The Blue Jackets off-season thus far can really only be seen as a disappointment. They have plenty of cap space but have yet to make the splash many thought were coming. They did acquire Artemi Panarin but he came at the expense of Brandon Saad. The team has also lost key depth players in Sam Gagner, Scott Hartnell and William Karlsson and haven’t really replaced them. When adding everything together the Jackets lost a lot more value than they brought in.

A short thread on how teams have added/lost goals above replacement value (using DTM's data).


CAR leads the pack in gains.
CHI/WSH, gutted. pic.twitter.com/9QT0Cc3iif

— Sean Tierney (@ChartingHockey) July 9, 2017

The Jackets still have work to do this off-season. They need to be building on their success, and while they have been linked to players like Ilya Kovalchuk and Matt Duchene they have been unable to land either to date. If they were able to trade for Duchene it would give the Jackets a big boost and help replace what they lost.

All stats from Natural Stat Trick.

The Jackets lost 61 goals in all situations between the four leaving players. A lot of that production came at 5 on 5 where they scored 45 of those goals and had a 52.36% Corsi. That is some serious production that needs to be replaced. Here is what the Jackets have brought in so far:

Panarin is a big get for the Jackets. He scores a ton of goals and will help fill the power play void left by Gagner. At 5 on 5 his possession stats rival Saad’s but he isn’t the scorer Saad was. Schroeder scored at the same rate of as Karlsson, but he didn’t have the ice time or possession stats of Karlsson. Motte had an ok rookie season, and growth is expected, but it’s difficult to count on him replacing what the veteran Hartnell brought. Enter Matt Duchene:

Duchene scored 18 goals and 41 points last season. He’s also effective on the power play and helps replace close to all of the scoring lost. At 5 on 5 the Jackets are still behind in both goals and possession, but in acquiring Duchene you hope he rebounds once he gets out of Colorado. If you combine that with a full season of Oliver Bjorkstrand and the Jackets could very well be an improved team at 5 on 5.

There is plenty of off-season left and many players are still available in free agency. The Blue Jackets need to add at least one more good player to the mix to off-set the players lost this summer. Adding a big name player like Matt Duchene would be a big boost and with potential for more. All in all more needs to be done.

You can follow me on Twitter @PaulBerthelot

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