Go Faulk Yourself

Good start for the Blue Jackets...

Pending a deal, Columbus Blue Jackets waive Dalton Prout

Congrats to Sergei Bobrovsky on being the defensive player of the month! The first Columbus Blue Jacket to win anything in 6.0!

BOS Tuukka Rask 2 6.500 BOS Max Pacioretty 2 7.000 BOS Tyler Johnson 2 5.000 BOS Malcolm Subban 2 0.900 BOS Brad Marchand 2 6.500 BUF Marcus Foligno 2 2.000 BUF Victor Olofsson 2 6.750 BUF Artturi Lehkonen 3 4.000 BUF Korbinian Holzer 3 1.500 BUF Dmitry Kulikov 2 3.000 BUF Linus Ullmark 2 1.000 BUF Nick Bjugstad 4 5.000 CAR Jake Guentzel 4 4.500 CAR Dylan Sikura 2 3.000 CAR Brock McGinn 3 3.250 CAR Devan Dubnyk 1 2.500 FLA Jujhar Khaira 1 0.700 FLA Ryan Nugent-Hopkins 5 6.000 FLA Valeri Nichushkin 5 3.250 FLA Brandon Sutter 3 1.850 FLA Marc Staal 3 1.250 MTL Derek Stepan 2 4.250 NJD Damon Severson 2 5.000 NJD Jeff Petry 1 2.500 NJD Adam Lowry 2 2.875 NYR Pavel Buchnevich 3 4.400 OTT Andre Burakovsky 2 6.000 OTT Ben Hutton 4 4.400 OTT Tyler Myers 3 3.250 OTT Alexander Edler 1 4.000 OTT Jaroslav Halak 1 1.000 PHI Scott Laughton 1 2.500 TBL Adam Larsson 5 4.500 TBL Jonathan Drouin 5 5.800 TBL J.T. Compher 1 0.850 TOR Phillip Danault 4 4.250 TOR Tomas Tatar 2 6.300 TOR Nate Schmidt 3 2.500 TOR Philipp Grubauer 5 4.750 WSH Alexander Ovechkin 2 7.500 WSH Alex Galchenyuk 2 4.900 WSH Matt Duchene 2 7.000 WSH Matt Niskanen 1 4.750 WSH Chandler Stephenson 2 1.850

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Michael Schotter

The Columbus Blue Jackets release the following players to FA: Brandon Saad Josh Anderson We thank both, especially Brandon Saad for their contributions during their tenures to the Blue Jackets organization, and wish them the best of luck wherever they go.

Maxime Froese @Alain Vigneault

Columbus Blue Jackets: 80 Questions Later... A couple of seasons ago, the Columbus Blue Jackets were in a similar position at the halfway point; in a playoff spot, battling for the top of the Metropolitan division, although it was a bigger dogfight, it looked as if the Jackets were primed to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs, only to find themselves miss to the New York Islanders, both with 99 points but the Islanders with more ROWs. The Jackets hope to not falter like they did a couple seasons ago and turn up the intensity in the second half of the season this time around. Unlike teams of previous years, the entire roster is scoring by committee this time around. The acquisition of Artemi Panarin has changed the entire makeup of the roster and Sonny Milano is having a breakout season like no other, leading the team with 43 points in 46 games this season and already passing his career high. Milano, having played in the NHL for 5 seasons now, previously boasted a career high of 37 points, and the amazing part about his breakout this season is that his role hasn't really changed from previous years, nor his linemates. Aside from Milano, a few other players are on pace for career years, and mostly from within the bottom-6. Boone Jenner and Oliver Bjorkstrand are both looking to set career highs this season. As for the team as a whole, last season they were a defensive powerhouse but found themselves struggling to score goals, and the leading scorer for the team ended up being a deadline acquisition in Gustav Nyquist with 61 points. The Blue Jackets ended up being one of the worst offensive teams in the league, and had the lowest goals-for of any team to make the playoffs. This season however, the team is one of the most explosive teams offensively and while they've definitely fallen off defensively with the departure of Drew Doughty, the team overall is much, much better than last year, and a much more exciting brand of hockey here in Columbus. The biggest issue facing the team is consistency. The last few weeks the Blue Jackets have been struggling, especially at the defensive side, and haven't been able to really go on a run like they did earlier in the season, only playing .500 hockey of late. That being the only real glaring issue though is most likely a good thing and will hopefully work its way out before the playoffs arrive, barring the Blue Jackets qualify.

Team Name Years $ BOS Torey Krug 3 6.000 BOS Colin Miller 2 1.850 BUF Zach Bogosian 2 2.500 BUF Jake Allen 4 4.500 CAR Blake Wheeler 3 7.150 CAR J.T. Miller 3 6.000 CAR Justin Faulk 4 5.000 CAR T.J. Brodie 4 4.250 DET Alex Pietrangelo 5 5.750 DET Petr Mrazek 5 5.250 MTL Phillip Danault 1 4.250 MTL Daniel Carr 2 1.850 NJD Michael Grabner 1 3.500 NJD Mikkel Bodker 2 6.300 NJD Carl Gunnarsson 1 1.750 NJD Bryan Little 1 5.750 NYI Patric Hornqvist 1 5.750 NYI Brock Nelson 1 4.000 NYI Derek Grant 1 1.250 NYI Travis Hamonic 1 2.750 NYI Scott Mayfield 1 1.800 NYR Kevin Hayes 2 5.000 OTT Mark Stone 5 5.000 OTT Mike Hoffman 2 7.000 PHI Thomas Greiss 2 1.350 PHI Tom Kuhnhackl 2 2.700 PHI Tobias Rieder 2 3.300 PIT Jason Zucker 2 6.000 PIT Cody Eakin 1 2.000 PIT Brian Dumoulin 4 2.250 TBL Bryan Rust 4 4.125 TOR Jamie Benn 3 6.000 TOR John Moore 5 2.250 TOR Zach Hyman 5 2.250 TOR Dmitrij Jaskin 1 1.000 WSH Nicklas Backstrom 3 6.250 WSH Braden Holtby 3 7.000

Columbus Blue Jackets release the following players: Jannik Hansen Anton Lander Mats Zuccarello Thank you for your contributions.

Darrell Pousset

Nolan Tierney

Columbus Blue Jackets place a claim on Brandon Pirri

Derek Beagle

Marshall Lessard @donut47

By the way for teams that haven't already in the East feel free to send in your UFAs. Please use the same PM as always.

Columbus Blue Jackets waive Jannik Hansen @apollo

Team Name Years $ BOS Artemi Panarin 3 6.100 BOS Noel Acciari 2 2.750 BOS Conor Sheary 1 1.900 BUF Magnus Paajarvi 2 2.250 BUF Anders Nilsson 1 2.250 BUF Johan Larsson 2 2.000 BUF Marcus Foligno 2 1.250 BUF Tyler Ennis 2 5.350 BUF Dimitri Kulikov 2 4.250 BUF Erik Gustafsson 2 2.750 DET Alex Petrovic 2 2.000 FLA Tyler Seguin 5 7.775 FLA Tyler Toffoli 5 6.000 FLA Oliver Ekman-Larsson 5 5.900 FLA Jonathan Bernier 3 0.900 FLA Melker Karlsson 2 0.900 FLA Josh Gorges 2 1.350 FLA Jacob Josefson 1 0.900 MTL John Moore 1 4.000 MTL Greg Pateryn 1 2.000 MTL Cody McLeod 1 2.000 NJD Mark Methot 1 2.400 NYI Anders Lee 3 7.000 NYI Patric Hornqvist 1 5.550 NYI Derek Grant 1 1.350 NYI Calvin De Haan 2 2.000 NYI Jaroslav Halak 1 2.500 NYI Thomas Greiss 1 1.500 NYR Reilly Smith 3 6.300 NYR Jeff Skinner 3 6.000 NYR Kevin Klein 2 2.000 NYR Ryan McDonagh 4 5.000 OTT Erik Karlsson 5 5.400 OTT Alex Edler 2 4.800 OTT Jordan Weal 3 4.000 OTT Chris Wideman 1 1.750 OTT Craig Anderson 1 1.500 OTT Darcy Kuemper 3 2.000 OTT Patrick Nemeth 3 1.300 PHI Phillipp Grubauer 3 3.750 PIT Nick Bonino 1 3.550 PIT Ales Hemsky 1 4.690 PIT Brian Dumoulin 1 2.500 TBL Victor Hedman 5 6.250 TBL Ondrej Palat 5 7.400 TBL Anton Stralman 2 5.300 TBL Jason Garrison 1 3.000 TBL Yanni Gourde 3 2.200 TBL Andrej Sustr 1 1.500 WSH Evgeny Kuznetsov 5 6.000 WSH Carl Hagelin 2 6.875 WSH Dmitri Orlov 4 3.650 WSH T.J. Oshie 3 6.000

Congratulations to Blue Jackets legend Brandon Saad on being a runner up for the Rocket Richard trophy...

Erik Gerzic

EASTERN GMs, I WILL BE CLOSING UFA OFFERS AT 10PM TOMORROW NIGHT. PLEASE HAVE ALL OFFERS SENT IN BEFORE THEN.

East GMs, feel free to send offers. Use the same PM as last time.

BLUE JACKETS ON THE RISE It's been a season thus far with lots of inconsistencies for Columbus, despite that, they sit with the 7th best record in the NHL at the moment, but 3rd place in the brutal Metropolitan division. While we're only just passing the halfway mark, the Blue Jackets look poised to make the playoffs this year after finishing 2 points outside of a wildcard spot last season. The infusion of Drew Doughty into the lineup has given Columbus a ridiculous defense core, add to that Zach Werenski has solidified himself as one of the elites in the NHL and Seth Jones is right behind and it's no surprise why the Blue Jackets currently find themselves near the top of the NHL standings. Brandon Saad having a career year with 40 points so far has also helped ease the loss of the offensive production Alexander Wennberg provided last season, while Oliver Bjorkstrand has also found his groove and is having a breakout season with 36 points, and is seemingly becoming a cute Danish superstar. The sole rookie on the roster, Pierre-Luc Dubois is also having an impressive season with 32 points and has provided much more than was expected of him for his first NHL season, but let's not just look at the positives, as the team still has a lot of persisting issues. While the team has continued to progress and much of the roster from when GM GFY took over the team still remains, and indeed the plan was and still is to remain patient, some players have had troubles really hitting their stride. Josh Anderson has continually struggled with finding any real chemistry and producing and has led to trade rumours of Anderson being shopped around the league. Newly acquired Brayden Schenn was having an average season by his standards before being traded to the Blue Jackets, and seems to have slowed down even moreso since arriving on the scene. While his production has picked up slightly of late, more is to be expected of Brayden down the stretch if the Blue Jackets want to assure their playoff aspirations. Matt Calvert has also been disappointing so far, and Devante Smith-Pelly is starting to look like a potential future healthy scratch with his play. The Nut has also regressed after a decent rookie season, and overall the team, while playing better defensively than seasons previous, still feels as if they could be better than what they've shown thus far. So while the top of the roster is performing quite well and some players are even overachieving, the bottom-half of the roster is incredibly questionable and could easily cost the Blue Jackets a playoff spot in the second half of the season. The Blue Jackets have continually been looking to change up their bottom-6 but have issues finding the right kind of player to help give it more flexibility, add in that the Metropolitan division is a never-ending bloodbath and the team could easily fizzle out... But the team is still incredibly young and growing pains are to be expected, but potentially this could finally be the year where the Columbus Blue Jackets make their mark as a true contender for seasons to come.