Columbus needs a centre hint hint

by YvonLabresMoustache on Jan 6, 2009 2:41 PM EST

"The guess here is that the Blue Jackets will address their need for a center first. That's the most immediate need. If they can fill that spot first, they can worry about adding a right-handed shot defenseman at the trade deadline. Right now, their defense is playing pretty darn well, really."

This is my first attempt at a Fanpost! Please forgive me if something gets messed up.

A cursory check of NHLnumbers.com shows that the Blue Jackets currently have about six and a half million in cap space and according to that article there, are positioning themselves to be "aggressive" in the trade market, particularly for a centre.

I hate to be the one to bring up the eternal Nylander trade rumours again, but the bottom line is, when Feds comes back, someone's going to have to move. The team simply cannot afford to send Alzner back up the Hershey Highway, because as JP has pointed out, he's basically worth two defencemen at this point.

It all seems to add up to send Nyls to Ohio. For one, he would finally give Rick Nash a genuine playmaker, and set up what I think could be a pretty dynamic line with Nash and Huselius (or Nash and Voracek). The Jackets are coming to town Friday, so that gives Scott Howson and GMGM a chance to talk, and it works out money wise. Nyls makes 5.5 this year, and I think it will be difficult to convince Columbus to take two years of that, but if they're so desperate to sell, why not?

The question is, whom do we take back from CBJ? Picks? Prospects? I must confess, I am fairly ignorant of their system outside of guys like Filatov and Voracek (whom we have a zero percent chance of getting).

The bottom line is that something needs to be done to solve the cap woes. If there was any bright spot about all the injuries we had, its that it allowed us to see how great Karl Alzner truly is. Someone is going to have to go when Feds comes off LITR, and I think Nyls would be the best option for that (he makes the most money, and he's superfluous.

If this FanPost is written by someone other than one of the blog's editors, the opinions expressed in it do not necessarily reflect those of this blog or SB Nation.

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We were talking about this in today’s Roundup comments. Basically, the idea was squashed from the CBJ side a couple of weeks ago, but that was two weeks ago. The bigger problem might be getting Nyls to waive his NMC for a trade to the Jax. Frankly, I see too many obstacles to this one happening.

Great FanPost, though.

Japers' Rink: Hockey blogging from the most powerful city in the world

by J.P. on Jan 6, 2009 2:49 PM EST reply actions

I was thinking they could do the ol’ Doug Weight/Dan Boyle gimmick and threaten to send him home and keep him there, but I would HATE to see the organization do that.

Columbus is right in the middle of the playoff race, so its not like we’re sending him to a jobber team, and its not THAT far away from DC if he keeps his family here.

by YvonLabresMoustache on Jan 6, 2009 3:08 PM EST reply actions

I don’t see the Capitals doing that. The Islanders need to get whatever they can for their quality players and try to rebuild and Boyle was basically going to be waived to fit under the cap with the crazy roster they built in Tampa, plus it was in the offseason. Pulling something like that would probably make things worse for a team with great chemistry and who are playing as well as the Capitals are right now.

by David Getz on Jan 6, 2009 3:57 PM EST up reply actions

disagree

Sure things are going great now, but that doesn’t mean you wear blinders. To have someone not only loosen the belt this season, but free us the bane of two more years and 10 more million….you take whatever pittance CBJ wants to give up, so long as it doesn’t offset the salary we’re saving, or at least doesn’t linger into next year…

by macvechkin on Jan 6, 2009 5:07 PM EST up reply actions

I agree with that, but I was talking about the players. They might not be happy seeing one of their peers being bullied into something he doesn’t want to do, especially when it’s something that his contract specifically says he doesn’t have to do if he doesn’t want to.

by David Getz on Jan 6, 2009 9:32 PM EST up reply actions

yeah…i really HATE NTC. another banner game for NIL-ander tonight. maybe the players can do the bullying on behalf of GM. but when i think about it calmly, there is probably no way in hell he gets traded. over the summer though: we’re finding a way out of this.

by macvechkin on Jan 6, 2009 10:52 PM EST up reply actions

To be honest I think that the team wouldn’t be crushed to see Nylander go because they can see he isn’t playing very well and doesn’t quite fit in with the team’s dynamic. At the same time though it’d be hard to fault a player in negotiations having that ‘well they gave Nylander a NMC and bullied him out, what might they do to me?’ in the back of their mind.

I agree about the offseason to a certain extent: I agree that the team will probably be able to persuade Nylander to waive the NMC and trade him if they wants but with Fedorov, Morrisonn and Kozlov all slated to come off the books they might not need to.

by David Getz on Jan 7, 2009 12:10 AM EST up reply actions

Gee whiz

Between Ted’s “80’s Porn” headline and your “Hershey Highway” reference I think…well, I really don’t know what to think…

by hotdog88gt on Jan 6, 2009 6:28 PM EST reply actions

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