Trade Deadline Reaction: Blue Jackets Quietly Take Care of Important Business
There were no major splashes made by the Blue Jackets ahead of Friday's NHL Trade Deadline. But, the team did take care of some really important business.
The only real surprise of the day from a CBJ perspective might have been the Andrew Peeke deal.
Rumors were that Peeke could be a potential buyout candidate this summer. For good reason, really. He struggled to secure a job on the blue line of one of the worst defensive teams in the NHL.
Somehow, the Jackets were able to trade him to the Boston Bruins this afternoon. In exchange, the Jackets get back minor league defenseman (former first round pick) Jakub Zboril and a draft pick.
Peeke Trade
The important part of this trade: zero salary retention. I'm absolutely stunned that the Jackets were able to get rid of Peeke and his $2.8M AAV without retention - a cap hit which carries over for two more seasons.
It's not that Peeke was terrible for the Blue Jackets. It's just that he was horribly overpaid. He's a serviceable #7 defenseman who can play spot duty on the third pair. He doesn't bring much (anything) to the table offensively, but he never complained and did his job when called upon.
Peeke was a Jarmo Kekalainen draft pick - taken in the second round (#34 overall) at the 2016 NHL Draft. This is another trade that spells the end of the Jarmo era in Columbus (see Bemstrom, Emil).
I'm even more stunned that the Jackets were able to net a third round pick in return. This is some serious master class work by John Davidson and his staff. They could have given up Peeke for virtually nothing and I would have been okay with it.
Zboril doesn't move the needle coming in return, really, in any direction. He was the 13th overall pick at the 2015 NHL Draft, but hasn't found his footing firmly, really even in the AHL. His inclusion brings a pro contract off of Boston's books, to allow room for Peeke.
Easy win for the Blue Jackets here. I can say virtually nothing negative about this trade. The last trade the Blue Jackets made sent a hometown kid away.
Jack Roslovic was one of the many faces we got to know on this team during its rebuild period.
The Blue Jackets took care of their most pertinent piece of business at the end of the day, trading forward Jack Roslovic to the New York Rangers.
Rosie Palms
This was the one player I expected the Jackets to get something for at this year's deadline. In fact, keeping Roslovic beyond today, would have been a failure for this team. He is set to be an unrestricted free agent this summer, and does not fit into the plans here beyond this season.
Jack was acquired as a throw-in, in the famed Pierre-Luc Dubois for Patrik Laine trade with the Winnipeg Jets. This wasn't the trade that kicked off the rebuild in Columbus, but Jack would become one of the key faces of a team that spent the last few seasons mired in the rebuild struggle.
On some nights, Roslovic would give us a glimpse of potentially elite game-breaking talent. The problem is, those nights were just too few and far between for this team.
This season started of slowly for him, but over the last several weeks since returning from injury, Jake did himself - and the Jackets - a huge favor by showing out and playing extremely well in top line minutes alongside Boone Jenner and Johnny Gaudreau.
I do believe this drove his value up a little bit. I didn't expect to get more than a late-round pick for him, so I'm pretty excited to see this return.
The important thing for Roslovic, and Peeke as well, is that they'll both get a chance to play playoff hockey this year and showcase their abilities elsewhere.
If I were giving this deadline a grade for the Blue Jackets, it's an easy "A" grade. Call it an "A+" even. They freed up part of the logjam on the back-end, and gave themselves some cap room moving forward. Hard to complain about anything they did today.
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