1 Columbus Blue Jackets News Clips October 3-5, 2020 Columbus Blue
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Columbus Blue Jackets News Clips October 3-5, 2020 Columbus Blue Jackets PAGE 02: Columbus Dispatch: Blue Jackets feel ready for NHL draft, free agency and potential tough decisions ahead PAGE 04: 1st Ohio Battery: Navigating The Blue Jackets Options In The First Round Of The NHL Draft PAGE 06: The Hockey Writers: Making Sense of Recent Blue Jackets’ Rumors Cleveland Monsters/Prospects NHL/Websites PAGE 09: The Athletic: Duhatschek notebook: A look at the defenceman market, Jack Eichel’s best fit PAGE 14: The Athletic: NHL free agents: 15 under the radar UFAs to target PAGE 19: The Athletic: What’s in a name? For NHL players, deciding on pronunciation can be a challenge PAGE 25: Sportsnet.ca: Top NHL UFAs by position: Looking at the 10 best defencemen available PAGE 29: Sportsnet.ca: Best free agent bargains: Could Barrie be this year's Shattenkirk? PAGE 32: Sportsnet.ca: An early ranking of NHL's top 12 UFAs from star-studded 2021 group PAGE 38: Sportsnet.ca: Quick Shifts: Rapid-fire thoughts on NHL trade rumours PAGE 44: Sportsnet.ca: NHL Draft Primer: What you need to know about a deep 2020 class PAGE 49: The Athletic: The top 10 players NHL teams should target with an offer sheet this offseason PAGE 54: Sportsnet.ca: A question for each NHL team heading into busy draft, free agency week PAGE 62: Sportsnet.ca: Top NHL UFAs by position: Looking at the 10 best goaltenders available 1 Columbus Dispatch / Blue Jackets feel ready for NHL draft, free agency and potential tough decisions ahead By Brian Hedger - October 3, 2020 Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen and his hockey operations department have a big week ahead with the NHL draft and the start of free agency. It’s a week the Blue Jackets’ hockey operations department has prepared to traverse for quite a while. Prompted by the NHL’s midseason pause of four-plus months for the COVID-19 pandemic, scouts, team staff and management alike were challenged like never before in planning the Jackets’ future – short and long-term. Much of the scouting was done remotely, and the extended downtime was used to assess the potential trade and free-agency markets. It's almost time to put their plans into motion, starting Tuesday with a remotely conducted two-day draft followed by the start of free agency Friday. “That process started a long time ago,” said general manager Jarmo Kekalainen, who held a video conference with reporters Friday. “It’s been picking up this week a little bit, but ever since we started this quarantine period in March … we were going with our offseason plans. So, we’ve had a lot of time, a lot more time than normally, to prepare for the draft and the free agency and all the decisions leading up to them.” They probably needed it. Thanks to the pandemic and the resulting lost revenue, the NHL and the NHL Players’ Association agreed to keep the league’s annual salary cap flat at $81.5 million for next season (2020-21). That means teams could face financial decisions they don’t want to make, potentially adding to the free- agent market through contract buyouts made solely because of cap concerns. A report last week in the Athletic said Kekalainen is mulling this option with 26-year-old center Alexander Wennberg, whose deal has three years remaining and costs $4.9 million against the cap. And that’s just one example. Kekalainen also has negotiations to complete with two key restricted free agent forwards – Pierre-Luc Dubois and Josh Anderson – and how those go will likely impact other moves he might have in mind. He’s not the only GM faced with such problems to solve. “This year could be a little bit different because there could be some more action after the draft – knowing that the cap’s flat and teams might have to make some tough decisions with their roster,” Kekalainen said. “The free agency might look a little different after those decisions, so we’ll see.” As for the draft itself, decisions await there, too. Aside from deciding which prospects to select, the Jackets also aim to add picks in the second or third round to replace their own missing picks in those slots that were dealt the past two years in deals at the trade deadline. 2 Don’t be surprised if Kekalainen starts wheeling and dealing again, before or during the draft, to see if he can wind up with “multiple” picks in a first round that most scouts feel is overflowing with good options. The Jackets have the 21st overall pick now, but that could change in a number of scenarios. Trading back in the first round might net a pick in the second or third rounds. Trading up could result in drafting an impact player who’s NHL-ready sooner than in the typical development timeline. And there is also the scenario of using that first pick in a trade with a cap-crunched team to add an NHL player to fill an immediate need – such as a top-six scoring forward. “That’s where a first-round pick could come in handy, especially if you have multiple ones,” Kekalainen said. “That could provide some opportunities to strengthen your team immediately with that pick, if you have the cap room. … There’s a lot of different options. Right now, we have (the 21st pick) in the draft and we’ll see what we have once we get to the draft day.” If it’s still the 21st pick and only that pick in the first round, there’s also a plan for that scenario. “I’m confident that we will get a good player and the player we have (slotted there) we like a lot,” said Ville Siren, the Jackets’ head amateur scout. “I think there will be a player available (who) we think has good upside.” 3 1st Ohio Battery / Navigating The Blue Jackets Options In The First Round Of The NHL Draft By Dan Dukart - October 4, 2020 The Columbus Blue Jackets are set to pick 21st overall in the first round of the NHL Draft on Tuesday, Oct. 6. This year's draft will be a memorable one. With so many leagues underway in the new season, scouts will have extra tape to influence their current draft boards, as newly available footage becomes available. Will recency bias play an impact? GM Jarmo Kekalainen has already acknowledged that the draft, along with free-agency, will look different this year due to the economic implications from Covid-19 that resulted in a flat salary cap of $81.5M. Will that change the organization's plans? We've already discussed potential players the Blue Jackets could select, both among forwards and defensemen. Instead of further speculating on who they might pick, let's discuss the options surrounding how the club may proceed with the pick. Best Player Available? General Managers often talk about how their franchise will take the best player available, the same way that players talk about getting pucks in deep. It's a cop-out answer, and we've learned to accept it at face value. We know that you want to take the best player available... as long as it suits the organizational depth chart. The Blue Jackets' prospect pool is in an unusual state, having graduated so many players in the past few seasons. It's been five years since the Blue Jackets have taken a defenseman in the first round. In 2015, they took Zach Werenski (8th) and Gabriel Carlsson (26th), and have taken just four defensemen in the past four combined drafts. A player taken 21st overall is unlikely to play in the NHL this or next season, meaning the Blue Jackets are looking towards the future. Even with a young - and impressive - defense corps at the NHL level, the club isn't looking for immediate help. Said Kekalainen: “By the time (the drafted player) is ready, which could be two to five years from now, we may have totally different needs.” The Athletic's Corey Pronman recently released his final mock draft. In it, only seven defensemen were selected in the first round (for what it's worth, Pronman mocked German LW Lukas Reichel to the Blue Jackets). In a forward-heavy first round, the Blue Jackets should avoid the temptation of taking a defenseman over the best player available. To Take Or To Trade As aforementioned, the 21st overall pick is typically a player who makes an impact down the road (if at all). Even Pierre-Luc Dubois (#3) and Werenski (#8) played in the QMJHL/NCAA for a season after their draft year. Simply, the player who is selected 21st won't be a financial strain for the organization for at least a year, if not longer. In normal times, this is generally a moot point. But with the economic implications of Covid-19, cash- strapped organizations may prefer the 21st overall pick, for example, over a current asset with an expensive price tag. Could the Blue Jackets profit from some such situation? 4 In a vacuum, teams like Columbus typically keep the 21st overall pick. But realistically, that player is far from a guaranteed success (Riley Nash is the active points-leader among 21st picks). And a team like the Blue Jackets, who are on the playoff bubble may be better off getting a player who can help the lineup immediately. With plenty of players on the move this off-season, Columbus may be well-positioned to take advantage of this unique market inefficiency.