Blue Jackets Make Moves

Kevin Shattenkirk won't have to travel far to report to his new team. The Ottawa Senators traded him to the Columbus Blue Jackets yesterday and will face them in Columbus tonight at Nationwide Arena. The trade in exchange for prospect Aleksi Heimosalmi and some AHL help for the Belleville Senators amounts to the end of a failed experiment for the Senators. Shattenkirk signed a three year contract as an unrestricted free agent this offseason to a team fresh off making the Lemieux Conference Finals but now find themselves near the bottom of the standings and moving out veterans for a youth movement. When asked about the trade Shattenkirk said "I'm happy to be back in a playoff race, I had a lot of team success early in my EHE career with Dallas and Colorado and then I had to wait four years to make the playoffs again. I'm not ready to go back to an early golf season."

The move came on the heels of a blockbuster trade with the Kings last week that sent Ryan Johansen and Colton Parayko to the Blue Jackets in exchange for Max Domi and a duo of young players in Logan Brown and Tyler Madden as well as a 2022 draft pick. Both trades signal a change in direction for the rebuilding Blue Jackets. They find themselves unexpectedly in a playoff race in the very tough Metro Division thanks in large part to outstanding goaltending from Matt Murray and Chris Driedger. Jackets GM Andrew Payeur has spent the past year building up an outstanding prospect pool and a treasure trove of draft picks in 2022 and its clear he wants to use that capital to bring in impact players now, rather than wait for them to develop natually over time. Its also clear that Payeur is in not looking for pure rentals but rather players still under multi year contracts. Expectations are that the team will Franchise tag pending UFA Johansen prior to the trade deadline while Parayko still has multiple years under contract beyong this one. Likewise, Shattenkirk remains under contract until 2024.

The Kings trade seems to be paying off immediate dividends as the team recently went on a 5 game winning streak thanks in large part to 6 points from Johansen and steady play from stalwart defenceman Parayko. The team hopes for a similar run once they can get Shattenkirk into the lineup and continue a push to make the playoffs after missing out last season by a single point.