The opening night roster for the 2016-17 Columbus Blue Jackets is becoming clearer and clearer every day. The Blue Jackets have 25 players in camp and brought that number down to 24 today by placing Gregory Campbell on waivers.
#CBJ place Gregory Campbell on waivers
— Aaron Portzline (@Aportzline) October 10, 2016
This is a very unexpected move. Campbell isn’t the greatest player but he brings a lot of intangibles and leadership which was something the Jackets have valued highly in the past. He’s a hard worker and a total pro on and off the ice. I would imagine he gets claimed by some team that values those intangibles, but it’s hard to say with so many players on waivers. He may just get lost in the shuffle and end up going down to Cleveland.
What this means for the roster is that Lukas Sedlak and Scott Harrington have both made the team.
#CBJ C Lukas Sedlak and D Scott Harrington not on waivers, which suggests (strongly) that they'll be on opening night roster.
— Aaron Portzline (@Aportzline) October 10, 2016
They both require waivers and would have to be placed on waivers today. The deadline to set your roster for the season is 5pm tomorrow so this is the last day you can waive players and have them off your roster by the deadline.
Keeping Harrington means the Jackets are going to start the season with eight defencemen. At this point I don’t think they send Markus Nuutivarra down. Harrington is good insurance if Nuutivarra struggles out of the gate. Harrington is a good plug and play guy. He plays a simple game, so it’s easier for him to jump into the line-up after sitting for a week. This also shows that the Jackets value Harrington more than a fifth round pick. If Harrington is claimed on waivers the Blue Jackets would receive Toronto’s fifth round pick.
Keeping Sedlak is a very curious decision. He’s a hard working centre, but he has been rather pedestrian in the AHL. He had 14 goals and four assists this past season in 54 games. He had a very strong playoffs with 16 points in 17 games. That performance is ultimately what earned him a spot on the team. I've said it many times before, I do not like buying into players after strong playoff performances, it’s a small sample and strong performances get amplified because of the stage. I don’t want to discredit what Sedlak did in the playoffs but I think his season performance is closer to what his true performance level is.
He’s is going to end up as the extra forward so in the grand scheme of things this won’t matter too much, but there are better players out there who can play a fourth line role, including those who are on waivers today.
Here is the full list of players on waivers today.
Full list of players on NHL waivers today at noon: pic.twitter.com/LkmNVirXMY
— James Mirtle (@mirtle) October 10, 2016
The interesting names that jump out are Seth Griffith, and Teemu Pulkkinen. Griffith and Pulkkinen are both young, 23 and 24 years old respectively, and have lit up the AHL. Griffith had 77 points in 57 games last season for Providence. He's also played 34 games in the NHL and has put up a respectable 11 points. The knock on him is his size. He’s only 5’9, which has raised plenty of questions if his strong AHL performance can translate to the NHL.
Pulkkinen was in and out of the Detroit line-up last season playing in 36 games and scoring 12 points. He did not play in the AHL this season but he did in 2014-15 where he had 61 points in 46 games. He has a tremendous shot and does very well and getting on net. He's played 70 career NHL games and in those has shown to be a strong possession player.
The Jackets are the perfect team to take a chance on a Pulkkinen or a Griffith. They are not expected to be contenders, so they can afford to gamble on younger players. Both players are young enough that they could be a part of the Blue Jackets future and play a role when this team is ready to contend. This is a classic no risk high reward type of move. If they don’t work out, you can simply waive them, but if they do, you have a skilled bottom six player who you got for nothing. It would be difficult to fit another forward onto the Blue Jackets roster. They would have to send Pierre-Luc Dubois back to junior, and would have to assign a player like Josh Anderson to Cleveland. It would take some creativity to make it all happen, but these are players worth taking the chance on.
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