It’s that time of year with the NCAA season winding to a close, and players becoming free agents. The Blue Jackets have been active in this market before, signing Sam Vigneault last season and are active again this year signing Princeton captain Eric Robertson to a two-year entry-level contract.
Princeton captain Eric Robinson saw his season end at the hands of OSU men’s hockey Saturday - now he’ll meet #CBJ in Edmonton on Tuesday. https://t.co/xaTVH7z6AD
— Alison (@AlisonL) March 26, 2018
As Alison reports, Robinson will join the team on Tuesday in Edmonton. He will provide some depth for the team that just lost Nick Foligno for two to four weeks.
#CBJ announce Nick Foligno will miss 2-4 weeks due to a lower body injury.
— Alison (@AlisonL) March 26, 2018
C Alex Broadhurst (19-22—41) has been recalled from @monstershockey. He is their team’s current points leader.
I don’t expect Robinson or Broadhurt to play at all, they are just here should someone else get hurt on this road trip.
Looking though Robinson’s stats nothing jumps out. He only had 31 points in 36 games, which is really underwhelming for a senior. He was sixth on his team in scoring which again as one of the older players isn’t great.
Eric Robinson: Size and speed, deceptive skills, under radar because of veronneau and Kuffner...has some highlight reel goals @BlueJacketsNHL https://t.co/Zk06aplSzl
— Bucci Mane (@Buccigross) March 26, 2018
He played on a good team, but here’s the thing NHL prospects don’t get overshadowed, they dominate at this level. The Jackets just traded away Tyler Motte because he couldn’t crack the NHL roster. He’s the same age as Robinson and was a far better player NCAA player. Robinson reminds me a lot of Vigneault. Both are big and neither were great scorers in college. Vigneault has 22 points in 56 games this season in the AHL, which is fine but that’s the upside of a Robinson. A decent AHL player.
I don’t know the situation with players like Ryan Kuffner and Max Veronneau, but those are the players you should be trying to sign. They have been dominating NCAA players and have had success for more than just one season.
The Cleveland Monsters have been dreadful this season because they are loaded with players who are just like this. Vigneault has been one of the successful ones, but you look at Calvin Thurkauf, Paul Bittner, Justin Scott, Jordan Maletta, Nick Moutrey, and Hayden Hodgson these are the same type of big body low skill type of players. You can afford to have a couple of them, Bittner and Thurkauf would be considered prospects, in the hopes they become the next Josh Anderson, but you need to pair these players with other skilled players to make it work.
Look at the talent the Jackets had when Cleveland won. It was more than just the top prospects like Oliver Bjorkstrand, Sonny Milano and Zach Werenski, it was players like Daniel Zaar, and T.J. Tynan, players who might not be NHL prospects but are very skilled and can play with those top prospects.
Next season the Monsters are going to add some skill in Vitali Abramov, Maxime Fortier and potentially even Alexandre Texier. It would be beneficial for their development to have them playing with other skilled players. Fortier was a really good free agent signing out of the QMJHL. He has a ton of talent and has been really good for three seasons now. He may never make it but his upside is worth taking a chance on. The Jackets need to be looking for more players like that.
This has nothing to do with Eric Robinson, and everything to do with the Blue Jackets. They continue to sign players who haven’t shown to be NHL prospects. Maybe this time will be different but odds are it won’t be.
You can follow me on Twitter @PaulBerthelot