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Columbus Blue Jackets News Clips October 12, 2016 Columbus Blue Jackets PAGE 02: Columbus Dispatch: Front office uses loophole for roster moves PAGE 04 Columbus Dispatch: Folignos donate $1 million to hospitals PAGE 06: The Hockey Writers: 3 Wishes For The 2016-17 Columbus Blue Jackets Cleveland Monsters/Prospects PAGE 09: The Plain Dealer: Ryan Craig ready to celebrate and defend AHL title NHL/Websites PAGE 11: USA Today: 5 questions for the start of the NHL season PAGE 13: TSN.CA: Congressional committee wants answers from NHL on concussions PAGE 16: Sportsnet.CA: NHL Roster Deadline Roundup: Latest news and moves 1 http://bluejacketsxtra.dispatch.com/content/blogs/puck-rakers/2016/10/dubois-up-wennberg-down-...- but-wait-a-minute.html Front office uses loophole for roster moves By Aaron Portzline – October 12, 2016 The Blue Jackets turned creative Tuesday, reaching the NHL’s 23-player roster limit with an eye-opening move that ultimately isn't a big deal. It was all about the salary cap. Center Alexander Wennberg, the club’s third-line center, was sent to minor-league Cleveland so that the Blue Jackets could get under the roster limit. But Wennberg won’t be gone long. He might not even set foot in Cuyahoga County. Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen wouldn’t confirm plans, but sources told The Dispatch that Wennberg will be recalled this afternoon and play in Thursday’s season opener against the Boston Bruins at Nationwide Arena. The Blue Jackets kept center Pierre-Luc Dubois, the No. 3 overall draft pick in June, on the roster. More specifically, the Blue Jackets kept Dubois’ contract on the books when the NHL stamped rosters as official at 5 p.m. When Wennberg is recalled today, expect Dubois to be sent back to his junior club, Cape Breton of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. The league’s collective bargaining agreement is almost as convoluted as the U.S. tax code, but here’s a simplified explanation for the loophole the Blue Jackets are exploiting: • The Blue Jackets have a big-ticket veteran player, right wing David Clarkson ($5.25 million), whose career might be finished because of a chronic back injury. He is being placed on long-term injured reserve. Per the collective bargaining agreement, clubs get salary-cap relief for the amount of money the injured player’s salary puts them over the $73 million salary cap. • The Blue Jackets wanted to get as close to the salary cap as possible to maximize the relief brought by Clarkson’s injury. As it stands, they’ll get nearly all of his $5.25 million in cap room. • Dubois has an NHL salary of $3.425 million ($925,000 base salary, with $2.5 million in potential bonuses), while Wennberg has a $1.4 million hit ($925,000 base, plus $475,000 in potential bonuses). • By starting the season with Dubois ($3.425 million) on the roster, and swapping him out for Wennberg ($1.4 million) as soon as today, the Blue Jackets are adding the difference between the two — $2.025 million — to their available cap space for performance bonuses. Other NHL clubs have made similar moves — San Jose last season, for instance — while the league has threatened to close the loophole, saying the players must be sent down for one full day to make the move legal. 2 If the Blue Jackets opened the season tonight instead of Thursday, it wouldn’t have been possible. The other moves from Tuesday were infinitely easier to understand. Veteran center Gregory Campbell cleared waivers and was sent to Cleveland. Minor-leaguer T.J. Tynan, out since breaking an arm during an offseason conditioning skate, was medically cleared and sent to Cleveland. Goaltender Joonas Korpisalo (groin) and defenseman Cody Goloubef (oblique) were placed on the injured list, as were the following prospects: forward Keegan Kolesar (hernia) and defensemen Dillon Heatherington (wrist) and John Ramage (shoulder). 3 http://bluejacketsxtra.dispatch.com/content/stories/2016/10/12/folignos-donate-hospital.html Folignos donate $1 million to hospitals By Aaron Portzline – October 12, 2016 The gift they’ve been given can never be repaid, Nick and Janelle Foligno said. Thanks to surgeons and doctors at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus and Boston Children’s Hospital, Milana Foligno is a vibrant, soon-to-be 3-year-old girl with a bright future. She squirmed and smiled Tuesday as the Folignos announced a $1 million donation — $500,000 for each hospital — during a news conference at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. “It feels like Milana’s first surgery was 100 years ago, and it feels like yesterday,” Nick Foligno said. “You see her running around today … we couldn’t be more proud of her, and we want to do as much as we can to make sure everybody, every family, has a happy ending. “We’re not the only family affected by this. Not by a long shot. But Columbus is our home, the people here have been so great to us, and we want to make a difference in our community.” In Columbus, the gift will be directed to the hospital’s center for cardiovascular research, including a new Foligno Family Cardiovascular Research Lab. In a release, the hospital said the donation will be used to “sponsor new ideas, purchase new equipment, and support the next generation of scientists and clinicians with the ultimate goal of advancing the treatment of children and adults with heart valve disease.” Milana was born Oct. 14, 2013, and diagnosed the next day with a congenital heart defect. She had emergency surgery 3½ weeks later in Boston because the procedure she needed was not being performed by surgeons in Columbus. It is now. “The field is growing and growing, with new advances taking place all the time,” Janelle Foligno said. “These hospitals, they do amazing things. They change lives. They save lives. “Hopefully we can help families in a similar situation, and hopefully we can shine a light on both of these hospitals and the amazing work they do.” The Folignos were surrounded by Blue Jackets players and management, surgeons and doctors from Nationwide Children’s, and Dr. Sitaram Emani, the surgeon who performed Milana’s first surgery in Boston. Roster settled The Blue Jackets’ roster was settled at 5 p.m. Tuesday. 4 Forwards: Josh Anderson, Cam Atkinson, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Matt Calvert, Brandon Dubinsky, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Nick Foligno, Sam Gagner, Scott Hartnell, Boone Jenner, William Karlsson, Brandon Saad and Lukas Sedlak. Defensemen: Scott Harrington, Jack Johnson, Seth Jones, Ryan Murray, Markus Nutivaara, Dalton Prout, David Savard, Zach Werenski. Goaltenders: Sergei Bobrovsky, Curtis McElhinney. Slap shots The Blue Jackets were off Tuesday, but will return to practice at 11 a.m. today. … Two Columbus products were late cuts by NHL clubs: forward Trent Vogelhuber was reassigned to San Antonio of the American Hockey League by the Colorado Avalanche and forward Sean Kuraly was sent to AHL Providence by the Boston Bruins. 5 http://thehockeywriters.com/3-wishes-for-the-2016-17-columbus-blue-jackets/ 3 Wishes For The 2016-17 Columbus Blue Jackets By Mark Scheig – October 12, 2016 What a difference a year makes. The Columbus Blue Jackets enter the 2016-17 season with very different expectations than at this time last year. Remember how most everyone saw them as a contender in the Eastern Conference? Now you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who thinks they finish outside the bottom-10 of the league. Many expect the Blue Jackets to finish last in the Eastern Conference. There’s even one who thinks that coach John Tortorella is gone after just a month. Everywhere you look on a national scale, the Blue Jackets are out of the playoffs, and the season hasn’t even started yet. But There’s Good News… I have some good news for you. The Columbus Blue Jackets have not been eliminated from the playoffs as of this writing. In fact, if you take a real close look at this team, there is hope, even for this season. Now with that said, many things have to fall in their favor. Just like a genie’s bottle, I’ve been granted three wishes. I’m going to use these wishes on different areas of the Blue Jackets that will help them realize success this season. If they can get these three things right, they’ll compete all season long. Here’s my roadmap to Blue Jackets success in 2016-17: First Wish – Sergei Bobrovsky Stays Healthy We know the past. We know the injury history of goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. Is this finally the year he avoids injured reserve? My first and most important wish is for Bobrovsky’s health. As long as he is in net and healthy, the Blue Jackets are in every game. A good litmus test was the World Cup of Hockey. We got to see right away where Bobrovsky was at health-wise. He did not disappoint. He was Russia’s best player in the tournament. He made saves that not many goalies in the world could make. More importantly, he had no setbacks. He constantly put pressure on the leg by stretching out and making sudden movements. He looked fast and confident. He did this against the best players in the world. The important question now is, can this carry over into the season? The team worked with Bobrovsky throughout the offseason to make some adjustments to his routine so he could maximize his chances of staying healthy. So far, it’s working. 6 The fact that the Blue Jackets kept Curtis McElhinney as his backup seems to imply that the team plans on relying heavily on Bobrovsky to carry the load all season.