The Rebuild Continues

As the final practice of training camp comes to an end, Blue Jackets General ManagerAndrew Payeur looks on at the rag-tag group he's assembled for the coming season. The lineup is a far cry from the cup favorite teams of years past, or as Payeur would describe them “the disappointments”. Disappointment is one thing this year’s team cannot be described, as the expectations for the 2021-22 season are rock bottom as the Blue Jackets find themselves in the dark depressing stages of a full rebuild. Most prognosticators thought that last season would be the lowest of lows for the Jackets retool but a surprising playoff run in the second half of the season surprised all and found the team missing the playoffs on the final night of the regular season as the odd man out of a three-way tie with the Bruins and Islanders for the 7^th and 8^th playoff spots. The run was lead by goaltender Ryan Murray and Derek Ryan (who was thrust into the top center role after a midseason trade of Evgeny Kuznetsov) and Payeur believes that the positive Karma derived from that run and not giving up after the trade deadline resulted in some good fortune come the EHE entry draft. Rather than choosing in the top 5 like many expected after a putrid start to the season, the team found itself with the 15^th overall selection where it was able to select center Cole Sillinger after he fell several selections below where many experts had him ranked. Sillinger appears to be a home run pick who could be the future of a new young core of stars. Beyond that first pick, the Jackets lead by Head Scout Doc McStuffins selected 10 players of which 5 would go on to be selected to their respective country’s World Junior Championship teams. There are rumours that the recently cancelled tournament hopes to reschedule for sometimes in the summer of 2022.

To begin the process of building the team back up into a playoff contender Payeur made a couple of trades, taking advantage of teams under pressure ahead of the Seattle Kraken expansion draft and acquired Max Domi and Danny Dekeyser. Rumours were flying around for most teams at the time, but local sources suggested Payeur was pursuing several other players at the time and was disappointed that he could not reel in a couple more big fish as trade demands remained high in the lead up to the expansion draft.

The team brought back Mikael Granlund to center the top line as a UFA. Granlund was traded from Columbus last offseason as part of the rebuild and enjoyed his best season in the EHE with the Ottawa Senators. Payeur hopes that he can find chemistry with fellow UFA signing Craig Smith who is also coming off a career best 47 points with the Los Angeles Kings.

Payeur is still looking to make moves to add players to his lineup who can contribute immediately and into the future, although most teams appear content with their lineups heading into the start of a long season and not looking to make any trades. Players like Dekeyser, Ryan, Devin Shore and Justin Schultz seem at first glance to be trade deadline fodder, but another unexpected run could force Payeur’s hand into keeping them to try and sneak into the playoffs. Anything can happen once you make the dance.