Blue Jackets Season Preview
2018-11-23Never one to stand pat, Blue Jackets GM Andrew Payeur made a major change to his club meer days before the regular season kicks off, sending young forwards Matthew Tkachuk and Danton Heinen along with veteran defencemen Tyson Barrie and Ben Lovejoy to the Boston Bruins in exchange for the best defenceman in the game: Erik Karlsson, as well as forward Alex Galchenyuk. The move reinforces what is undoubtedly the deepest defence unit in the EHE, boasting Karlsson, Shea Weber, Ivan Provorov and Dougie Hamilton. Payeur said at Karlsson's introductory press conference that any one of the Blue Jackets top four defenceman could be a number one guy on most other teams. Karlsson spoke with reporters and mentioned that losing the the Stanley Cup finals last season was a huge disapointment for him but that he thinks the Blue Jackets will give him his best opportunity to chase a cup in the forseeable future. Karlsson also spoke with great admiration for Payeur, saying he hopes they can become best friends and hang out all the time in a totally normal, non obsessive, non creepy way.
Not to be outdone by the defence, Payeur has also put together a deep forward group that goes three lines deep with excellent skill, skating and playmaking. The unit is lead down the middle with Evgeni Kuznetsov and Dylan Larkin who will be flanked by great shooters in Evander Kane and Jason Zucker as well as great playmakers like Jordan Eberle and the newly acquired Galchenyuk.
Fans are entering the season with a mindset of "Stanley Cup or bust" and Payeur agrees with them. Through less than two seasons as GM, Payeur has stayed patient and waited for perfect opportunities to improve his club, maintaning an eye on the future. That future has finally arrived and the sky is the limit for what this team can accomplish.
Expected opening night lineup:
Evander Kane - Evgeni Kuznetsov - Jordan Eberle
Alex Galchenyuk - Dylan Larkin - Jason Zucker
Alex Killorn - Travis Zajac - Anthony Mantha
Benoit Pouliot - Mark Letestu - Josh Jooris
Erik Karlsson - Shea Weber
Ivan Provorov - Dougie Hamilton
Brayden McNabb - Mark Barberio
Mike Smith
Robin Lehner