Prospective Look at Columbus

Well, there's still a lot of work to be done to get the Columbus Blue Jackets into the playoffs for the first time in their franchise history. They aren't a team that even is looked to for players to pick in your pool's draft either, besides Rick Nash, of course. GM Scott Howson finished his first full season and made some pretty substantial moves, but he'll have to make even bigger moves this summer to make the team more competitive.

Columbus does hold the number six pick in this summer's Entry Draft, which gives them good standing to improve their already young, but talented blueline. On TSN's midseason scouting report for the Draft, the number six spot belonged to Danish forward Mikael Boedker, who plays for the Kitchener Rangers. The Jackets will need to add a lot of pieces, so another forward certainly won't hurt the team, but they will likely look to add someone who can jump in right away into the Ken Hitchcock system. Likely a big defender, like Kelowna Rockets defenseman Luke Schenn.

The Jackets have 14 regulars signed (well, 12 regulars and 2 more potentials) for next season at a very reasonable cost of $23.2 million. They have plenty of names that they have to visit this summer from their own roster and then they should have plenty of opportunity to look elsewhere, but unfortunately, the team generally operates on a team-levvied budget.

Forwards	Defense	Goaltenders
Rick Nash	Rostislav Klesla	Fredrik Norrena
Nikolai Zherdev	Kris Russell
Jason Chimera	Duvie Westcott
Manny Malhotra
Jiri Novotny
Fredrik Modin
Jared Boll
Gilbert Brule
Ole-Kristian Tollefsen
Derrek Brassard

The first name that comes to mind when we talk about visiting current players on the roster is Pascal Leclaire. Leclaire won 24 games and registered 9 shutouts for the team, which was one hell of a season, by Columbus standards. Leclaire actually gave the team some hope at the beginning of the season when he was unstoppable. His relative market value should be around $3.5 million, but he'll be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights. The best thing the team can do is lock him up for around his market value and if he can put up some bigger numbers, he'll be a pretty good bargain.

On the unrestricted end of the boat, Ron Hainsey will be the most important name to not let get away. He was the team's best defenseman and he has the potential to be a little bit better with help. He will also be in the range of $3 million for next season, thanks to market positioning. If Hainsey is to make it to the open market, he may even see close to $4 million from one of the bigger clubs.

If the Blue Jackets can increase their budget for their team, they could definitely play in the restricted free agent offer sheet game, which would be an interesting card to play. There would be a few that would fit in quite well, as Nash will need a solid number one centre who can get the puck to the prolific scorer. That would be a huge start to their off-season.