COLUMBUS, Ohio — A collection of notes, insights, ruminations and did-you-knows gathered throughout the week that was for the Columbus Blue Jackets:
Item No. 1: ‘Tidy’ deadline
The Blue Jackets didn’t land on any “winners” lists for having the best NHL trade deadline performance. For that matter, they didn’t land among the “losers,” either.
As one member of the Blue Jackets hockey operations staff described it, the Blue Jackets had a “tidy” performance at the deadline. That is, they took care of business with two significant trades and a minor-league deal that helped them both in the short term and, potentially, long term.
Forward Jack Roslovic, who’d been pushed out of future plans by the development of the club’s young forwards, was traded to the New York Rangers. Defenseman Andrew Peeke, who’d been pushed out of present-day plans with an evolving blue line, was traded to Boston.
In a minor-league deal, goaltender Malcolm Subban was acquired from the St. Louis Blues for future considerations.
President of hockey operations John Davidson, who served as interim GM, was clear he wanted to leave the bigger moves to the Blue Jackets’ next general manager. That didn’t stop the NHL’s other GMs from making pitches, though.
“I will say that we had a lot of talks that were very intriguing,” Davidson said. “But I felt — and we felt — that it’s something the next general manager should take care of. It just made sense to do it that way. We took care of business that we needed to take care of today.”
Tidy.
Here’s a quick look at the three trades the Blue Jackets made on Friday, the inner workings of the deals, and why they made sense for Columbus:
Roslovic to the Rangers
The deal: The Blue Jackets retained 50 percent of Roslovic’s remaining salary, allowing the Rangers to stay under the NHL’s salary cap. In return, the Jackets get a fourth-round pick in the 2026 draft that can become a third-round pick if the Rangers win the Eastern Conference and Roslovic plays in 50 percent or more of their playoff games.
Insights: The Rangers wanted a skilled winger, but the deal came together later on Friday after several other wingers were plucked off the market. The Blue Jackets were poised to take the best possible offer for Roslovic, a pending unrestricted free agent this summer. … The Rangers put Roslovic in the starting lineup for his debut on Saturday vs. St. Louis, and he played most of the game on a line with center Mika Zibanejad and winger Chris Kreider. He also drew power-play time. That’s what’s known as prime real estate in New York. … It’s unfortunate that Roslovic’s time in Columbus, his hometown, didn’t go better, but it ended sweetly. His empty net goal at the end of Thursday’s win over Edmonton was his final moment on the ice in Nationwide.
Peeke to the Bruins
The deal: The Blue Jackets acquired defenseman Jakub Zboril and a third-round pick in 2027 for Peeke, giving the Bruins a depth defenseman for what they hope will be a long postseason run. Zboril, who’d been with AHL Providence, remains in the minor leagues and will join AHL Cleveland.
Insights: Peeke had been squeezed out of playing time by the Blue Jackets’ acquisitions the last two summers: Erik Gudbranson as a free agent in 2022 and Damon Severson in a trade with the New Jersey Devils last offseason. It was only going to get harder for him to crack the lineup with David Jiricek set to be a lineup regular next season. … The “win” part of this trade for Columbus is that they retained no salary on Peeke, who is signed through 2025-26 at $2.75 million. That’s a lot for a player who wasn’t seen as a lineup regular. … The Bruins made Peeke a healthy scratch on Saturday vs. Pittsburgh, but you know the old adage about the Stanley Cup playoffs: “You can never have enough defensemen.”
Subban acquired
The deal: The Blue Jackets made a trade early Friday for AHL goaltender Malcolm Subban, acquiring him from the Blues for future considerations. Subban, considered a consummate pro and dressing-room favorite, has played in the NHL with Boston, Vegas and Buffalo.
Insights: It was only natural to wonder if the Blue Jackets’ addition of Subban early in the day on Friday wasn’t a precursor to a bigger trade involving a goaltender, perhaps Elvis Merzlikins. That’s not the case, per team sources. … Both of the Blue Jackets’ goaltenders — Merzlikins and Daniil Tarasov — have been injury- and illness-prone in recent seasons, so Davidson thought it wise to have a veteran goaltender in Cleveland who could take over in the event Jet Greaves was recalled. Also, with the playoffs coming, having two veteran goaltenders is a requirement, even in the AHL. … As for the future considerations, that just means the Blue Jackets will help the Blues with a minor deal in the future. Or not.
Item No. 2: Tough season
It hasn’t gotten the attention that Cole Sillinger’s sophomore slump received, but Kent Johnson’s second NHL season was a struggle.
And now it’s finished. Johnson had surgery on Thursday in Vail, Colorado, to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder. Dr. Peter Millett, who has worked on some of the most famous athletes in the world today, performed the surgery.
Johnson is expected to miss six months. That means he’ll be ready for training camp in the fall, but faces a long, arduous road to get there.
“Obviously I’ve gone through it, and it sucks,” said Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski, who missed all but 13 games last season with a torn labrum. “A bunch of guys in this room have gone through it, too, and they’ll tell you that. It’s not fun.
“But, to be honest, if it’s going to happen, the timing is probably in his favor. He’ll be skating by early or mid-June, so he’ll get three months of skating and working out under his belt before training camp. I told him it’s going to be brutal for three or four days and then the pain will go away, and then it’ll just be more mentally frustrating getting back to where you want to be.”
Werenski has actually torn the labrum in both of his shoulders. Justin Danforth missed most of last season with the same injury. Gus Nyquist, now playing for Nashville, missed all of 2020-21 with a torn labrum.
“I tried to give KJ some words of encouragement,” Werenski said. “I’ve been through it twice and my shoulders feel really good now. It sucks going through it, and it feels like the end of the world when you’re going through it, but it’s really not that bad.”
Johnson was injured on a faceoff with 12 seconds remaining in a 4-2 loss to the Rangers on Feb. 28. He lost the faceoff to Rangers center Jonny Brodzinski, and his left arm got caught and yanked down in the battle once the puck dropped.
So ended a frustrating season.
As a rookie last season, Johnson had 16-24-40, finishing fifth on the Blue Jackets in goals, fourth in assists and fifth in points. He averaged 14:30 per game, had a prominent role on the power play (5-7-12) and put 126 shots on goal, including his memorable “Michigan” goal.
It all slid this season. In 42 games, Johnson had 6-10-16, playing 13:32 per game. All of his scoring was done at even strength.
Item No. 3: Big opportunity
With Johnson and rookie center Adam Fantilli sidelined with injuries, and Roslovic traded to the Rangers, there could be a tremendous opportunity for longtime farmhand Trey Fix-Wolansky, a high-scoring AHL winger, to get a lengthy look at the NHL level.
The Blue Jackets recalled Fix-Wolansky from AHL Cleveland on Friday and had him in the lineup vs. Nashville on Saturday.
Even as he’s lit up the AHL — Fix-Wolansky was third in the league in scoring (23-31-54 in 51 games) at the time of his recall — he hasn’t put up points in any of his limited chances in Columbus. The key word there, of course, is “limited.”
Fix-Wolansky has never played in more than five straight NHL games, and that occurred three seasons ago, the first time he was recalled. In 17 career NHL games, he has 2-1-3, but he’s averaged only 10:25 in ice time per game, often skating lower in the lineup.
This time, he could get a crack higher in the lineup.
Blue Jackets coach Pascal Vincent made it clear after Saturday’s 2-1 loss that he was reluctant to break up his most reliable line in recent games: center Cole Sillinger between wingers Alexandre Texier and Alex Nylander.
But he didn’t simply stick Fix-Wolansky in Roslovic’s spot to the right side of center Boone Jenner and opposite winger Johnny Gaudreau on the No. 1 line. Yegor Chinakhov was pulled off the “Russian” line and moved up beside Jenner, leaving Fix-Wolansky to play with center Dmitry Voronkov and winger Kirill Marchenko.
We’ll get a better idea of what Vincent is thinking on Monday when the Blue Jackets practice in advance of a road game Tuesday in Montreal. The Jackets, by then, should have a full allotment of forwards after playing with only 11 vs. Nashville.
Fix-Wolansky is signed through next season, so he’s not going anywhere. And, at 24 years old, he still has a long career ahead of him.
But this might be his best chance to determine if that’s in the NHL or AHL.
Snacks
• Injuries in Columbus haven’t wrecked this season quite as badly as they did 2022-23, but they’ve had a damaging impact in a different way. Davidson acknowledged in his post-trade deadline meeting with the media that Johnson and Fantilli, two of the Jackets’ prized youngsters, would likely have joined AHL Cleveland after the Blue Jackets play their regular-season finale in April. That’s no longer possible, however. Johnson (torn labrum) is out for the season. Fantilli (lacerated calf) is still hopeful for a return, but the Jackets couldn’t send him to Cleveland by Friday’s AHL roster deadline to make him eligible for the postseason.
• Davidson has been an executive in the NHL since 2006, so he’s been around nearly two decades’ worth of trade deadlines. This was his first year in the big chair, however, serving as interim GM since firing Jarmo Kekäläinen a month ago. The phone calls started weeks ago but picked up intensity as the week moved along, Davidson said, and the three days leading up to the deadline were relentless. “I enjoyed it,” Davidson said. “But thank god I’ve been around for a while and I knew what it was all about, so I felt confident in talking to all the GMs around the league. After all the years I’ve been in the league, you get to know most of them personally and for a long period of time. I’m a pretty honest person, so when I talk to someone I like to be very honest and up front about everything. That’s how we worked. That’s how we got to some of the conclusions we came to. It was good, but it won’t be my job next year, I can tell you that.”
• The Blue Jackets had talks with multiple teams at the deadline about serving as a third-party broker to help facilitate trades. They have a luxury (cap space) that comes in useful this time of season, but Davidson said he didn’t have anything presented to him that made sense. “We were open to different concepts,” he said. “We ended up not doing anything (in that regard) because we didn’t think the value of what was coming back was worth it. We certainly had permission from our ownership and (club president) Mike Priest to do that.”
• This week’s Sunday Gathering trivia question: Alex Nylander’s hat trick last Monday vs. Vegas was the 50th hat trick in Blue Jackets history. Thirty different players have had three-plus goals in a game for Columbus. Who has the most hat tricks in franchise history?
• It all works together in the NHL, but it’s worth noting that the Blue Jackets have gotten their best stretch of goaltending over the past three weeks since the days of Sergei Bobrovsky. Daniil Tarasov has a .935 save percentage and 2.24 goals-against average over his last six starts while Elvis Merzlikins had a .918 save percentage and 2.63 goals-against average before he stepped aside with what Vincent called “bumps and bruises.” Together, that’s a .930 save percentage since Feb. 23.
• None of the picks the Blue Jackets received at this year’s deadline apply to this year’s draft. As it stands, the Jackets still own their picks in Rounds 1 through 6 plus the Los Angeles Kings’ third-round pick (part of the Vladislav Gavrikov trade last season), although the second-round pick requires some explanation. It’s the Blue Jackets’ for now, but, as part of the deal that brought Ivan Provorov to Columbus from Philadelphia last summer, the Blue Jackets must decide after this summer’s first round if they wish to give the Flyers their 2024 or 2025 second-round pick. The seventh-round pick was traded to Vegas at last year’s draft when the Jackets jumped back into action at the end of the second day to take forward Tyler Peddler with the final pick.
• Blue Jackets forward Patrik Laine entered the NHL/NHLPA players’ assistance program at the end of January, right about the time he was expected to return from a fractured collarbone. He won’t be eligible to return until he’s cleared by the program, and the Blue Jackets don’t have any indication when that will be. He last played on Dec. 14, a wild 6-5 overtime win over Toronto.
• Trivia answer: Cam Atkinson has six hat tricks in a Blue Jackets sweater, the most in franchise history. Rick Nash had five, Tyler Wright had three and nine other players have two each.
• Subban and Zboril, who were playing in the AHL for the St. Louis and Boston organizations when Friday’s trades went down, will join AHL Cleveland on Monday for their first practice. Subban will team with Greaves to give Cleveland one of the better goaltending tandems in the league, while Zboril joins a crowded blue line. The Monsters have more reinforcements on the way. Center Josh Dunne, winger Stefan Matteau and defensemen Nick Blankenburg — all out with injuries — traveled on the recent two-game trip to Laval, Quebec, which is typically a sign they’re close to returning.
(Photo of Andrew Peeke: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
