Columbus Blue Jackets: 4 Trade Destinations for Sergei Bobrovsky

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TAMPA, FL – OCTOBER 13: The Tampa Bay Lightning score a goal against Sergei Bobrovsky #72 and the Columbus Blue Jackets during the second period at Amalie Arena on October 13, 2018 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Scott Audette/NHLI via Getty Images) /

The Columbus Blue Jackets goalie’s deal expires at the end of the year.

With no deal in place past the 2018-2019 season, the Columbus Blue Jackets have to be thinking about the future of Sergei Bobrovsky. Negotiations are nowhere close and the team has a healthy stable of goalies in the system starting with Joonas Korpisalo who is 2-0-0 in his only starts so far this year.

The front office has to be considering a trade as one of their options moving forward. The expiring contract and playoff disappointment are going to hurt Bob’s value but he still is the only active goalie with two Vezina Trophies to his name.

It’s rare that an elite level goalie is on the market though and there are quite a few teams looking to make the playoffs or do some damage in the postseason that don’t have a reliable goalie.

Bob asking for “Carey Price” money is just crazy. Any team willing to pay a goalie double digit salary when he is 37 or 38 is just wrong. Goalies deteriorate so quickly that if you even get above average play from a net minder past his 36th birthday, you’re beating the odds.

If Bob wanted a four year deal, I’d say sign it today. But he is looking for eight years at a crazy number so the team needs to look at other options.

While most teams that have playoff dreams have a their goalie situation figured out, there are a few that will be looking for help between the pipes. Let’s take a look at four teams that could be trade destinations for Sergei Bobrovsky.

Calgary Flames

The Calgary Flames are loaded up front with Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan, Elias Lindholm, James Neal, Mikael Backlund, and Matthew Tkachuk just to name a few high end forwards. They also get a ton of scoring from their backend with Mark Giordano and Noah Hanifin leading the blue line. In a weak Pacific Division, the Flames should be a playoff favorite with that amount of firepower.

But Mike Smith is not getting it done in net. He is off to a poor start and has been trending that way for a while. In six starts this season, Smith has a whopping 3.38 goals against average and a terrible .885 save percentage. Now Sergei Bobrovsky’s isn’t much better but who are you putting your money on to turn their season around? My money is on Bob.

The 36-year-old is in the final season of his contract in Calgary and isn’t the answer between the pipes Calgary is looking for. Bob could be traded to Calgary and they may even give him a longterm deal closer to what he is looking for than Columbus would.

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The problem is that the Flames are in a tight cap situation. They only have $1.3 million in cap space right now according to CapFriendly.com. That would mean the Jackets would need to take on a portion of Bob’s contract plus a player that makes a decent amount of money which the Flames would not be looking to get rid of.

If they make this trade, the Flames will be looking to win now. They wouldn’t want to give up any player that makes decent money, except for Smith, who the Jackets would only be bringing on to backup Joonas Korpisalo.

The Flames certainly are looking for an answer in net and Bob could be that piece.

Philadelphia Flyers

The Philadelphia Flyers find themselves in a familiar place. They are once again in an article talking about “Teams Needing a Goalie”.

The Flyers are in a tough spot. Michal Neuvirth is on the IR. Brian Elliott isn’t inspiring confidence and now the Flyers are relying on waiver pick up Calvin Pickard. Jackets fans don’t need to think back too far to know how Pickard is playing. The CBJ scored six goals on him just last week.

Florida Panthers

The Florida Panthers have started the season with a dud. The Cats are 1-2-3 in their first six games, with a lot of the blame going to the goaltenders.

Their future Hall of Fame goalie, Roberto Luongo, is on the IR and has just started skating again. He will likely miss another week for the Panthers as they hemorrhage goals, and points, behind James Reimer.

Luongo is going to return but the Panthers can’t bank on him for too much longer. He hasn’t started more than 40 games in the last two seasons and at age 39, he won’t be shouldering the load in net for much longer.

Beyond Luongo the Panthers have the aforementioned Reimer and Michael Hutchinson on the roster. Hutchinson is singed through the end of the season and isn’t a factor in the Florida goaltending situation.

What makes the Panthers even more intriguing is that Artemi Panarin has been rumored to have Florida on the list of places he is looking to play in. Could you imagine the blockbuster deal that would be Panarin and Bobrovksy to Florida? The Jackets could get a huge return for the set of Russians.

This though is a bit out there though. Florida certainly has a goaltending issue that Bobrovsky could help fix, but Luongo’s contract and the Panthers cap situation make this a tough trade to pull off.

Carolina Hurricanes

Goaltending in Raleigh has been an adventure for the last few seasons. From bad Cam Ward to really bad Cam Ward to Scott Darling to Petr Mrazek to former Columbus Blue Jacket Curtis McElhinney, this team has had some pretty bad netminders over the last few seasons.

Their big money goaltender is Scott Darling who still has three years left on a deal paying him $4.15 million a season. Darling though, who showed some flashes last year, largely disappointed. Now, Darling is dealing with a lower body injury that he sustained in late September. Darling has just begun his conditioning stint in Charlotte and even when he returns doesn’t inspire the confidence you need if you’re going to end the longest playoff drought in the NHL.

But then again, Carolina may not need a big name in goal to end the drought. The Canes are 5-3-1 to start the season relying on a rotation of Petr Mrazek and Curtis McElhinney with Curtis posting an impressive 3-1 record in his four starts. This though is coming behind a Carolina team that is playing at an incredible pace and dominating physicality that is going to be tough to keep up all year long.

Sooner or later, every team needs to lean on their goal to steal them a set of games or at least hold the team up while they are slumping. Neither Mrazek, McElhinney or Darling have shown that they can do that. Bobrovsky on the other hand most certainly can drag a team to the playoffs.

The Canes have the cap space and the prospects to trade for Bob. They have a glaring need but whether or not the Canes want to abandon ship on Darling this early is the question. The current ownership group and front office weren’t the ones to sign Darling to this deal so they will have an easier time letting go. Trading in the division isn’t an ideal situation but outside of that, this could be a match meant to be.

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These are all tough situations to navigate but any trade of Bob will be difficult. With these four teams though there is a path forward for a trade because of an apparent need and the right pieces in place for either Carolina, Calgary, Florida or Philadelphia.

Let us know what you think. If Bob does get traded, where do you think he ends up? Let us know in the comments.

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