Player in, player out
Kekalainen said he didn’t expect the NHL Draft to have an impact on the Blue Jackets’ plans in free agency. But then Fantilli fell into their laps at No. 3 when Anaheim bucked convention and drafted center
Leo Carlsson with the No. 2 pick.
Now, with Fantilli in the fold, the Blue Jackets have 17 forwards who are either expected to have regular lineup spots or have one-way contracts. The standard practice in the NHL is to carry 13 or 14 forwards during the regular season.
The back end is crowded, too. There are eight defensemen with one-way contracts, plus rookie David Jiricek, who is expected to challenge for a roster spot after a strong first pro season with AHL Cleveland this past season.
With that as the backdrop, the Blue Jackets are expected to tread lightly on Saturday when free agency opens across the league.
“This could make our decisions a little bit harder now that we feel we’re going to get a roster player (in Fantilli) for next season,” Kekalainen said. “We already have quite a big number of them. You can only have 23 on your roster, so we’re probably going to have to do something if we get into the UFA market.”
The Blue Jackets were expected to pursue a center, either via free agency of the trade market. It could still happen, of course, but the Jackets’ depth chart down the middle now includes six NHL candidates:
Boone Jenner,
Jack Roslovic, Cole Sillinger,
Sean Kuraly, Dmitry Voronkov and Fantilli.
It’s easy to move a center to the wing, but the Blue Jackets have an abundance of wingers, too.
Johnny Gaudreau,
Kent Johnson and Alexandre Texier will battle for top-six minutes on the left side, and
Patrik Laine,
Kirill Marchenko and Yegor Chinakhov are on the mix on the right side.