Jackets Looking to Improve

The Blue Jackets finally made the playoffs last season and are now in the process of improving the team that got them there, just so they can hang around longer than four games. With the signings of Sami Pahlsson and Mathieu Garon, there was some improvements made to the team for the long run. Pahlsson now gives the Jackets a top quality defensive centre that can help shutdown the offense from the rival Central Division teams. Garon should provide Steve Mason with some adequate rest as a good back-up.

Forwards	Defense	Goaltenders
Rick Nash	Fedor Tyutin	Steve Mason
Kristian Huselius	Mike Commodore	Mathieu Garon
R.J. Umberger	Jan Hejda
Antoine Vermette	Kris Russell
Jakub Voracek	Rostislav Klesla
Derrick Brassard
Fredrik Modin
Jason Chimera
Raffi Torres
Samuel Pahlsson
Jared Boll
Andrew Murray
Derek Dorsett
Nikita Filatov

The Blue Jackets and their cap situation is still exceptionally good, but just for this season. Rick Nash has signed his brand new extension, which should put a big dent in the cap hit next season, but that's still a year away, so we won't worry about that right now. For this season, the Jackets have 21 players signed on at a salary cap hit of $46.4 million, which is well below the cap ceiling for the year. If you noticed, I did include Nikita Filatov on the roster, despite only playing in eight games for the Jackets last season, but I believe his inclusion is all but certain for the 2010 season.

Still to be re-signed on their RFA list include Jiri Novotny, Alex Picard, Mark Methot and Ole-Kristian Tollefsen.