BY ALIN MATEESCU – FAN FUEL BLOGGER
With puckdrop for the 2012-13 NHL season set for Saturday, it is now time to examine each team’s roster as they head into a shortened 48 game season. Here is my look at the Columbus Blue Jackets and the possible questions facing their roster, their cap space, their unrestricted free agents and their restricted free agents. Salary cap and cap space provided by capgeek.com.
Salary Cap: $55,767,142 (22)
Cap Space: $14,432,858
Players Signed: 23
UFA: LW – Kristian Huselius
RFA: none
On Draft weekend, the Columbus Blue Jackets acquired goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky from the Philadelphia Flyers for a 2012 2nd-round pick, a 2012 4th-round pick, and a 4th-round pick in 2013. The club hopes this move will help solidify their goaltending woes and, along with the addition of Jack Johnson from Los Angeles for Jeff Carter prior to last year’s trade deadline and the signing of veteran blueliner Adrian Aucoin, improve their overall team defense.
Two-way forward Nick Foligno, who came in a trade with the Ottawa Senators for defenseman Marc Methot, will bring some much needed versatility to the Blue Jackets lineup while providing a scoring option.
The club’s biggest move, however, came when they dealt the face of the franchise, Rick Nash, along with Steve Delisle and a 2013 conditional third round pick to the New York Rangers in exchange for Brandon Dubinsky, Artem Anisimov, Tim Erixon and a 2013 1st-round pick.
But don’t look for these moves to turn the Blue Jackets into playoff contenders, or anything resembling that. The club still has ways to go before it competes for the postseason.
Alin Mateescu is a full-time Front-end Web Developer with a passion for Online Marketing, Digital Media, and Web Development. Web Strategist. Sports junkie. Creator of iTalkHockey blog network. Managing Editor at RumorMeThis.com and RumorMeThat.com. Find out more about me at about.me/alinmat
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