Among the issues that have plagued the Jackets since John Tortorella’s departure has been the poor performance of the defense corps. The need to improve the quality of the backend players was drastically magnified this past season with injuries forcing the Jackets to dig into the depths of the Monsters depth chart. The final blow was the inability for the Jackets to bridge the gap to signing one of their big minute munchers in Gavrikov to a new deal, resulting in him being flipped to the Kings together with Korpisalo at the deadline. As such, a massive hold on the left side of the defense behind Werenski on the second pair opened that needs to be filled. There are options internally but realistically, Mateychuk/Svozil aren’t likely to be significant contributors for another season or so and other players such as Berni/Christiansen/Knazko among others are probably better suited as pure bottom pairing or AHL/replacement level players. This could force the team to go back to the market to explore their external options. Let’s look at some of the players that may find themselves to be of interest to the Jackets.
Dmitry Orlov
Arguably the biggest name on the market, Orlov is going to garner the attention of many teams. He is a great two-way defenseman who moves the puck very well and can also chip offensively as well. Purely in terms of fit, Orlov would be perfect on the Jackets stylistically playing behind Werenski as well as being an ideal mentor for the young Russians on the team. However, Orlov’s contract demands are likely to price him out of the Jackets range as he will almost certainly land a long-term, big money type deal. Combine that with the fact that he will probably be more amenable to signing with an established contender and you can start to see how Columbus isn’t the best fit. The Jackets may poke around Orlov but they’ll likely to look elsewhere.
Shane Gostisbehere
Another recognizable name, Gostisbehere rebuilt his career in Arizona after being jettisoned from the Flyers a couple seasons ago. He’s more of an offensive minded defenseman but has also shown that he’s more than capable of eating a decent chunk of minutes. Given his age and that he’s likely at his NHL ceiling, he may be a decent veteran for the Jackets to have for a couple seasons. In running with the established theme though, the Jackets probably aren’t keen to offer long term and big money for a defenseman. But if Gostisbehere’s appeal on the market isn’t as hot as expected, the Jackets could explore if he would be open to a deal around $2.5-$3 million for 2-3 seasons.
Brian Dumoulin
How about poaching a veteran from the Penguins? Dumoulin has won before and isn’t necessarily the oldest guy around. The stats aren’t very impressive, and he has been declining for a couple seasons at this point but having a guy around who knows what it takes to be competitive in the league and especially at a position that the Jackets desperately need stability add is definitely intriguing. The Jackets interest in Dumoulin likely comes down to what his contract expectations are. If he’s open to a shorter-term deal, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Jackets poke around to see if a deal can be reached.
Carson Soucy
It is a bit hard to get a read on Soucy. He’s mainly been playing bottom and middle pair minutes in Seattle, yet he projects quite well as a quality option in those spots. Seattle isn’t likely to resign him due to Vince Dunn needing a pretty sizeable raise, so he’ll probably be looking for a bit of an increased role anyways. Depending on how hot the market gets for him though, he could quickly turn into one of the more overpaid options this summer. It’s also easy to forget that Soucy is already 28 and committing long term may make things a little complicated down the line. If the market doesn’t heat up too much for him, it is very likely the Jackets will be interested in him as long as the price and term aren’t too much of an issue.
Niko Mikkola
More of your typical defensive defenseman, Mikkola seemed to fly under the radar until this past trade deadline. Brought in to shore up the Ranger’s defensive depth, he ended up finishing the playoffs paired up with Adam Fox proving that he does have some high-level value. Because of this, it is not hard to imagine a world where Mikkolas value shoots up way beyond what could have been previously expected when he hits the market. On the other hand, if the market around him is a bit more tentative, he could be a perfect underrated option to plug in on the second pair for a couple of seasons.
Ryan Graves
This has been the more popular choice amongst the CBJ fan base and it’s not hard to see why. He plays heavy, physical top 4 minutes for a competitive team and he’s almost certainly hitting the market with NJ needing to make room for Luke Hughes. However, the issue is the same as with every other remotely big name, he is almost certainly going to be asking for a big term/big money type of deal which the Jackets are simply not in a position to offer. The Jackets interest in him will rely on his contract demands and it would not be surprising that if the league hesitates on his contract demands and the price is forced down, they are all over him purely because the fit seems so good in theory. It would probably not even be too much of a stretch to say that Graves may even be the Jackets top target on the free agent market depending on how things play out.
Comments
Post a Comment