Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Taking a Blue Jacket to the Beech

The Columbus Blue Jackets added yet another centre to their line-up in Kris Beech, who I thought was one of the better Free Agents left, for depth. Beech jumps into the chart as the third centre, where his point production was better than Malhotra's and Svitov's and he could actually be a good fit for Gilbert Brule and/or Jason Chimera. Beech signed a 1-year deal on Tuesday, for one, depth and two, more salary to count towards the minimum.

Rick NashSergei FedorovDavid Vyborny
Fredrik ModinDan FritscheNikolai Zherdev
Jason ChimeraKris Beech
Gilbert Brule
Jiri NovotnyManny MalhotraJody Shelley

Alexander Svitov
Ron HainseyRostislav Klesla
Adam FooteDuvie Westcott
Jan HejdaOle-Kristian Tollefsen
Fredrik Norrena
Pascal Leclaire

It's unknown how much Beech will make, but it should be in the $1 million range, which solidifies their position above the minimum amount for the salary cap. It should be rounded up to around $38 million, which is pretty safe. Beech should be a good fit for the Blue Jackets, certainly not making them playoff worthy right away, but I would imagine he'll get a good look at the end of the year for re-signing.

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