A lot of the narrative around these playoffs has been the play of Tom Wilson and Ryan Reeves. It’s only been amplified with both of them going to the Stanley Cup Finals. People rave about toughness and how you need these warriors to win in the playoffs. Each of the Stanley Cup Final participants has one of these players so it must be true.
This is a classic example of correlation not equalling causation. If you watch these playoffs and think the reason Washington is winning is because of Tom Wilson and not Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Kuznetsov, and Braden Holtby, and see Vegas and think it’s not because of Jonathan Marchessault, William Karlsson and Marc-Andre Fleury, you’re watching a different game than everyone else.
TSN’s Scott Cullen had an
off-season preview for the Jackets and he mentioned that the Jackets needed some depth on the wing and on defence. His options for this depth were Ryan Reeves and Roman Polak. The last thing the Blue Jackets should be doing this off-season is come anywhere near signing these players.
Even with Matt Calvert and Thomas Vanek leaving as free agents the Jackets still have plenty of wing depth. Between Artemi Panarin, Cam Atkinson, Josh Anderson, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Boone Jenner, and even Nick Foligno if they want to flip him back to the wing next season. That’s six wingers already for eight spots and we haven’t even mentioned Sonny Milano or Vitali Abramov, both of whom should be pushing for full time spots in Columbus.
The Jackets could use some help on the wing just in case Abramov isn’t ready, but Reeves is not the way to go. With the post-season he’s having and the hype surrounding him, he is not going to be cheap. If the Jackets are to add depth it should be a veteran placeholder on a cheap deal that can keep the spot warm until Abramov is ready.
Alternatively the Jackets could even go out and make a splash in free agency and bring in one of the big name winger. James Van Riemsdyk, James Neal and David Perron are the top options but might be out of the Jackets price range. Michael Grabner or a Rick Nash might be a little cheaper and could fill a top nine role. In that scenario you could move Foligno back to centre. Ideally you want Foligno playing in his natural position but you can make that adjustment for a good player.
On defence the Jackets are losing Jack Johnson and potentially Ian Cole. Getting rid of Johnson is a move long overdue. He’s spent years as a net negative on this team, you don’t need to bring in another player like that in Polak. Polak is a big strong “safe” defencemen. The Jackets of all teams are going away from that, they want defencemen who can skate and encourage them to jump into the rush. Polak is slow and has minimal offensive abilities; he does not fit with what the Jackets are trying to do at all.
The Jackets will need a defencemen this off-season. Their first priority should be to re-sign Ian Cole. If he prices himself too high the Jackets could look internally to fill that sixth defencemen spot, with either a Gabriel Carlsson or a Dean Kukan. Just with the forward group, unless they make a big splash and get a John Carlsson, you don’t want to sign someone and have them blocking a younger player. The other option would be a trade.
If power forwards are going to be of peak value the Jackets have two they maybe should consider moving. Anderson, but more so, Jenner should be in play to bring in a defencemen. Jenner had a down season but he turned it up in the second half playing with Vanek and Alexander Wennberg. Maybe the Jackets can find a team that believes in Jenner’s play down the stretch and thinks he can get back to being that 30 goal scorer he was a couple seasons ago. That would be the best route to take and a much better idea than signing some below average veterans.
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