OFFICIAL Columbus Blue Jackets Thread

[jimotis4heisman]

http://hfboards.com/showthread.php?t=245147
this is a staal vs. mueller thread. you have to believe these are the top two choices for columbus, if available.

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Dispatch

4/30/06

BLUE JACKETS NOTEBOOK

Injuries cause Nash to skip playing in worlds

Sunday, April 30, 2006

Michael Arace
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

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Blue Jackets star Rick Nash is still not in peak health, so he won’t be playing for Team Canada in the upcoming International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship.
Nash missed all of training camp and most of the first half of the 2005-06 season because of a high ankle sprain and a sprained knee. Those joints are still sore. He said he’s also nursing a wrist injury of some sort.
"I met with the team doctor and he just recommended I don’t play in the worlds," Nash said. The tournament is May 5-21 in Riga, Latvia.
Asked whether he needed surgery of any kind, he said, "Right now, it’s just rest and rehab."
Nash had 31 goals and 23 assists for 54 points in the last 51 games. He led the team in goals and tied for second in scoring with Nikolai Zherdev, who had 54 points in 73 games. David Vyborny led the team with 22-43—65.
Nash starred last year in the world championship. He was the tournament leader with eight goals and helped Canada to the silver medal. His last foray into international competition — at the Turin Olympics — was disappointing, however. He went without a goal and Team Canada was eliminated in the quarterfinals.
"Any time you get a chance to play for your country, you love to be there," he said. "Last year at the worlds, it was just a great time. It’s discouraging not to be back, but I’ve got to concentrate on the No. 1 goal and that’s to get the Columbus Blue Jackets in the playoffs."
Denis aboard

Blue Jackets goaltender Marc Denis has accepted an invitation to play from Team Canada. Denis is en route to Belarus, where the team will play an exhibition Tuesday.
"It’s the second-best scenario," Denis said. "The No. 1 goal is to be in the playoffs, and to bring a playoff game to the city. When I was asked to play in the worlds, I took some time to think about it because it’s a month away from the family. But it’s always a great experience to wear your country’s jersey and I’m really looking forward to it."
Traditionally, Denis has played well — and been a goodluck charm — for Canadian teams.
Denis won gold medals at the 1996 and ’97 World Junior Championships. He was also a member of the gold medalwinning Canadian team at the 2004 world championship.
Denis is scheduled to become a restricted free agent July 1. He recently discussed his status with Blue Jackets president and general manager Doug MacLean.
"I had a good talk with Doug," Denis said. "The summer is long. They have the option of waiting until July 1 to do anything. They can negotiate now, wait and give me a qualifying offer. They have arbitration rights and I have arbitration rights. The ball’s in their court, but there’s definitely open mindedness on our side if they want to do anything that could take away a year or two of my free agency."
Denis can become an unrestricted free agent next year. It seems that if the Blue Jackets want him for a longer term he’s interested in looking at an offer. But he’s preparing for anything.
"I think something’s going to get done and I hope to be back," he said. "I’ve talked about it a number of times: I think we’ve started something good here and I’d like to be around when we find some success."
Disa and data

Allan Walsh, who represents Blue Jackets defenseman Radoslav Suchy, and Paul Krepelka, who represents forwards Manny Malhotra and Trevor Letowski, are still feeling out the interest in contract extensions for the three unrestricted free agents. Krepelka said, "We’ve had ongoing talks about both players (Malhotra and Letowski) and I expect it will continue." Walsh said the same thing about Suchy. The Blue Jackets maintain exclusive negotiating rights with the three players through the end of June. The players can put themselves up for bid on the open market beginning July 1. … MacLean said recently tht he has had more than one conversation with Alexander Svitov’s representatives. Svitov, a 23-year-old center, is a restricted free agent. He is playing for Avangard-Omsk, which has reached the final of the Russian Super League playoffs. He had nine points in 32 regular-season games. If Malhotra doesn’t resign with the Blue Jackets, Svitov could slot into the middle of the third line — in part because he has yet to show he’s ready to shoulder more than a checking role. Highly acclaimed when the Tampa Bay Lightning made him the No. 3 overall pick in the 2001 draft, he hasn’t come close to his potential as a professional.
marace@dispatch.com

[jimotis4heisman]

http://hockeysfuture.com/article.php?sid=8689

Blue Jackets 2005-06 rookie review

Written by Chris Leary on 04/30/2006
With their 4-3 loss April 19 to the Dallas Stars, the Columbus Blue Jackets ended their fourth straight season below .500, and more importantly on the outside of the postseason party looking in. That’s the bad news, which should be expected from a fledgling NHL expansion franchise. Running concurrent with that annual disappointment, however, is a yearly dose of great news in the form of an impact rookie. From David Vyborny’s impressive debut in the Jackets inaugural season, through a succession of strong rookie campaigns by Rostislav Klesla in 2001-02, Rick Nash in 2002-03, and Nikolai Zherdev in 2003-04, the future core of the franchise has provided reason for hope amidst what has been a lengthy bout of growing pains for the Columbus faithful.
It should therefore come as little surprise that the second-tier showing by the Jackets this past season was highlighted by the debut of another potential franchise player in 23-year-old goaltender Pascal Leclaire. The first true No. 1 netminder promoted out of the Columbus system, Leclaire got his feet wet with two appearances in the 2003-04 season before spending the lockout year fine-tuning his craft with Syracuse of the AHL. While he started the current campaign on the red-eye between Syracuse and Columbus, Leclaire settled in with the big club in early December and spent the rest of the season alternating with Marc Denis in the Blue Jacket net. In 33 appearances with Columbus this season, Leclaire posted an 11-15 record, with a 3.23 goals against average and a .911 save percentage, the latter placing him in the top half of the league.
And just what did Leclaire show in his first lap around the NHL circuit? In a typical NHL season, Leclaire’s performance would have been enough to merit consideration for inclusion on the all-rookie team. This season was a different animal altogether, as the otherworldly debut of Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin were matched in goal by the outstanding rookie efforts of Henrik Lundqvist, Ryan Miller, and Antero Niittymaki. Holding up Leclaire’s numbers to those produced by that trio is slightly unfair, given the defensive efforts turned in by the teams in front of them. A better comparison to be made would be with past upper-tier rookie goaltenders, a continuum that Leclaire fits in with nicely. While a losing record and a goals-against hovering around 3.50 are not impressive numbers by themselves, those numbers should be tempered by the realities of tending net for an expansion franchise that has yet to come within sight of a playoff berth. His relatively-high save percentage stands in sharp contrast to his other numbers, and that statistic is, ultimately, one of the primary measuring sticks for assessing the effectiveness of a netminder.
Following the end of the Jackets season, Leclaire returned to Syracuse as the Crunch advanced into the AHL playoffs, a move designed to provide Leclaire with more ice time in high intensity situations. Heading into next season, it seems apparent that the Jackets will give Leclaire every opportunity to stake his claim to the number one spot in the Nationwide net. With the 28-year-old Denis still under contract for next season, the possibility remains open that the Blue Jackets may elect to hand Leclaire the starting job by moving Denis in a trade over the next four months. Given that Leclaire was a high first-round pick in their second entry draft, this is the career path Columbus expected him to follow, albeit at a slightly slower pace than they most likely hoped five years ago.
As has also been the case in the history of the Jacket franchise, the eye-opening rookie performance by a potential standard-bearer was joined by another impressive debut from a second-tier prospect. This past season it was Czech native Jaroslav Balastik that supplied the solid compliment to Leclaire’s impressive debut. The 25-year-old Czech made the jump across the pond in 2005-06 and quickly moved into the Blue Jacket lineup. Coming off of two consecutive seasons as the top goal scorer in the Czech Elite League, Balastik rose as high as a spot on the second line with countrymen Jan Hrdina and David Vyborny in his first year in the NHL. While Balastik managed to account for a dozen goals and 10 assists in 66 games, by the end of the season he was alternating between the third and fourth lines and seemed to lack the requisite speed for a sustained role in the NHL. His skills around the net notwithstanding, Balastik will need to make serious strides in his skating ability if he hopes to be anything more than a role player with Columbus next season.
Where Balastik was not necessarily on the radar of many Columbus fans entering the 2005-06 season, a pair of young centers most definitely were. Both Dan Fritsche and Gilbert Brule made their debut in the Blue Jacket colors this season, and the culture shock of moving from the amateur ranks onto the professional ice were felt in different ways by each. For Fritsche, the Jackets second round pick of the 2003 Entry Draft, his rookie campaign was a hard lesson in the pace of the NHL game. In 59 games spent mostly on the fourth line, Fritsche recorded six goals and seven assists, numbers which appear consistent with the player Danny Fritsche currently is, not the player he may eventually be. Promoted quickly through the system after an injury-shortened amateur career, Fritsche may need a good deal more ice time in order to mature into the player the Jackets envision. His demotion back to Syracuse in the latter half of the season is a move in that direction, but he’ll have to show significant gains to make his way back to the Jackets.
Where Danny Fritsche’s story becomes more complicated with a demotion out of Columbus, Gilbert Brule’s demotion may be the precursor to a dramatic 2006-07 season. The sixth overall pick of the 2005 entry draft, Brule was considered in many circles to be a darkhorse candidate for the all-rookie team, thanks to an attractive package of speed, offensive prowess, and toughness. The latter of those three, however, was put to the test in his all-too-brief first look with the Jackets, as a pair of severe injuries limited Brule to only seven games with the club. In that short time with the Jackets, Brule managed to score twice on 11 shots, and added two assists in limited action. With his demotion back to his amateur club, the Vancouver Giants of the WHL, Brule dispelled any doubts about his talent and steep potential with an impressive end of the season run into the playoffs. It seems likely that the Gilbert Brule era in Columbus will begin in earnest this coming October.
The most unexpected debut of the season may have been that made by forward Geoff Platt. A relatively-unheralded player who exhibited a deft goal-scoring touch in the OHL, Platt went undrafted in 2005 and signed a one-year contract with the Jackets after a brief run in the ECHL. While he only managed five assists and 29 shots in his brief 15-game tryout with the big club, Platt continued to display his offensive abilities in the AHL over the remainder of the season. The fact he managed to make the jump to the NHL in 2005-06 has to be seen as a positive indication of his potential, but he most likely needs quite a bit more seasoning in the AHL before he gets another extended shot at an offensive role with Columbus.
As with most NHL teams this season, the brighter lights of impressive rookie campaigns from what amounts to two years worth of rising stars obscures the more muted debuts of lesser-known prospects. For the Jackets, another five players made their first appearance in the NHL, combining for 27 games played and zero points. Amongst this group are several top-end prospects in the system, including forward Alexandre Picard (17 games played), center Joakim Lindstrom (three games played), and defensemen Ole-Kristian Tollefsen (five games played) and Joe Motzko (two games played). Of this bunch, Picard had the highest upside, but will most likely need additional time in the AHL to return on the Jackets’ investment of the eighth overall pick of the 2004 draft.

pretty good article minus the three glaring errors in the first sentence.

[jimotis4heisman]

http://www.insidehockey.com/zoll/2006_04_10.php

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td rowspan="2"></td> <td rowspan="2"></td> <td class="ihmiddlefeaturehead" align="left" valign="top">Running To Stand Still</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="ihmiddlefeaturesubhead" align="left" valign="bottom">by Alan Zoll</td> </tr> </tbody></table> Columbus was ready for the new wide-open 2005-06 NHL season with their defending Rocket Richard Trophy-winner poised to tear the league apart. But the best laid plans went awry this season for the Blue Jackets.
Rick Nash, who co-led the NHL with 41 goals in 80 games last season (despite the absence of an established all-star line-mate) missed almost 40% of the 2005-06 season with ankle and knee injuries turning in just 26 goals and 46 points in 47 games. While that might still seem impressive a goals-per-game pace is one thing - a team ranked 28th in total offense averaging less than three goals a game is the reality of another.
But the entire season was a missed opportunity on every front for the revamped Blue Jackets. All-Star Cup MVP Sergei Fedorov was acquired from the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, where he had failed to live up to his once-league-MVP billing, and managed 35 points in 55 games for Columbus. While fans are already saying, “Yeah but wait until next year when Nash is healthy!” the reality of the situation is that Fedorov will then be a 37-year-old veteran who hasn’t scored 30 goals since 2002-03 and will be making $6 million a season for a team that hasn’t made the playoffs in their five years in the league.
With the injury-plagued Nash and the still-waiting-to-rebound Fedorov held in check, the crux of the Blue Jackets offense fell on the burgeoning shoulders of forwards David Vyborny and Nikolai Zherdev. The 30-year-old Vyborny, who actually led Columbus with 31 assists last season, posted career-highs in assists (37) and points (55) this year to lead the team. The 21-year-old Zherdev, who showed his ability to play in this league in his rookie season of 2003-04 by posting 34 points in 57 games, led the team with 27 goals and posted 54 points in 73 games.
But for the hapless Blue Jackets, that’s where the offensive attack pretty much ends. While many of their second and third line players turned in career-years, it was nowhere near enough to propel Columbus into the playoffs. Jan Hrdina, once a 57-point producer in Pittsburgh, managed only 30 points in 68 games. Veteran Manny Malhotra, limited to just 51 games from injury, still posted a respectable career-high 28 points. Jason Chimera turned in a career-best 17 goals and 26 points with 88 penalty minutes in 73 games. Twenty-nine-year-old winger Trevor Letowski dropped from a 32-point season in 2003-04 to 23 points in 74 games this year. And rookie Jaroslav Balastik posted 12 goals and 20 points in his first 59 games in the NHL.
As the Blue Jackets had expected the young core of Nash, Vyborny and Zherdev to carry the offense, their main focus during the off-season had been to overhaul their tattered defense. While Columbus had improved their goals-against from 263 to 238 in 2003-04, it still placed them 24th in the NHL in team defense.
They made two all-star-caliber free agent signings, bringing in veterans Adam Foote and Bryan Berard, immediately handing them the leadership reigns for the young and directionless Blue Jackets. Now that may seem like an unfair burden to place on two proven veterans, but this is what made Mark Messier, the savior of the Rangers, and what separates the men from the boys. Unfortunately, despite valiant efforts on both great players’ parts, it flopped.
Berard, who made a heroic comeback in 2001-02 from what should have been a career-ending eye injury suffered in 2000, had his season ended by a back injury. While he still managed to lead the defensive corps with 12 goals and 32 points in 44 games, the former Calder Trophy-winner was an abysmal -29 (only Carolina’s Mark Recchi’s rating is worse at -34).
Adam Foote, who served as an alternate captain in Colorado where he won two Stanley Cup championships in thirteen seasons, was handed the Blue Jackets’ captaincy when it was abdicated by the now departed Luke Richardson. While Foote truly turned the defensive work ethic around in Columbus, he too was hampered by injury. The 34-year-old veteran of over 800 NHL games (154 in the playoffs) managed a mere 19 points in 58 games after posting back-to-back 30-point seasons in Colorado and was a -17.
The Blue Jackets also brought Radoslav Suchy in from Phoenix where he had spent the last five seasons and had once posted a +25 rating in 81 games (2001-02). But the 29-year-old Suchy posted near-career-lows with only eight points and a -6 rating in 72 games. Twenty-four-year-old Rostislav Klesla still managed a career-high 17 points despite an injury-riddled season that held him to 47 games, and Ron Hainsey was claimed off waivers from Montreal in November and posted 17 points with a +7 rating in 48 games.
In net, there were high hopes for 30-year-old Martin Prusek who was signed as a free agent from the Ottawa Senators where he posted a career 28-9-4 record. But it appeared that perhaps Prusek’s impressive career record was owed almost entirely to the Senators’ all-star-packed lineup as Czech-born netminder was 3-3 with a 3.22 goals-against-average in only nine appearances before being relegated to the AHL.
Veteran starter Marc Denis’ career record is still taking a beating as he posted his fifth consecutive losing season (don’t worry, Marc, Ken Wregget has a beer waiting for you at the Mangy Moose Saloon). Denis’ 19-24 record with a 3.23 goals-against-average must have management and fans alike wondering if he is, in fact, the future of the franchise in goal. Rookie Pascal Leclaire didn’t fare much better going 10-13-3 with a 3.28 goals-against-average, but posted a team-leading .910 save percentage.
The Blue Jackets’ long awaited 2005-06 season was a wash. While their total team offense improved from 2003-04, it still failed to set a franchise high and their goals allowed could become an all-time team worst. They enter the off-season having posted their fourth consecutive 40-loss record and have still not made the playoffs in their first five NHL seasons. While a starting lineup featuring names like Rich Nash, Sergei Fedorov, Bryan Berard and Adam Foote may seem impressive, the fact that those four standout players have combined to miss 30% of the Blue Jackets’ season is cause for concern. Can Nash really bond with Vyborny and Zherdev to form an unstoppable first line? Were the additions of injury-plagued veterans Fedorov, Berard and Foote too little, too late? And who will emerge as the Jackets’ starting goalie, one who can finally backstop them to a playoff berth? Columbus’ management has a lot more to think about this summer than tee times.

well atleast we had one positive this year...after reading that apparently not one...

[jimotis4heisman]

dougie is having an online chat tonight at 7pm. http://bluejackets.com/ youll find all the stuff there

upperdeck had an all time team. rick nash was named the greatest blue jacket of all time.




syracuse lost last night in ot to end their season.