Columbus Blue Jackets

Previewing the Blue Jackets Expansion Draft Plans
June 14, 2017, 12:18 PM ET [2 Comments]
Paul Berthelot
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The expansion draft is just a week away, and there is plenty teams still need to sort out. Tomorrow is the first buy-out period, and no Blue Jackets are expected to be bought out. June 17th the trade freeze kicks in, making it the last day to RFA’s and UFA’s and to put a player on waivers. June 18th to 21st, Vegas has the exclusive window to sign any free agents and the protected lists will be sent out to the NHL clubs, and the team will be announced on the 21st.

This post is going to be a preview of what to expect from the Jackets over the next week. Who they might protect and who might be on their way to Vegas. The format for this post comes from a Sportnet.ca article written by Steve Dangle. The information for this piece comes from the invaluable Cap Friendly Expansion Draft Tool.

The Exempt Forwards

The following 15 forwards are exempt because they have not played enough professional games to qualify to be exposed. The exception here is David Clarkson who has a long-term injury.

-David Clarkson
-Sam Vigneault
-Pierre-Luc Dubois
-Kevin Stenlund
-Sonny Milano
-Jordan Maletta
-Paul Bittner
-Vitali Abramov
-Dante Salituro
-Calvin Thurkauf
-Keegan Kolesar
-Kole Sherwood
-Nick Moutrey
-Markus Hannikainen
-Oliver Bjorkstrand

The big name here is Oliver Bjorkstrand. He was very good for the Jackets down the stretch and already looks like a solid top six player. The Jackets are fortunate that he is exempt. The rest of the players here are prospects, and if the rumoured Clarkson trade ends up happening it’s very likely one of these prospects is headed to Vegas.

The Exempt Defencemen

-Zach Werenski
-Gabriel Carlsson
-Ryan Collins
-Markus Nutivaara
-Jacob Graves
-Dean Kukan
-Blake Siebenaler
-Oleg Yevenko

The Jackets are again in a great position here. Three of their regular defencemen are exempt including their top scoring defencemen and Calder trophy nominee in Werenski. Nutivaara developed nicely as the season went on and could be a top four option next season. Gabriel Carlsson earned a lot of trust from the coaching staff in his brief time and looks like he will get an opportunity to be a full-time NHL player next year. The others are just AHL players, no one Vegas would have interest in even if they weren’t exempt.

The Exempt Goalies

-Matiss Kivlenieks

The recently signed Kivlenieks is the only goalie who is exempt for the Jackets. If you want to get technical Elvis Merlikins cannot be selected either, but he is not under an NHL contract.

The Pending UFA’s

-Sam Gagner
-T.J. Tynan
-Lauri Korpikoski
-Brett Gallant
-Ryan Stanton
-Kyle Quincey
-Marc-Andre Bergeron
-Jamie Sifers

Sam Gagner is the interesting name here. I made a case back in April, that Vegas might look to sign Gagner in that free agent window they have. However if this Clarkson deal is done and part of it requires Vegas to pick someone in particular from the Jackets then there is no chance they sign Gagner.

The Protected Forwards

These are the seven forwards the Jackets are almost certainly going to protect.

-Brandon Dubinsky
-Nick Foligno
-Scott Hartnell
-Brandon Saad
-Cam Atkinson
-Boone Jenner
-Alexander Wennberg

The first three have no movement clauses and the Jackets did not ask any of them to waive it. There was some thought that the Jackets might ask Hartnell to waive his, since he did for the trade deadline two seasons ago, but they did not. After those three, Saad Wennberg and Atkinson are obvious. These are the core forwards of your roster, they are not going anywhere. After that Jenner is really the only player who makes sense with that seventh spot. He’s young, plays hard and can score.

The Protected Defencemen

-Seth Jones
-David Savard
-Ryan Murray

Jones and Savard were easy. Jones is a corner stone for this franchise. Savard had a resurgence season and the Jackets brass thinks very highly of him. I went with Murray for the third slot over Jack Johnson because of Murray’s age and pedigree. Murray is still just 23 years old. He’s dealt with plenty of injury problems but there is still enough there to give him another shot. Johnson like Savard had a resurgent season, but overall he has not been very good. He also makes $4.3M which is far too much for what he provides. If the Jackets dictate who Vegas can pick from them, I would suggest they take Johnson to clear even more salary off the cap.

The Protected Goalie

-Sergei Bobrovksy

Bobrovsky is about to become a two-time Vezina trophy winner, that alone would get him protected, but he also has a no move clause.

Likely to be Exposed

-Matt Calvert
-William Karlsson
-Josh Anderson
-Lukas Sedlak
-Zac Dalpe
-Alex Broadhurst
-Jack Johnson
-Scott Harrington
-Joonas Korpisalo
-Anton Forsberg
-Oskar Dansk

The Jackets meet all of the minimum exposure requirements here. You need to have two forwards who are under contract for next season and who played at least 40 games this past season or 70 games in the past two seasons. Karlsson and Calvert fill those requirements. Teams need to expose one defencemen who meets those requirements and Johnson does that (as would Murray if the Jackets go that direction). Teams also need to expose one goalie who is under contract for 2017-18 or a goalie who is an RFA in 2017-18. Both Korpisalo and Forsberg meet those requirements.

With that all settled who are Vegas likely to take from the Jackets? Vegas has its own requirements it needs to fill. They need to have at least 14 forwards, nine defencemen and three goalies. They need to have 20 players who are under contract for 2017-18 and must have a minimum cap hit of $43.8M. It is all going to depend who is available from other teams, but each of the players exposed by the Jackets have their uses to Vegas. Johnson helps them get to the cap floor, while only being a one year commitment. Korpisalso is a up and coming young goalie, Karlsson/Calvert both have contracts for next season with minimal cap hits. Anderson is the most intriguing player but he doesn’t have a contract, if Vegas going to use of their 10 potential non-contract spots on Anderson? Again depends on who else is available.

This is how I think thinks will play out for the Jackets. There is only a week to go but so much change over that time. One trade or signing and this whole thing gets shaken up. We are in for one wild week.