In what has been an eventful off-season to say the least, and is very much an understatement, the Columbus Blue Jackets are finally looking at making some noise. After placing 22nd in the league and missing the playoffs by quite a margin, it was finally time to address roster issues and supplement our younger stars with elite veteran players, but came at a cost.
At the start of the 2008 entry draft, the Columbus Blue Jackets made some noise, but not in regards to the draft itself; acquiring veterans Chris Pronger, Mike Grier, Petr Sykora, and a young, already established goaltender in Cameron Ward. While Columbus had to give up some key assets such as their 2009 1st round pick, Marc Methot, Steve Mason and James Van Riemsdyk, the message has been made clear, the time to win is now. Despite trading all those assets, Columbus was able to retain their 9th overall pick in the draft, and took an elite young Russian centre in Maksim Larionov, who had already told the Blue Jackets that he plans to stay in Russia until 2011. The Blue Jackets look forward to his development as he'll likely be integrated into the roster at a time when there will most likely be a transition period.
With some holes still in the roster, the Blue Jackets went into free agency and addressed those issues by signing notable forwards Daymond Langkow, Wayne Primeau, and Oleg Saprykin. All three are expected to be on the opening day roster, and will hopefully help bolster the offense and add much needed depth to the forward position. On the other end, during the free agency period the Blue Jackets traded away veteran Bryan Berard to the St. Louis Blues due to cap restraints so they could sign the aforementioned players to their respective contracts. While it was indeed sad to see Berard go as he was an integral part to our team, we do wish him well (despite being traded to a divisional rival). We still feel quite strongly of our current group of defensemen, including Kris Russell who will be making his Blue Jackets debut this season and is most assuredly ready for the big show, and with Cam Ward backstopping the net, it gives our team that much more confidence.
To really grasp the turnaround in the last season, here's our opening day roster for the 2007-2008 season:
R. Nash - M. Malholtra - D. Vyborny
V. Leino - G. Brule - N. Zherdev
J. Chimera - D. Brassard - J.P. Vigier
D. Jones - E. Perrin - D. Fritsche
B. Berard - R. Klesla
R. Hainsey - J. Fischer
M. Methot - D. Westcott
J. Theodore
P. Leclaire
And what will be the opening day roster for the 2008-2009 season:
R. Nash - D. Langkow - P. Sykora
V. Leino - G. Brule - N. Zherdev
J. Chimera - D. Brassard - O. Saprykin
J. Shelly - W. Primeau - M. Grier
R. Hainsey - C. Pronger
K. Russell - R. Klesla
D. Westcott - O. Tollefsen
C. Ward
P. Leclaire
While our ultimate goal is to win the cup, as it should be every season, the Blue Jackets will be in tough this year from within their own division no doubt with Chicago, Nashville, and even St. Louis, not to mention outside the division with tough opponents as well. With that being said, ideally the goal to start off with will be to attain the franchises first ever playoff appearance and go from there, but we do expect much more from this years roster. Only time will tell.
