Jackets Claim Moreau

One player from yesterday's crop of players placed on unconditional waivers did not clear by Noon today and that was Ethan Moreau, who was claimed by the Columbus Blue Jackets from the Edmonton Oilers.  Moreau was deemed good enough to be a depth player in Columbus and now the Jackets will take on the last year of his deal that comes with a $2 million cap hit for 2011.  The 34-year old winger was going to be bought out by the Oilers if he was to have cleared waivers on Wednesday, but instead of negotiating a new deal with the Jackets when he became a free agent, the Jackets decided that they would save themselves the trouble and snag him off the market.

In 2010 with the Oilers, Moreau played in 76 games, scoring 9 goals and adding 9 assists.  That ranked him 280th among forwards, but he is now considered to be more of a checking forward with leadership qualities, so there isn't too much fantasy value in him now.

The addition of Moreau now brings the Blue Jackets totals up again and they are nearly at capacity, by my count today. I have the Jackets sitting at 20 players signed on for next season, the highest total of committed players in the league, according to my judgement, at a salary cap hit of $51.3 million, which currently ranks 5th. Of course, these rankings will change in a hurry, but the Blue Jackets are doing well to remove much doubt from their roster as early as possible.

The addition of Moreau is somewhat curious, especially since the Blue Jackets have a couple pure-checking forwards as it is in Chris Clark and Sami Pahlsson. I suppose if you were to look at it, the three would form a very veteran savvy group of checkers, good enough for a lot of penalty kill time and defensive zone assignments.  It will be interesting to see how this group is shaped together when the pre-season starts.