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Bargain Shopping: Finding Depth at Centre

July 7, 2016, 1:02 PM ET [13 Comments]
Paul Berthelot
Columbus Blue Jackets Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Blue Jackets are one of the only teams to not add an NHL free agent this off-season. They have made only two signings, both undrafted free agents in Dante Salituro and Jacob Graves.

This was a smart decision by the management group as they really don't have the cap space to splurge on a top free agent. So where does the team go from here?

The first thing the team has to do is look at the direction they want to go. The ultimate goal of every team should be to win the Stanley Cup but as we've seen in recent seasons in Buffalo and Toronto, this isn't always the case.

Given the players on the Jackets, their respective ages and contracts, this team is in win now mode but not to the extent of selling off picks and prospects. Despite all the hype surrounding the team last off-season this is not a team ready to contend for the Cup. Given how most of the core is locked up to big long term deals this team needs to be contending for the playoffs.

Best case scenario for the Jackets is a low-end playoff spot. They are unlikely to compete with the top dogs in the Metro, but a wild card spot doesn't seem to far-fetched, provided key players like Sergei Bobrovsky stay healthy.

John Davidson and Jarmo Kekalainen have built an interesting team in that it lacks star power. Look at the teams in the playoffs they all have stars. The Jackets have gone a different direction trying to construct a team that can roll four above-average lines. Here's how the roster currently shakes out up front.

Jenner-Dubinsky-Atkinson
Saad-Wennberg-Hartnell
Foligno-Karlsson-Bjorkstrand
Calvert-Campbell-Anderson

* I'm under the assumption Clarkson will get hurt again and possibly end up on LTIR. Which is why he has been excluded here.

It's not a bad lineup, it's not great however. Letting Rene Bourque walk and buying out Jared Boll did wonders to improve the bottom six. However even then it still could use some work, particularly at centre.

William Karlsson is a fine player and isn't out of place on your third line. However in the absence of stars he really needs to be bumped down to a fourth line role where he would be an elite option.

Looking at the free agent pool there is a player who could fit into that third line very nicely and won't cost much: Brandon Pirri.

Pirri excels at one thing: goal scoring. While the Jackets didn’t struggle at scoring goals, adding another weapon to the lineup isn’t going to hurt them either. The Jackets finished 17th in goals scored with 219. Excluding special teams they look much better with 2.31 goals per 60 at 5 on 5, which ranked 10th in the league.

Pirri has been discussed recently as a great value buy in free agency. Sportsnet had a great post on underrated free agents and Stephen Burtch had this to say about Pirri:

Over the past three seasons combined he ranks 13th amongst the 415 NHL forwards who have played 1000+ minutes in goals scored per 60 minutes with 1.31. The players who rank immediately behind Pirri in this regard are – in order – Evgeni Malkin (1.30), Brad Marchand (1.28), John Tavares (1.27), Zach Parise (1.27) and James Neal (1.26).


Steven Stamkos was the only potential UFA who exceeded Pirri’s elite combination of shot quality and frequency over the past three seasons — and now he’s no longer available.


I would recommend reading the rest of the article it was very well done. As you can see from that little excerpt Pirri is an elite level goal scorer. He would give a huge boost to the Jackets scoring depth and he’s a player who could easily slide up and down the lineup. He would be great in a top six role, and could be deadly on a third line.

The best part for the Jackets is he likely isn’t to cost very much. Pirri was making $925K last season and was traded at the deadline for just a 6th round pick. He’s sat out on the market for a week already; he isn’t going to get a big payday. I doubt he signs for much more than $1.5-$2M.

Pirri would bump Karlsson down to the fourth line, which would make that line with Campbell and Calvert a strong shutdown line. That would bump Anderson unfortunately back to Lake Erie but again that is great depth to have.

In a lineup lacking star power the best course of action is to build a team that is deep and can take advantage of a team’s lack of depth. Signing Brandon Pirri would improve the Jackets goal scoring and give them one of the deeper teams in the league.

You can follow me on Twitter @PaulBerthelot
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