The Blue Jackets have seen a decline in their forward depth in recent weeks. Patrik Laine was traded to Montreal, and unfortunately, Johnny Gaudreau was tragically killed late last month. Additionally, GM Don Waddell informed reporters, including Brian Hedger from the Columbus Dispatch, that Justin Danforth will miss the start of training camp due to a hand/wrist injury.
Danforth suffered this injury late last season and had offseason surgery, but his recovery hasn’t gone as expected. He is due for a re-evaluation on Monday. The 31-year-old achieved a career-high with 10 goals and 16 assists in 71 games last season, playing both on the wing and center, proving to be a valuable role player. His status for the beginning of the season is now uncertain.
Waddell noted that the team currently has only 10 healthy regular forwards as they enter training camp. While players like Trey Fix-Wolansky, Gavin Brindley, James Malatesta, and free-agent Dylan Gambrell could step up, it seems likely the team will seek additional forwards.
Despite being nearly 3millionunderthe 65 million cap floor, Waddell indicated that they don’t plan to pursue trades but instead aim to sign one or two forwards before training camp, as reported by Aaron Portzline of The Athletic. These would be full-contract signings, not tryouts.
The pool of unrestricted free agents is somewhat limited, especially for those not associated with a team via a PTO. Among available options without tryouts are wingers like James van Riemsdyk, Mike Hoffman, Kyle Okposo, Blake Wheeler, and Phil Kessel, who still hopes to play after missing last season.
Though signing a few of these players would help, it may not be enough to reach the cap floor unless they overpay. Nonetheless, Waddell has been in discussions with the league and the NHLPA regarding this and isn’t currently worried about penalties for staying below the cap floor this season. For now, it looks like Columbus is set to make some signings in the coming days.
Leave a Reply