After taking a couple days to digest the first round series lost to the Penguins, our attention turns to the future and what this team will look like going forward.

The Jackets have just three players who will be unrestricted free agents, in Lauri Korpikoski, Sam Gagner and Kyle Quincey. Of the three I’d expect only Gagner to get serious consideration to be re-signed. Korpikoski and Quincey were brought in to be depth pieces and they did just that. They don’t have a regular role on the team, seeing how they were barely able to even crack the playoff roster. Gagner however was a huge part of this team and a piece you think the organization would want to bring back.

The Jackets have an interesting group of restricted free agents with Alexander Wennberg, Josh Anderson and Joonas Korpisalo all needing new contracts. Anderson and Korpisalo both shouldn’t cost too much. They each only have one solid season in the NHL and while they were productive players neither were stars and thus shouldn’t be too hard to re-sign. Wennberg however is well on his way to becoming a star and will be looking for a big deal. This is similar to another Jackets young centre who just a couple seasons ago needed a new deal. I think both sides will be quite happy to avoid a Ryan Johansen situation.

Other than that most of the Jackets roster is locked up through next season. Their big improvements heading into next season will be the development of the young players. This was the youngest team to make the playoffs and if those players improve this team will not take a step back. Zach Werenski and Seth Jones have the makings of becoming one of the top defensive pairs in the league. Markus Nutivaara and Gabriel Carlsson could end up as a very strong third pair. Oliver Bjorkstrand looks like he could be the next great goal scorer for this team. Wennberg is already the teams #1 centre. The future is bright for the team, and that’s before even talking about Pierre-Luc Dubois or Vitali Abramov.

The one caveat here is the expansion draft. The Jackets are going to lose a player and the most common names thrown around are Jack Johnson, William Karlsson, Josh Anderson and Joonas Korpisalo. Of this four Korpisalo would be the easiest to replace. The Jackets have a couple goalie prospects who could come up and fill the back-up goalie position. Jack Johnson is arguably the worst to lose, since his role is as a top four defencemen. Losing Johnson though would give the Jackets some cap space to pursue another and possibly better defencemen. Most likely though the team is going to lose one of those young forwards. It’s not optimal but the Jackets are in a decent spot to lose a forward. They have Sonny Milano in the AHL, who looks ready to make the jump to the NHL and Dubois will be knocking on the door as early as next season.

This looks like it will be a relatively quiet off-season for the Blue Jackets. They do not have many holes on the roster that needs to filled. They have young players ready to step up and take on a larger role depending on who gets taken in the expansion draft. The big focus of the off-season will be the development of the youth in the organization. If they improve so too will the Jackets.

You can follow me on Twitter @PaulBerthelot

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