The phone has already buzzed in Jarmo Kekalainen’s office.
The Columbus Blue Jackets general manager is now one of 22 roster architects in the National Hockey League whose team has been eliminated from the playoffs. Fourteen of those GMs saw their teams fall short of postseason play and eight more are smarting from an early exit, and all have the same goal – making their team better in 2017-18.
For Kekalainen, the objective is simple. He has to feel he has a base that can contend for a Stanley Cup considering the team's regular season, but his team wasn't quite good enough to get there this year. So how do the Jackets get over the hump?
When that phone rang in Kekalainen’s office, the sprint was on.
“I already got one phone call yesterday from a disappointed colleague,” the Jackets’ GM said Monday. “It’s starting.”
The expectation around the league, though, is that Columbus will return largely the same team in 2017-18 as this year’s squad that won a franchise-record 50 games before bowing out in five playoff games to Pittsburgh.
Part of that is because of the Jackets’ salary cap situation is somewhat tight. CapFriendly.com tabulates the Jackets as already having a projected cap hit of more than $70 million, with a cap that could edge into the $75-76 million range.
Most of the team’s current roster is locked up going into next year, though the Jackets will need to negotiate with restricted free agents Alexander Wennberg, Josh Anderson, and goalies Joonas Korpisalo and Anton Forsberg while deciding what to do with unrestricted FAs Sam Gagner, Kyle Quincey and Lauri Korpikoski. Contract extensions, such as one to Cam Atkinson (UFA after next season) could also be on the table.
In other words, the Jackets – who will also see their offseason plan affected by the expansion draft – might not necessarily have the coin to be the biggest spenders on the free agent market. Of course, that’s not the only way to improve a team, and as Kelalainen and team president John Davidson showed with the blockbuster deal two offseasons ago to bring in Brandon Saad, creativity and confidence are not in short supply for this front office when it comes to trades.
As a result, while the Blue Jackets brass clearly likes the young core already on the roster, everything is on the table when it comes to getting better.
“I don’t think we’d ever say that we’re going to stand pat,” Kekalainen said. “I know it’s the same boring answer I give every time, but we’re always going to be looking for ways to get better. After we gather all this information, we’re going to start talking about this or that. I’m going to start talking this week to all the disappointed general managers around the league – and I include myself in that category – and see where they’re at, what they want to do.
“Those talks are going to start right now, and then we’ll see. There might be a match somewhere where we feel that that would make our team better. We’re always willing to look at all the options.”
One place that the Blue Jackets might focus their efforts would be in the realm of goal scoring. Though the Jackets finished sixth in the NHL regular season in goals, Columbus’ sputtered offensively down the stretch then scored just one goal in each of its first two playoff games. That stood in strong contrast to Pittsburgh’s ability to score with such players as Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel on the ice.
Kekalainen pointed to such players as Josh Anderson – who tallied 17 goals as a 22-year-old rookie – and Oliver Bjorkstrand – a 21-year-old who had six goals in 26 games down the stretch – as players who could add more goals from within. Nonetheless, the market could provide Columbus the chance to keep improving in that regard.
“You look at Games 1 and 2 for example, we need to put the puck in the net,” Kekalainen said. “We had opportunities. We had scoring chances. We didn’t put the puck in the net. They got a scoring chance, they put puck in the net. We know what we need to get better at.”
One thing that will help going forward is the depth the organization has built over the past few seasons. Columbus built a team where such veterans as Scott Hartnell could be a healthy scratch in Game 4 of the postseason, and there’s a strong nucleus both up front and on the blue line.
There’s also a bevy of young prospects like Bjorkstrand, Sonny Milano, 2016 first-round pick Pierre-Luc Dubois, and young defensemen Gabriel Carlsson, Markus Nutivaara and Vladislav Gavrikov, to name a few, who could see increased roles going forward. Their presence also gives the organization options when it comes to roster construction and making deals.
“The one thing I will say is that in trying to build an organization, the more depth you build, the better chance it gives you to do things if something comes along,” Davidson said. “We may have something that another team wants; they may have something we want. We have no fear in doing that.”
In other words, the Blue Jackets will take what is given to them this offseason. And if the right move comes along, Kekalainen and Davidson made it clear Monday that they won’t hesitate to make it.
“Either we continue with the plan or we find a way through the depth we’re building up to maybe do something with a team that’s looking for what we have,” Davidson said. “So I think all options are on the table.”
