With Ian Cole leaving the Columbus Blue Jackets, the battle for the final defensive slot will be fierce in training camp.
One of the most intriguing on-ice storylines for the Columbus Blue Jackets is the competition to be the 6th defenseman. Barring any major injuries, the top two defensive pairs will be Seth Jones–Zach Werenski and Markus Nutivaara–Ryan Murray.
After not re-signing Ian Cole though, the Jackets will look to one of three young defenseman to step up and play along side David Savard on the third pair.
The likely replacement will come down to either Dean Kukan, Gabriel Carlsson, or Scott Harrington. All three are young, left shot defenseman whose game’s lean more toward the defensive side.
All have had at least 15 games in the NHL with the Jackets and all have shown some promise, but not enough to separate themselves from the group. Will one of them break through and grab the last spot on the blueline before the opener on October 4th?
Columbus Blue Jackets
Playing Oddsmaker
I don’t claim to be a gambling expert but have been known to lay a few coins down on a line while in the desert. So my odds may not make sense to gambling experts, but hey, its all for fun here.
Coming in as a 3-1 favorite to take the job is the Swiss man Dean Kukan. Although he played the least amount of games with the Jackets last year, he has the inside track to take the job.
In his 11 appearances last year, Kukan was the most consistent, all around player out of the three. He was the only player with a positive corsi for rate, a positive plus/minus and had the highest point per game average.
Beyond the stats, he made better first passes than the other two and skates better than both Carlsson and Harrington. Kukan added another World Championship appearance for Switzerland as well this offseason, his fourth in as many years. He performed well for the Swiss team who made a surprise run to the finals and took home the silver medal. Kukan was on the second pair and had three points in the tournament.
After Kukan, I’d give Scott Harrington a slight advantage over Gabriel Carlsson to take the 6th spot. At 6-1 he is a step behind Kukan but still not completely out of the question.
Harrington is well liked by the organization and the locker room. He was relied upon the most last year to fill in with Ryan Murray hurt or to fill in when Jack Johnson needed to be scratched.
Harrington was never able to string together three or four impressive performances in a row though during his 32 appearances last year. The lack of consistency over a decent stretch of games isn’t what the team wants to see out of a future starting defenseman.
Finally coming in at 10-1 is former first round pick Gabriel Carlsson. Last year he was hampered by an injury which derailed his first full season in North America. Carlsson is never going to produce offensively, which isn’t a concern on the third pair, but he didn’t dominate defensively in Cleveland like we would have liked to see.
Carlsson was among four defenseman drafted in 2015 by the Columbus Blue Jackets and already two of them are playing far better than expected. Both Zach Werenski and Markus Nutivaara are contributing in a big way for the organization and Carlsson hopes to as well but faces an uphill battle in camp.
Carlsson is also hurt by being the only defenseman of the three that is waiver exempt and the easiest to send to Cleveland. Both Kukan and Harrington would certainly be picked off of waivers if the Jackets attempted to send them down.
Like I said in the beginning, I am not an odds experts but you can tell that these odds don’t add up. Well thats because the favorite in this whole situation is scenario where the Jackets start the season rotating all three of these players through the lineup. I would put the three-man rotation during the first month or so as the favorite at 2-1.
The Jackets have no reason to rush their decision and with three average options, why not give them as long of a tryout as possible. Torts and the team have more than just the preseason to determine who will round out the defensive corps.