Jackets Sign Prospal

With some injury concerns already heading into the 2012 season, the Columbus Blue Jackets were proactive on Saturday afternoon, signing unrestricted free agent forward Vaclav Prospal to a new 1-year deal, worth $1.75 million (plus 35+ contract bonuses), which should help fill a top six spot and help their overall cap number for the year.

With Kristian Huselius scheduled to start the season on the Long-Term Injury Reserve, the Jackets needed a little bit more offensive flair and veteran leadership for the team and the addition of Prospal is likely to be a good one.

Prospal was hampered by a major knee injury to start the regular season with the Rangers, limiting his season to only the last 29 games of the year, scoring 9 goals and adding 14 assists for a very reasonable point production pace.  It's still rather unclear how the team will look when they hit the ice in October, but this addition does look good on them.

Forwards	Defense	Goalies
Jeff Carter	James Wisniewski	Steve Mason
Rick Nash	Fedor Tyutin
R.J. Umberger	Kris Russell
Antoine Vermette	Grant Clitsome
Derrick Brassard	Radek Martinek
Kristian Huselius	Marc Methot
Derek MacKenzie
Vaclav Prospal
Matt Calvert
Sami Pahlsson
Derek Dorsett
Jared Boll

The Jackets are a much different looking team after this off-season, with the additions of Carter, Wisniewski, Martinek and Prospal to the team table.  Once Huselius is able to return to the line-up in January, the Jackets may have themselves most of the pieces in place to make a good run at a playoff spot.

The Jackets are in pretty good shape against the salary cap, as they have squeezed in 19 players (12 forwards, including Huselius, six defensemen and a goalie) in with two buyouts for $56.7 million.  Of course, with Huselius looking to hit the LTIR, there will be some significant savings for lost time.  Since the team is in the middle of the ceiling and floor, there are no worries to be had about having any cap issues through the 2012 season.