The Blue Jackets have held off making cuts for a while but on Tuesday they released 17 players from training camp.
Today they made another round of cuts, releasing seven players.
Of the first 17 there were no surprises. Paul Bittner, Ryan Collins, Jacob Graves, Matiss Kivlenieks, Jordan Maletta, Blake Siebenaler and Doyle Somerby were all assigned to Cleveland. Andre Benoit, Alex Broadhurst and Cameron Gaunce were placed on waivers with the purpose of sending them to Cleveland.
In addition Carter Camper, Brett Gallant, Miles Koules, Bobby MacIntyre, Scott Savage, Ivan Kulbakov and Brad Thiessen were all released from their tryouts. These all make sense, this gives the players a chance to get into camp with Cleveland and get themselves ready for their season in the AHL. Most of these guys won’t be seeing time in Columbus so this gives them the opportunity to fight for roles with the Monsters.
The seven cut today are much more interesting as this group had some players who were considered on the bubble. Dean Kukan, Nick Moutrey, Justin Scott and Calvin Thurkauf were assigned to the Monsters. Kukan had a very strong game last night against the Blues; he scored a nice goal on the power play and was dominate at even strength with a 75% Corsi. He just fell victim to the numbers game. The Jackets top four is set with Seth Jones-Zach Werenski and the David Savard-Jack Johnson pairs. Ryan Murray looks locked into one of the spots on the third pair with Markus Nutivaara and Gabriel Carlsson battling it out of the last spot. Scott Harrington is set to be the seventh defencemen again. Kukan will be the top defencemen in Cleveland and should be the first player recalled when a d-man is needed.
Thurkauf is a player who turned some heads at camp. He emerged as camp went on as someone who may be a dark horse to make the team. He plays a similar type of game to Josh Anderson in that he’s physical and has enough skill to be effective. Not unlike Anderson, Thurkauf will need at least a season in the AHL to further hone his skills.
John Mitchell and Brady Austin were released from their pro tryout offers. Mitchell is noteworthy here. He’s a centre and with the Jackets lack of centre depth, it was thought he might stick around until the end of camp. At the end of the day though he’s 32 years old and put just seven points last season. The Jackets will be better off giving a younger player a shot down the middle.
The big name to get cut today was Vitali Abramov. After Abramov dominated at Traverse City many thought he had a good chance to make this team, myself included. The opportunity was there, he played in four pre-season games but he was unable to elevate his game against the pros. Dominating junior is one thing but it’s a whole different game in the NHL and Abramov is just not quite ready to make the jump. In the release by the club it says Abramov has been returned to his junior team in the QMJHL. There have been reports that he will play in Finland and he should absolutely be exploring those options if they are available to him. It’s clear Abramov needs to improve his play against bigger and more mature players. He’s not going to get that in the QMJHL, and as per the CHL-NHL agreement he is not eligible to play in the AHL, so playing professionally in Europe is the best spot for him right now.
The roster is now down to 29 players, 18 forwards, nine defencemen and two goalies. The Jackets have two more pre-season games left, Thursday against Nashville which will be the last chance for some of these bubble players to make an impact and then the Jackets finish the pre-season with the dress rehearsal game in Pittsburgh on Saturday.
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