Centers Wanted

"SW LW seeks like-minded young C to assist him. C should be fast, patient and willing to do a lot of the heavy lifting as it relates to moving us forward. High instability, nothing is guaranteed. Must not care about having a night life."

Seriously... why doesn't anyone want to center Rick Nash? I would kill for that job. I think I could have 40 assists playing with this guy. He's a force. But every offseason Columbus goes out in an attempt to fill that spot and every offseason we end up wondering who is going to put the puck on the enigmatic 24 year old's stick.

The Columbus Blue Jackets

The Blue Jackets gave up on the Zherdev project and added two new ones.

R.J. Umberger, a first round draft pick in 2001, is presumptively going to get the first shot at centering Mr. Nash. This actually a promising acquisition for Columbus. Umberger never quite lived up to his potential in Philadelphia, but Philadelphia was and remains notoriously deep at center, and his ice time suffered as a result. Still, last season, Umberger finished with 13 goals and 37 assists. If Umberger spends the season with Nash I expect those numbers to go up significantly, as should his powerplay output. But since his value is so far tied up in his line mates I don't think Umberger is worth much, even as a sleeper. He's someone to watch early on in the season, and to pay attention to in training camp.

The other big acquisition for the Blue Jackets was Kristian "Horton Hears a" Huselius. And before you ask... yes I desperately wanted Huselius to end up back in Florida this year so that joke would have worked better. Huselius has had the two best seasons of his career in the past two years, scoring 77 and 66 points respectively. Its not that I don't like Huselius... its just that I... don't like him. I wouldn't expect this move to increase his fantasy value. I would expect his +/- to dip back into the negative, and for his point totals to go down to the low 60's. He benefited from having the spotlight off of him in Calgary while still getting to play on the powerplay with Jarome Iginla. Nash is good, but he's no Iginla, and the defense here is nothing compared to Calgary's.

It DID get better though. Mike Commodore is a very good stay at home defenseman and should help the team win some tighter games. Backman... well having watched him last season I don't believe he's much of anything. Tyutin though will help on the point at the powerplay and was developing into a decent defensive d-man towards the end of last season. None of these defenseman will make up for the offensive output lost with the departure of Hainsey, but they will improve the team defensively. That should help Leclaire's already sterling numbers, assuming Leclaire can stay healthy.

So...defensively improved, offensively treading water. Another long season for Blue Jackets fans and Pacal Leclaire is in the forecast.