Over the weekend, the Columbus Blue Jackets acquired goalkeeper Ivan Fedotov in exchange for their own 2026 6th round draft selection in the upcoming Gavin McKenna year.
This is a beneficial transaction for both clubs. Let's start with Philadelphia and how he was forced out. The Flyers moved Fedotov for three reasons - performance, Dan Vladar, and the pending return of Carter Hart. The Flyers also cleared $3.275M in cap space for this season to make additional moves, whether it is acquiring bad contracts, or re-adding Hart back to the crease.
For Columbus, the Jackets' have goaltending depth in the preseason, and it is a salary savings for the Jackets. Despite Fedotov being $3.275M on the cap, his actually earnings this season only is $775K and is a pending UFA.
Fedotov also reunites with 2015 first ronder Ivan Provorov after the goalie went 188th overall in the same draft. The netminder also skated with active prospect Kirill Dolzhenkov, and has the same agent as Dante Fabbro and Jake Christainsen.
The draft pool is still stacked for Columbus, including the following selections:
- Own First
- No own second due to Laine move
- Own Third and Avs' third via Brindley
- No own fourth but Leafs' via Jiricek and Rangers' fourth via Roslovic
- Own fifth
- No sixth but Pens' sixth via Nylander
- Own seventh
What are your thoughts? More to come...