Christian Jaros was a low-risk gamble that did not work out for the Blue Jackets

Blue Jackets general manager Don Waddell worked hard to improve his blue line this summer. Part of that effort included signing bargain bin defensemen such as Dysin Mayo and Christian Jaros.

Unfortunately, one of them is already on his way out.

Jaros was signed by the Jackets as an unrestricted free agent on July 1st, to a one year contract worth $775k. Today, he finds himself on unconditional waivers for an apparent mutual termination of that deal.

That outcome is a little bit surprising, because it seemed pretty obvious from the outside that Jaros was being signed to play in the American Hockey League this year.

Instead of heading to Cleveland to play for the Monsters and try to earn a recall, he'll likely be heading back to Europe to continue his professional career.

Last season, he played for the famed CSKA Moscow program in the KHL. There, he scored 2 goals, 12 points and added 18 penalty minutes in 51 games.

At 6'5" and 225 pounds, we thought he might be a good addition to a Blue Jackets system that needs all of the defensive defensemen it can get.

But it was pretty obvious early in the preseason that Jaros was not going to make any kind of impact at the NHL level this season. He looked sluggish, wasn't overly physical, and worst of all; didn't look good defensively.

In fact, he posted one of the worst individual game scores of the preseason, per HockeyStatCards on X:

As a result, he was beaten out of a roster spot by not only the 7 returning defensemen from last year's CBJ squad - he was also surpassed by Daemon Hunt on the depth chart.

By placing Jaros on unconditional waivers, the Blue Jackets open up the option to mutually terminate his contract, which seems like the best outcome for both sides. He'll be free to resume his career back in the KHL if he so chooses, and the team is off the hook for the entire cap hit of his deal.

The final roster move?

With Ivan Fedotov having already cleared waivers, it seems like removing Jaros from the active roster is the final decision the Blue Jackets will need to make to finalize their roster for the regular season.

Assuming Fedotov is formally demoted to the Cleveland Monsters, the Jackets will start the season with a 23 man roster including 13 forwards, 8 defensemen, and 2 goaltenders.

Of course, that could all change before next week. The team still has one more preseason game Saturday night in Washington to make final evaluations.