They say you can never have too many defensemen, but the Columbus Blue Jackets are certainly testing that theory.
With the long anticipated return of Ryan Murray from injury, the Blue Jackets now have nine healthy NHL defensemen on their roster.
Whether you agree or not, all of Jack Johnson, David Savard, James Wisniewski, Fedor Tyutin, Kevin Connauton and Murray are all likely staying around.
That means the Jackets will probably move one - or perhaps even two - of Dalton Prout, Jordan Leopold and/or Cody Goloubef before the trade deadline.
While it's not a problem right now, carrying nine defensemen means they're only carrying 12 forwards - with Jared Boll among them - which means in the event of an injury they have nobody to step in, and a guy like Boll probably shouldn't be in the lineup to begin with.
Let's take a look at the 5v5 numbers for the three defensemen I don't think are considered safe.
It's worth noting Goloubef's sample size is small - less than 10 games - so a bad game or two weighs more heavily than they do for a guy like Prout, but those numbers are ugly nonetheless.
The Jackets are allowing more shot attempts than they're getting with him on the ice, and a good portion of them have been scoring chances.
Leopold is last in two of three categories - scoring chances the exception - but he was only acquired a short time ago, so I don't know that Jarmo Kekalainen and co. would be interested in moving him.
The numbers suggest Prout should be kept - especially given his age - but if they could get a decent return for him it may make sense to ship him out.
It's hard to guess which defenseman will be moved, but we probably won't have to wait too long to find out.
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