 seconds after the first goal against.

8. Start to finish

For the second consecutive game at Nationwide Arena, the goaltender who started the game did not finish. After coming in for an injured Elvis Merzlikins two games ago (Feb. 24), Joonas Korpisalo made his first NHL start since returning from injury against the Wild.

But after allowing four goals on 15 shots, Korpisalo was pulled and Matiss Kivlenieks came in in relief. Kivlenieks would see 11 shots against and allow one goal.

With such lopsided play in front of the net in this game, was the switch a graceful way to remove a goaltender from the misery? Perhaps a bit, but the head coach was clear that everyone on the team needs to be better in their roles.

“Everybody gives skin here,” Tortorella said. “I don’t think Korpi was dead on by any means, but he’s still got to get back into playing, he hasn’t played a bunch. No one is off the hook here.”

9. Reinforcements

The Blue Jackets were hoping to get a boost from two returning players: Riley Nash and Alexander Wennberg, who are both centers and key parts of the penalty kill. Nash had missed the last game in Minnesota after leaving the Ottawa game in the second period, and Wennberg was seeing his first on- ice action since the team’s Feb. 2 game in Montreal.

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But these two were mired in the same struggles as their teammates. In 14:20 of play, Wennberg had two shot attempts (misses), two hits and went 2-for-9 on the faceoff dot. Nash played 13:03, had one missed attempt and was 4-for-11 in faceoffs.

10. Head Full of Doubt / Road Full of Promise

Ryan Murray practiced with the team for the second consecutive skate Friday. … Elvis Merzlikins was not on the ice for the same practice session. … In February, the Blue Jackets’ power play had three goals in 33 opportunities (9.1 percent). The penalty kill was effective 17 of 22 chances (77.3 percent). … Per @NHLInjuryViz on Twitter: Capitals’ man games lost for the season: 57 Blue Jackets’ man games lost for the past 6 games: 58.

Analytics

Insights into the Blue Jackets’ loss:

• The Blue Jackets’ didn’t play in a way that gave them the best odds to come out a winner. According to Natural Stat Trick, in five-on-five adjusted play, Columbus had 42.46 percent of all shot attempts, but they weren’t quality chances. As a result, the home team earned just 29.43 percent of all expected goals. Money Puck’s “deserve to win o’meter” had the Blue Jackets winning the game 19.6 percent of the time.

• The .95 expected goals (five-on-five) that the Blue Jackets created was the lowest team total this season.

• The most offense any Columbus skater could generate was .12 expected goals and that came from Kevin Stenlund, who fired five shot attempts and had two individual scoring chances.

• Joonas Korpisalo had a rough outing, allowing 2.62 goals more than expected. In relief, Matiss Kivlenieks was right about at expectations, and Alex Stalock exceeded expectations by preventing 1.07 more goals than projected.

• The top Columbus skaters, according to Game Score: Scott Harrington (.28); Andrew Peeke (.14); Nick Foligno (.02); Gustav Nyquist (minus-.23); Eric Robinson (minus-.29).

• Each of Minnesota’s skaters had a better Game Score than any Blue Jackets skater. The Wild leaders were: Zach Parise (4.17); Jordan Greenway (3.18); Kevin Fiala (2.84); Jared Spurgeon (2.57); Matt Dumba (2.53).

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The Athletic: Duhatschek Notebook: Making sense of the deadline, 5 low-cost adds worth watching

By Erik Duhatschek – February 28, 2020

After the trade deadline, everyone has their own way of examining the fallout, because once the dust has settled, it’s always important to reassess and take stock.

Most fall back on a conventional approach: Winners and losers.

I don’t love winners and losers because inevitably, the teams that add the most are described as the winners and the teams that divest themselves of players are described as the losers. I’m almost always prepared to take a counterintuitive view.

Many times, there tends to be a generous dollop of buyer’s remorse after the fact – maybe not right away, but once the playoffs start and 16 teams become eight very quickly and then before you know it, eight become four. One month into the postseason, if your team is still standing – and something you did at the trade deadline contributed to that – then that’s a win.

Anything that falls short, it’s usually not.

History tells us that any trade involving impact players must be frequently reassessed because often, a team that appears to have won a trade in the short term looks like the loser down the road.

Let’s re-examine Shea Weber for P.K. Subban as an illustration. A genuine blockbuster in an era when the term blockbuster has been greatly devalued, the immediate take was that Nashville would ultimately win the deal with Montreal because Subban is much younger than Weber – and thus had a longer career as an elite-level player in front of him. When Subban finished as a finalist for the Norris Trophy in 2017-18, the same year Weber was limited to 26 games because of surgery to repair a tendon in his left foot, it seemed to reinforce that point emphatically.

But what do you know? Last June, Nashville essentially gave Subban away as a means of saving on their salary cap. Meanwhile, before Weber was injured, he was in the 2020 Norris Trophy conversation. Not only has he made meaningful on-ice contributions to the Canadiens this season, Weber’s leadership role on a team in transition has had an incalculable value as well.

Ultimately, the deals that I like to ponder post-deadline are the sneaky ones – the ones that slip under the radar, the ones that involve players that never actually made it onto the trade boards – or if they did, eked their way on there at the 11th hour. As an example, one that weirdly fascinates me happened on the Friday before the deadline when the Jets landed Cody Eakin from the Golden Knights for a conditional fourth-round pick.

On the surface, a middle-of-the-line-up player for a mid-round draft choice. Not much to get worked up for at all.

This, by the way, was the third consecutive year in which Winnipeg increased its center depth at the deadline. First time out, it was Paul Stastny. Last year, Kevin Hayes. Both adds – as rental players – were

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pricey. Stastny was a better fit than Hayes and did – as mentioned above – help the Jets get to the final four, so that meets the criteria of a successful deal. Hayes didn’t. That was a fail.

Eakin was available at a much more reasonable acquisition cost largely for two reasons:

Vegas wanted to shed dollars to accommodate the acquisition of Alec Martinez from the Kings.

With William Karlsson healthy, the Golden Knights felt deep enough at center to play on without Eakin. Chandler Stephenson, who’d come over from the Washington Capitals earlier in the season, had done a nice job of filling in for Karlsson during his injury absence, and showed an ability to play a top-six role if needed. But ultimately, the Knights are a better team if Stephenson is playing a secondary role.

But with Stephenson thriving, Eakin became expendable – and Winnipeg gets a reliable two-way player that has had trouble producing offence consistently in the NHL, but can show flashes of ability around the net. The last time Eakin played for a Winnipeg-based team, he did just that. (Of course, that was back in 2006-07, when playing for the Winnipeg Wild of the Manitoba Minor Hockey League, Eakin produced 64 points in 38 games; and played three games as a 16-year-old for Swift Current of the WHL).

How much will Eakin help the Jets? How much will Eakin play?

The early returns are inconclusive – three games played, one assist, average time on ice: 14:40 per night. But the Jets shutout the Washington Capitals on Thursday night to stay in the thick of the Western Conference playoff race and the modest acquisition cost for a player that the Jets needed since learning Bryan Little isn’t coming back, suggests that’s a depth move that will pay dividends eventually. We’ll see.

Switching back to the big picture, in terms of sheer numbers, the 2020 trade deadline was one of the busiest in recent years – 32 deals on the final day, involving 55 players. Purely in terms of volume, the closest to this year’s 11th-hour trade-deadline flurry came back in 2010, when 55 players changed teams in 31 trades.

GMs I spoke to said it had everything to do with the tightness of the standings. On Tuesday morning, when the postseason deadline push started, only six teams had been conclusively eliminated from the playoff race (though a handful of others, such as the Sabres, Rangers, Blackhawks and Wild were just hanging on).

In all, six goalies (Robin Lehner, Malcolm Subban, Louis Domingue, Michael Hutchinson, Zane McIntyre and Angus Redmond) traded places at the deadline. Curiously, the team that seemed to have the greatest need at the position – the Hurricanes – didn’t add one, a sign of faith in starter Petr Mrazek’s ability, and that he would make a quick recovery. An interesting calculated risk.

Hurricanes’ GM Don Waddell is an old-school mover-and-shaker and he added three really quality pieces to his mix (with Vincent Trocheck, Sami Vatanen and Brady Skjei). If the Hurricanes defend every game the way they did in front of David Ayres against the Leafs, then they could be a tough out.

Like a lot of you, I thought Lightning GM Julien BriseBois wildly overpaid to bring in Barclay Goodrow from the San Jose Sharks (a first-round pick, while Tampa also gets a third-rounder in return). And like a lot of you, while I appriciate what Jean-Gabriel Pageau brings to the mix for any team, for the Islanders to surrender a first-, a second- and a further conditional pick to the Senators seemed over the top. With

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New York, Pageau will be part of the ensemble, as opposed to Ottawa, where he was cast in a leading role this year.

What the Isles did with Pageau is what Vegas did last year with Mark Stone – make a big-time deal with the Senators for a player on an expiring contract and then sign him to an extension. The return for Pageau is roughly comparable to the return for Stone – and that speaks to how well Senators general manager Pierre Dorion did to maximize assets. Tyler Ennis returned far less – just a fifth-round pick from the Oilers. At some point, the Senators are going to need some players to play for them and you maybe hope that one of the solutions comes internally – Bobby Ryan.

That hat trick on Thursday night, in his second game back after entering the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program, was a nice starting point – and maybe a sign that there is some game left in his game.

The fact that Ryan’s achievements on Thursday night received such strong universal support on social media was especially heartening, considering how cruel people can sometimes be.

Ryan just has pure natural charm and if you ever want to see an illustration of that, watch the video that he recorded on behalf of the Senators’ website back in September, 2013, when he posed as one of the team’s in-house reporter and did a man-on-the-street interview, asking fans for their thoughts on the new guy. Sometimes, a video, like a picture, is worth 1,000 words.

In the meantime, that vast stockpile of draft picks and prospects accumulated by the Senators gives them an opportunity to sell hope – and selling all those empty seats in Ottawa is going to be a priority, sooner, not later.

Overall, a lot of bodies moved last Monday, which sometimes forces you to scratch below the surface to see where the genuine value may lie. Everyone’s looking for the next Michal Kempny – that strategic low-cost add that Washington made ahead of their 2018 run to the Stanley Cup. Or that extra middle-of- the-pack draft choice that unexpectedly morphs into a good player. Or that struggling player looking for – and then finding – a fit in his new home.

Value – like beauty – is in the eye of the beholder. Here are the five moves that I’ll be monitoring closely – in the short, medium and long term – to see how they pan out as value propositions:

Sonny Milano to Anaheim for Devin Shore

Milano is an offensive talent who was playing for a team, Columbus, that needed scoring and yet he couldn’t consistently find a place in coach John Tortorella’s lineup. It immediately reminded you of the deal the Ducks completed last season to acquire Daniel Sprong from the Pittsburgh Penguins (and in the process, surrendering defenseman Marcus Pettersson, a regular now in Pittsburgh, playing almost 20 minutes per game). Sprong was an offensive talent that couldn’t consistently find a place in Pittsburgh’s lineup and thus became expendable. Sprong even made a good first impression on the Ducks last season and ended up with 14 goals in 47 games, but eventually, the inconsistencies in his overall game left him on the outside looking in this season (he played just eight games for the Ducks, producing two points). Anaheim actually made six separate trades at the deadline and one of them involved shuffling off Sprong to Washington for depth defenceman Christian Djoos. But Milano had a good debut for the Ducks, scoring twice, playing on a line with Ryan Getzlaf. Anaheim has a real need for a natural scorer

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because the Ducks likely won’t have a single player with 30 goals or 60 points this season. There is room for someone to come in and play top-six minutes and jazz up that 30th ranked power play.

Wayne Simmonds to Buffalo for a conditional 2021 draft choice

Simmonds had a limited no-trade clause and thus had some options, some of which would presumably have landed him with a contender. As a pending UFA, it seemed – on the surface – like an odd thing, for Simmonds to end up on a team on the fringes of playoff contention as a rental. But on another level, if the Sabres and Simmonds see a potential long-term fit there, it makes complete sense. It’s like a trial marriage on some levels. The Sabres get to see, close up, where Simmonds is physically and what he might have left in the tank (because the last two seasons have been marred by injuries and when that happens, teams fear the issues could be chronic). Simmonds is from Toronto and likely looking for some stability in his life, after all the shuffling that’s gone on lately. Buffalo is a decent geographic fit – close to home – and there are enough young pieces there to get you a little excited, even if this year’s push falls short. Plus, coach Ralph Krueger leads the league in motivational messaging. Once there, it’s easy to imagine Simmonds finding a role in the Sabres’ culture change.

Nick Ritchie and Nick Cousins (to Boston and Vegas respectively)

There are always a handful of players named Nick traded every year (Jensen, Bjugstad and Schmaltz changed NHL teams a year ago); and in the case of Nick Ritchie, his acquisition mirrors a little of what the Bruins did a year ago, when they added Charlie Coyle at the deadline in a hockey deal, and not as a pure rental. Ritchie is a big-body – 6-foot-2, 232 – drafted 10th overall in 2014, who didn’t use his strength and size as consistently as the Ducks would have liked. He has the physical attributes to be an above-average NHLer. Once the Bruins get Ritchie’s fellow former Duck, Ondrej Kase, into the lineup, they will have multiple options of how to deploy their second and third lines. Potentially, if both ex- Ducks end up on the line with David Krejci, that would free up Jake DeBrusk to play with Coyle and Anders Bjork. And earlier this week against Calgary, the Bruins’ fourth line of Sean Kuraly, Chris Wagner and Par Lindholm was excellent. Suddenly, depth up front – which appeared to be the one area the Bruins needed to shore up at the deadline – isn’t an issue anymore, provided Ritchie doesn’t disappoint. Cousins, meanwhile, is now on his fourth NHL team, moving over from Montreal for a fourth-round pick, but got a chance right away to play with Stephenson and scored a goal against Edmonton on Wednesday night.

Tyler Ennis to Edmonton for a fifth-round pick

If value is what you’re looking for, it’s hard to argue with the negligible cost that the Oilers paid to get Ennis from the Senators. He is a hometown boy who grew with a picture of Wayne Gretzky on his wall but said his favorite player was actually Doug Weight (which makes sense, given Ennis’s age). I asked him this week if he felt he’d won the lottery – going from a team sure to miss to the playoffs to a spot on the Oilers’ top line and a chance to play with Connor McDavid. You know he said yes to that. Ennis had a strong debut in his first game versus the Ducks (an OT loss), and then the Oilers were shut out in Vegas the next night, a game in which they lost their other trading-deadline acquisition, Andreas Athanasiou, who – on paper – looks like a great match with McDavid. Depending upon Athanasiou’s health, it may take some time to see if any chemistry eventually develops.

Alec Martinez to Vegas for two second-round picks

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There were a number of depth defenceman trading places at or near the deadline and if you’re looking for the best candidate to be the next Kempny, it could happen right in Washington again, where Brenden Dillon moved over from the Sharks and immediately was getting 17 minutes per night on the Capitals’ blue line. They remain a legit Stanley Cup contender. Carolina’s adds – of Skjei and Vatanen – give the Hurricanes a boost, but they first have to make the playoffs in order to start pondering their Stanley Cup chances. Same in Calgary, where Erik Gustafsson (from Chicago) and Derek Forbort (Los Angeles) round out the bottom of their defence corps that has been battling injuries of late (though Mark Giordano returned Thursday night versus Nashville). Instructively, the Flames stuck with Gustafsson on the first power-play unit after it cost them a 2020 third-rounder.

But the biggest contributor has been Martinez, who already has six points in his first four games in Vegas after scoring just eight in 41 games with the Kings. Of all the players who’ve traded places, Martinez seems to have made by far the smoothest transition – and Vegas is rolling now, with seven wins in a row, and just slightly starting to edge ahead in the Pacific. If I had to choose just one trade out of all the ones that occurred which could have that small, strategic impact on actually making a difference in winning a championship, I’m selecting this one.

And finally …

One of the reasons Calgary was prepared to give up a third-rounder to add Gustafsson as a rental was the expectation that they’ll have an extra third-rounder coming from the Oilers, dating back to last summer’s trade that saw James Neal go to Edmonton in exchange for Milan Lucic. The respective GMs attached an interesting rider to that deal – if Neal scored 21 goals (and outscored Lucic by 10 or more), the Oilers would owe Calgary a third-rounder. After four games this season, it looked like a sure bet. Neal had scored seven goals by then already. In all, Neal scored 11 goals in October, three in November and five in December (though three of the five came on the final night of the month, in a New Year’s Eve game against the Rangers) that left Neal with 19 on the season.

Neal hasn’t scored a goal in the calendar year 2020 and is currently out of the Oilers’ lineup with what appears to be a high ankle sprain. Indications are, Neal will be ready to play again by mid-March, assuming he doesn’t have any further setbacks. Presumably, the Oilers will not rush him back, but if he’s healthy and medically cleared, Neal will likely go back into the lineup so he can get back up to speed for the postseason. If he does, he will almost certainly return to the power play, where he’s done most of his damage this season (12 of his 19 goals have come with the man advantage). Does that give Neal enough time to get to 21? I don’t even have a good guess at this point. But it’ll be just one more fascinating subplot to what sure looks like a compelling stretch drive.

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