Coming into the 2022/23 NHL campaign, Columbus Blue Jackets fans were buzzing at the prospect of seeing one of the fastest snipers in the NHL pull on the Ohio hockey club’s jersey. While Johnny Gaudreau hasn’t failed to entertain so far – as you’d expect from someone who signed an NHL contract of $68.25 million over seven years – his arrival hasn’t ushered in a winning season.
One-third of the way through the season, at the 27-game mark, the Blue Jackets sat 30th in the overall standings. The .407 percentage greatly outdid that of the Chicago Blackhawks (.346) and the Anaheim Ducks (.293), but Columbus found themselves firmly in the basement. So, the focus turns from climbing the standings to building up team chemistry and, where possible, tanking for better draft lottery odds.
Even in this nose dive of a season, which will hopefully net an incredibly talented prospect in the summer, there are some bright spots that hint at success in the near future as well as getting something out of the season.
A Calder Trophy contender emerges
In what’s almost become a free-hit season for the Blue Jackets, they’ve been able to field a whole host of top talents to build up experience before a seemingly inevitable climb back up the standings. Playing on entry-level contracts this season, Tim Berni, Marcus Bjork, Jacob Christiansen, Cole Sillinger, Kirill Marchenko, and breakout stars Yegor Chinakhov and Kent Johnson have all been given NHL minutes this season.
With six goals and 14 points in 24 games to Chinakhov’s four goals and 13 points in 26 games, Johnson has narrowly been the top young player for CBJ this season – even though the Russian only needed 15 points to show improvements on his rookie season in 2021/22. Particularly due to his almost robotic shooting percentage of 20.00 by his sixth goal, Johnson has made his way into the Calder Trophy running.
Awarded to the best rookie of the season, the highest-rated Ohio sportsbooks figure that Johnson is presently sixth in the Calder Trophy rankings. Pile in the no-deposit offer of $200 free bets on sign-up, DraftKings has become the go-to place to back the Blue Jackets rookie to go further as the season progresses, with the left wing currently at +2000. The ones he’s looking to beat are Matty Beniers at +170 and Logan Thompson at +475.
The trade bait is playing well
Looking at the contract situations on a tanking team is always a good way to work out which players could get traded at the deadline. This year, the trade deadline lands on 3 March, so there’s some way to go yet, but the near-certain trade bait skaters are doing well to up their respective values so far. The skaters destined for Columbus’ trade block in 2023 are Gustav Nyquist and Vladislav Gavrikov.
He may be wearing the ‘A,’ but at 33 years old on a $5.5 million salary, impending UFA Nyquist will almost certainly be shopped around. He’s suffered major injuries for Columbus in the past, but he’s a regular scorer. This season, he tallied six goals and 13 points by his 27th game, which will be very attractive for postseason contenders if he keeps his scoring rate up. In 2019, the Sharks traded a second and conditional third for the winger.
Defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov is the team’s top-scoring blueliner one-third of the way into the campaign. Admittedly, Zach Werenski was only able to suit up for half of those and only trailed the Russian by a single point (nine to eight), but Gavrikov’s two game-winners have caught headlines. Further powering his trade value is that he was averaging 1.04 hits and 2.0 blocked shots per game, trusted heavily in short-handed situations. The 27-year-old 2023/24 UFA should fetch a few decent picks.
Even more room to tank
Fans never want to see their team lose continuously throughout a season, especially one with true NHL stars on the roster. However, there’s a greater plan at work here, and the organisation working prospects into the lines prove that the Blue Jackets are committed to growing into a postseason contender, buoyed by world-class talents currently helping to build up those up-and-coming talents.
So, tanking as much as possible this season can be taken on the chin. The only problem is that the Blackhawks and Ducks are proving to be far better at losing than Columbus. Luckily, PRG’s schedule rankings see the Blue Jackets with the seventh most difficult remaining among all NHL teams. The Ducks and Blackhawks, on the other hand, rank 18th and 26th with far easier schedules. Hopefully, they’ll start to fall into more wins.
It’s going to be a tanking season from now until the finish for the Blue Jackets, but at least the team is taking this time to blood in some quality prospects. With a tough schedule and good trade bait, Columbus should find itself with some great lottery odds by the end of the campaign.
You must be logged in to post a comment.