Union and Blue Staff Discuss the Columbus Blue Jackets Preseason

The staff at Union and Blue give your their thoughts on the 2018 Columbus Blue Jackets preseason.

More roster cuts came today following the Columbus Blue Jackets fifth preseason game ahead of the 2018 season. The Jackets now find themselves with only 17 forwards, nine defenseman, and three goalies although the net-minder position is all but locked up barring the team trading Sergei Bobrovsky.

Only a week left of the Jackets camp but there are still many questions. Who will make up the fourth line? How will Brad Shaw and Brad Lawson handle their coaching duties now that they are flipped.

The four contributors of UnionAndBlue.com sat down and talked about what they thought were some surprises of training camp and who they were disappointed in. We also explored how we see the roster coming together in the end and what we’d like to see for the rest of camp.

Lets take a look at what our contributors think about camp with just a little over a week left until opening day.

Will Espy

What Jacket has surprised you the most so far?

So far this preseason I’ve been very impressed with Liam Foudy and Kevin Stenlund. Both have proven that they’re close to being NHL ready, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Stenlund get an NHL stint this season.

Foudy could’ve easily made quite a few NHL teams this season which shows the impressive forward depth that the Columbus Blue Jackets have developed for the first time in franchise history.

Stenlund has shown that he will certainly be a Columbus Blue Jacket regular potentially as early as this season, but more likely next season.

Joonas Korpisalo also had a great game in Clinton, New York showing promise for the Blue Jackets top two goaltenders for the first time this preseason.

Has this preseason been a “success”?

This preseason may not have been the most successful to this point, but it’s definitely shown that the Columbus Blue Jackets fans have reason to look forward to the future beyond this season.
With players like Stenlund, Foudy, Gabriel Carlsson, Eric Robinson and many others the future looks like it’ll compliment the current roster very well. It’s just a matter of time before the prospects tell Jarmo Kekalainen, John Davidson and John Tortorella that the future is now.

It wouldn’t surprise me to see Stenlund make the Columbus Blue Jackets roster, and the same could’ve been said about Foudy before he was sent back to the London Knights on Wednesday

Steven Kenworthy

What Jacket has surprised you the most so far?

Maybe he’s chasing the lineup depth or he just had a phenomenal summer, but thus far I’ve been most impressed by Sonny Milano. I wouldn’t say I’m surprised though because he flashed enormous potential last year.

Columbus Blue Jackets

In my opinion, he has stood out in every preseason game thus far. Each time he has stepped on the ice, he has played like a man on fire and I think that energy translates eventually to more minutes for the CBJ.

Conversely, who has been the most disappointing?

This won’t sit well with some Blue Jackets faithful, but thus far I’ve been most disappointed by Gabriel Carlsson. Having spent a first round pick on him three years ago, I was hoping to see more progress at this stage of his career.

Coming off a starting role early last year in Columbus, I expected Carlsson to make a few more strides by now. He’s just not developing like I hope he would. Defensemen take time to bloom, but his game isn’t coming along at the rate of say – fellow 2015 pick, Markus Nutivaara. In fact, it’s not even close.

What do you want to see from now until opening night from this team?

After watching the Jackets sleep their way back and forth across the ice versus the Blues, I want to see a team with the kind of fire a Stanley Cup contender should put out nightly. I don’t care if it’s the preseason. Chemistry, effort, potential – it all starts now.

The fact that the CBJ had 13 of their top 16 forwards on the ice and struggled to put up points on a St. Louis B-squad was beyond demoralizing. This team has what it takes to make a tremendous run but that momentum needs to start developing now.

What are your predicted opening night lines and pairings?

My predicted opening night lines are as follows. No wild guesses here – minus one or two changes, this should be pretty much what we should all probably expect to see on October 4th versus the Red Wings.

Panarin – Dubois – Atkinson

Foligno – Wennberg – Bjorkstrand

Jenner – Dubinsky – Anderson

Duclair – Nash – Milano

Jones – Werenski

Savard – Nutivaara

Kukan – Carlsson

Bobrovsky

Korpisalo

Lansing Murphy

Basically Lansing minus the hat. And sweater. And glasses and beard. Ok, basically just the ice cold beverage in his hand.

What Jacket has surprised you the most so far?

Anthony Duclair for sure. The Duke has been a great surprise after two seasons of disappointment. He has treated this training camp like a do-or-die opportunity and it clearly shows.

He’s looked very fast and competes really hard in the corners. He has held his own in the defensive zone as well. Duclair at this point is a lock to make the team this year in my eyes.

Throw Adam Clendening in too as a player that has surprised me. The free agent signing has made a huge impact and has pushed his way into the final d-man conversation along with Scott Harrington, Dean Kukan and Gabriel Carlsson.

Conversely, who has been the most disappointing?

I haven’t pinned it down yet if it was his own play, or that other defenseman have just looked better but I was hoping to see more from Gabriel Carlsson. Its greedy to ask for three NHL defenseman in one single draft (2015) but the former first round pick hasn’t shown it yet.

After dealing with an injury last season I expected Carlsson to come into camp and really push for the final spot as a Jackets defenseman. Now, it looks like he will be heading to Cleveland for another season with the Monsters.

What are your predicted opening night lines and pairings?

It seems pretty apparent what the roster will look like minus the final defenseman slot. I give the slight nod to Kukan over Clendening for the 6th defenseman.

Panarin – Dubois – Atkinson

Foligno – Wennberg – Bjorkstrand

Jenner – Dubinsky – Anderson

Duclair – Nash – Milano

Jones – Werenski

Murray – Nutivaara

Kukan – Savard

Bobrovsky

Korpisalo

I think the team ends up carrying Clendening and Harrington for a bit on the roster pushing out another forward to Cleveland.