Put yourself in Columbus Blue Jackets general manager Scott Howson shoes for a few minutes. Your going into your fifth season with a team, that has made the playoffs one time, in the other seasons, you’ve finished no higher than 13th place in the conference. One would he’s running on borrowed time, and that this year will be his final year unless they make the playoffs.
How far is too far?
So is you’re Scott Howson how far is too far? One would assume he’d be a busy man in the off-season, but then again why would impending free-agents line-up to come to Columbus of all places. Again one would assume starting Thursday night, the day before the draft (if not sooner) that he and his hockey operations department would be willing to make a deal and desperate to do so. A rumour for some time now has the Jackets trading #8th pick overall and Jakub Voracek to Philadelphia for power forward Jeff Carter. Now if this trade could have been made two weeks ago, one would have assumed the Jackets would have pulled the trigger. Do they need to ante up more to get Carter? If you are Howson, would you at all consider moving former first round pick Ryan Johansen to get Carter? I personally would do whatever would be necessary to get Carter to Columbus. Can you imagine having two players like Carter and Rick Nash on one line? Nash has scored 30 goals or more 6 of the last 7 seasons, and Carter the last three season has an average 38 goals per season. It would be a start to get the Jackets somewhere they’ve been before, respectability.
Aside from Carter, other forwards possibly available are Jason Spezza and Ales Hemsky. One would assume the asking price would be more than the 8th pick overall and Voracek, so why get a player who’s (Hemsky) contract is expiring in one year, or Spezza who makes 7 million per year (1.8 million more than Carter each season).
Backend and in net
The team needs more improvement than just up front, they also require more help in net and on the backend. Good news if anything is there are at least six veteran netminders available to go hand and hand with Steve Mason. Another good thing is a few of these goalies Jose Theodore and Jean-Sebastien Giguere could be had for a 1 year deal likely around 2 million per year. That to would be an upgrade over Mathieu Garon as a backup goalie.
Currently the Jackets have three defenseman under contract, two of the three would be considered 4-6 on the depth chart. Fedor Tyutin not on most teams, but on Columbus is in the top three. Come July 1, there are as many as 15 UFA’s on the backend available, these defenseman could be top three defenseman on this team. So if they make that upgrade up front some of those de-man might more enticed to come to Ohio.
When it’s all said and done, it’s all up to Howson. Stay the course, miss another year of playoffs, lose more of your fan base and likely be fired. Take a chance and acquire Carter, and look at over paying for some decent defenseman, this team has a chance to do damage. If anything, getting Carter might by Howson 1 or 2 more years, and shows the fan base that you want to win and badly. To the extreme, did the fans last year in Atlanta think there any chance they could be moved? How soon before the owners in Columbus say enough is enough.
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