Columbus Series Part 4. Rank In League: 28
1st of all:
CBJ had a decent off-season moving out jones for a great package and acquiring Bean for practically nothing. To me they have a few issues:
1. Their goaltending tandem is inconsistent. Merzlikins is a good goalie that needs to stay consistent but Korpisalo is not. Last year he had a brutal year and to me they should trade him while his trade value is still high.
2. They have no forward depth. Having Domi as a 1c and Boone Jenner as a 2c /3c isn't great and they need to focus on developing their prospects while trading out some decent players.
3. Their cap situation isn't great and to me the Atkinson didn't make sense to me, because it wastes cap space.
THEY DID DO SOMETHING RIGHT THOUGH:
1. They created an amazing you defense core and Werenski and Boqvist will be superstar defensemen in the next few years. Even Bean and Gavrikov can help out in a big way.
PLAN FOR RESIGNING:
Laine: 6x 8,000,000 (If he is not traded)
Roslovic: 3x 4,200,000
Domi: 3x 3,560,000 (If he's not traded)
Boqvist: 2 x 3,200,000 (Bridge Deal)
Kukan: 1x 1,000,000
Jenner: 2x 2,950,000
Korpisalo: 1x 2,300,000 (if he's not traded)
NO REMAINING 2021 FREE AGENT SIGNINGS
FUTURE CONTRACTS UNSIGNED:
Texier: 4x4,000,000
Remaining Trades:
(Hill) Traded for (Korpisalo + Harrington)
(Kadri) Traded for (Domi $2mil retained)
My prediction for the season and point projections:
My Prediction is that Columbus finishes bottom 5 in the league and gets a top 3 lottery spot to draft Savoie. The big issue are their forwards. They are overall not deep and have too many just ok players. They need to trade some players that wont come back like Laine and Korpi. They need to have talks with those players . Record Prediction: (34W, 41L, 7 OTL)
Nice analysis.
I do think the Voracek deal made sense only from the standpoint that since center depth is weak, Voracek has much better vision and passing skills than Atkinson. Atkinson is a finisher, and Laine already fits that mold. V always drives the play, has high assist total and makes those around him better.
I think Roslovic has a few more points than that, and Chinakov could very well make the team, as well as Sillinger.