Fire Sale 2007: The Aftermath

It's over- the trade deadline was yesterday at 3:00. As I watched TSN's tradecenter tracker, a few more trades trickled in after the deadline- more likely due to slow reporting, not illegitimate transactions. For the complete list of transactions, including waivers, call-ups and trades check it out TSN.

Arguably the biggest trade of the day came in right at the buzzer. Edmonton traded Ryan Smyth to the New York Islanders for Nilsson, Omara and their 2007 1st round pick. I was surprised and pleased by this transaction. Ryan Smyth was the star of the Oiler squad. After much of their defense departed following their Stanley Cup Finals run last year, Smyth was the dominant force on the team. Trading him truly demonstrates how far Edmonton has fallen since last season's playoffs. Covered in Oil expressed their woes for the departed Smyth in several posts. I can imagine that most fans feel the same way. I don't mind Smyth heading to the Eastern Conference though- he has done a number on our Jackets. It seems like every game he plays against Columbus he manages a point or two. With him securely on the east coast, he shouldn't give us any more problems for a while. After all, we play those teams what, once every third season?

As for the Jackets, only four transactions took place that were worth mentioning on national media. There was one or two moves by Syracuse (the CBJ AHL affiliate) but nothing substantial. For a great evaluation of what MacLean and crew were up against this trade deadline, check out Drew's take at End of the Bench.

Anson Carter - Traded to Carolina for a 2008 5th round pick.
Ty Conklin - Traded to Buffalo to back up Miller (Biron was traded to the Flyers earlier yesterday) for a 2007 5th round pick.
Brian Berard - Placed on waivers. Despite MacLean's best efforts, he can't seem to get rid of this defenseman. Anyone can claim him from waivers.
Brian Boucher - The Jackets grabbed this former Blackhawk goalie off of waivers to fill in the 3rd goalie spot. He's the only addition to the roster, and he's only here because the Jackets needed somebody to fill in Conklin's place.

So the Jackets opened up some salary room for what we can only hope to be some big signings this offseason. I'd really like to see the Jackets pick up a big time player or two- ideally a #1 center and a power #1 defenseman. I can dream, right? There's a bunch of players on waivers right now that have performed better than many CBJ skaters this season. Barring a plague of injuries, or an exceptional opportunity on waivers, I doubt we'll see the Jackets pick up anyone new before summer.

Rare Rout of the Rangers and Predator Problems

Isn't alliteration great?

So the Jackets went to what Danny Gare repeatedly called "the world's most famous arena" and took down the NY Rangers on Saturday, then returned to Nationwide to be beaten by Nashville for the umpteenth time this season.

The New York win was something special. The Rangers and their fans clearly expected a win on Saturday, which they needed to aid in securing their playoff berth. The Jackets weren't about to let that happen, thanks to some great PK effort by Rick Nash and Jason Chimera. Oddly enough, both of them came up with shorthanded goals to keep the game in the Columbus grasp. It was Nash's first ever NHL shortie, which only took so long because coaches previous to Hitch didn't give Nasher much in the way of PK ice time. The defense held tight to the end and the Jackets managed to defeat yet another Eastern Conference team that they seldom play against.

Sunday's game at home against Nashville pretty much went the way of the rest of the season series between the teams. The Jackets were able to take few penalties, which is a welcomed statistic, and even held on into overtime. Conklin was in net, which certainly led to problems in the shootout.

Shootouts are hard for any goalie, veteran or rookie. It's one of the most difficult plays in the game because all the goalie can do is react. It's pretty much a wait-and-see situation, where the shooter can choose from a number of different options and the goalie has to work accordingly. Conks, with his minimal NHL experience is rightfully underqualified for that sort of duty. Despite that, I give the whole team credit for hanging on against a division opponent. (one that is quite stacked, no less)

Ok, so another thing about the Anson Carter trade and why it makes me angry: I think most of us will agree that MacLean undervalued Carter for the trade. Dumping payroll or not, the GM could probably have arranged a warm body or at least a pick this season in exchange for Carter. Besides, if no one else wanted him, wouldn't it be possible to re-sign Carter at a lower salary? If no other team really valued him above a 5th round pick, who would spend more than $2.5 mil on him? What really irks me is that the Jackets received a 2008 5th round draft pick. The organization won't see any value from the trade for well over a year, and given that a 5th round guy probably isn't any sort of savior for our organization, he will certainly spend substantial time in Syracuse. At best, the player that we will have traded Carter for won't see ice time in Columbus until at least 2010, or 2011, if at all. I'm getting a little tired of this waiting game. I'm tired of the team putting so much faith, money, and focus into young players that will take years and years to become the skilled veterans that seem to be producing for every other NHL team. Blue Jacket fans have waited, as we all realize that patience in professional sports is a virtue. But it's been six seasons in the basement. Six seasons of signing young players who don't realize expectations. Six seasons of "maybe next year". The CBJ front office needs to start making decisions that will impact the success of the team now. Not six more seasons down the line.

Leclaire on IR (again)

The Jackets have placed Leclaire on IR again after "re-aggravating" his knee injury from December. The reports on CBS Sportsline and the CBJ website don't give much more detail than that.

Just when we thought Pazzy was back to stay a while, he ends up on IR again. The front office has already recalled Conklin to Columbus to fill the bench while Norrena works the net. It's too bad the Jackets don't have a better goalie to call upon when one of the dedicated NHL tenders goes down. "Conks" is touting only a 3-12-2 record this season, but is running a 2-3-1 when playing for Columbus. Percentage wise, that's actually better than Pazzy, who has only managed 6-15-2 in 24 games this season.

In the same press release, the Jackets announced that they will also be calling up Curtis Glencross from Syracuse. (A package deal on airfare for the two?) If you don't recall, Glencross was the other player (besides Zenon Konopka) traded from Anaheim earlier this season in exchange for Mark Hartigan and Joe Motzko.

(Photo from TSN)

Hot or Not?

With all this talk about hot players on the team right now, I thought I would reflect a bit on some of the personnel decisions that President and General Manager Doug MacLean made over the summer:

June:

Traded G Marc Denis for LW Fredrik Modin and G Fredrik Norrena. I originally thought that this was a trade mainly for Modin. I think we have all learned since then, yesterday in fact, that the trade also very much included Norrena. It started out rocky, with doubts of LeClaire being able to sustain the rigors of being the #1 goaltender, and with Modin's lackluster performance in the early season. Since then, Norrena has become the first Blue Jackets goalie to post back to back shutouts, let alone two away games, one of which involved the Avalanche peppering him with 42 shots. Great performance for a backup goaltender. Modin has since tied Rick Nash on the goal leaderboard with 7 goals. How about that, trading away one decent goaltender for a great goaltender and a great veteran forward, one of the best responders under new head coach Ken Hitchcock

July:

Signed D Anders Eriksson. At first, I thought this may have been a pretty stupid move. Basically, Radoslav Suchy was not re-signed, and Eriksson was signed in his place. Eriksson has a few spotted years of NHL experience after being drafted by the Red Wings, but has also played in Russia and Sweeden. The Blue Jackets got rid of him once, and now he's back, fortunately for us, he's the only player with a plus rating, +5. Way to go Anders!

Signed C Alexander Svitov. Originally acquired in a trade with Tampa Bay for D Daryl Sydor. He's another like Eriksson, who played in the European leagues before coming back into the NHL. He's a solid checking line center with some potential, but he's got to stop taking stupid penalties. I'm pretty neutral on this one, Alexander is still a young player, but if he doesn't start to show a little more jump in his step, it may be time to rethink this decision.

Signed G Ty Conklin. Give me a break, Ty Conklin is old, and not very good, he's 2-9 with Syracuse this year, has a 3.50 GAA, and what's more, the jackets pay him far too much. Conklin has a total of 60 games in the NHL over 6 years, and the Blue Jackets gave him a $1 mil contract. What are they thinking?

August

Signed C Eric Boguniecki. The move made sense over the summer as the Jackets were a bit short up the middle, but since then, he's been traded for Ryan Cadwell, a 25 year old defensive prospect. I'm okay with the move, sign for depth now, trade later.

September

Signed RW Anson Carter. This was the other big move that MacLean made, hoping that it was Anson Carter who sparked the Sedin twins in Vancouver, and not the Sedin twins who boosted Carter's numbers. Carter is another player sparked by Hitchcock's tenure as coach, he was brilliant on the top line in the Minnesota game with a goal and two assists, and he scored goals in the shut outs in Edmonton and Colorado. Another good acquisition by the GM


Of course there's that whole coaching issue that has been all over the news in Columbus. Hitchcock has already begun to transform Columbus into a winning organization, but like most things, it's going to take some time.

The playoffs are most likely out of the question again this year. Right now, we're 10 points out, again using the magic number of 95 points, the Jackets still need 77 points in 56 games...pretty difficult. On the bright side, if the Flames (currently 8th place) stay on the pace they are now, they will have amassed approximately 84 points. The Jackets can get to that mark if they average a point per game, which isn't quite so horrible (they're .500 with Hitchcock behind the bench).