Elliotte Friedman certainty thinks so, having this to say in his always informative
30 Thoughts.
18. That is certainly not happening with Columbus, a nasty, edgy team that is on a great spurt. The Blue Jackets’ underlying numbers are very good, and it’s at the point you have to say, “This looks like a legit, strong group.”
Some keys: Sergei Bobrovsky, obviously. A deep, mobile defence. They’ve been relatively healthy compared to the rest of the league. And their centres.
I think there was a time Columbus looked for help there, but Alexander Wennberg and William Karlsson are hanging in, big-time. Lukas Sedlak is on the fourth line, but I wonder if this is a club that takes a long look at a Martin Hanzal. He’d be an awesome fit.
This is something I don’t think many people have thought about yet; the Blue Jackets being buyers come trade deadline time. It hadn’t crossed my mind since as things currently stand the Jackets don’t have any obvious areas they need to improve. They have been very healthy thus far and they have serviceable depth that the injuries they have suffered haven’t significantly affected the team. They are however lacking in centre depth. If one of the team’s centres were to get hurt the Jackets would have some issues. Boone Jenner could slide over to the middle in the short term but I'm not sure he is a long-term fix.
Hanzal would be a great fit for the Jackets as he would give them that depth they need at centre. He would be an upgrade over Lukas Sedlak, further strengthen the teams bottom six. He is a big strong player who would appear to fit in nicely with the system John Tortorella already has in place. Hanzal is a strong defensive player who could help out on the penalty kill, but also can make plays offensively. He had 41 points in 64 games last season and has nine points in 20 games thus far this year.
He has also historically been strong possession player. This season he has struggled with a 5 on 5 Corsi of just 43.47%, but the past two seasons he has been over 50%.
This diagram does not include this season but from 2013-14 to 15-16 you can see that Hanzal provided top line shot generation and shot suppression. He would absolutely thrive in a depth role and could step and play higher in line-up if necessary. Hanzal also brings 23 games of playoff experience which isn’t a whole lot but is more than most players on this roster.
The concern with Hanzal is injuries. He has only played 70 or more games three times, all of which came at start of his career. He is usually good for about 60 games a season. This shouldn’t be a large problem for the Jackets as they would not be asking Hanzal to play a major role. They would have the depth to off-set an injury if it were to happen.
Hanzal would definitely fit in nicely on the Blue Jackets, but the other question here is what would it cost to bring him in? He is in the last year of his deal, carrying a $3.1M cap hit according to
Cap Friendly. The Blue Jackets currently have about $3.1M in cap space (which jumps to ~$7.9 when you factor in LTIR) and are projected to have $9.7M come deadline time. More than enough to take on Hanzal.
Hanzal has a very good contract making him attractive to virtually every team. That is going to drive the price up, and likely cause a bidding war, though some teams may be scared off by his injury history. Considering the role he would fill on the Jackets it would not be worth giving up a first round pick for him, even if that first round pick is going to be in the bottom half of the draft. A first is just far too valuable to be giving up for a rental player. If he could be acquired for a second and a third or a second and a B-level prospect I think the Jackets should be all over that.
He would make for a great short-term fit without sacrificing the long-term goals of the team.
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