The Columbus Blue Jackets Added Goaltending Depth as They Look to Build On Last Year’s Progress
Just before the opening of training camp, the Columbus Blue Jackets pull off a trade for a backup goalie. Jay Foster of Locked on Blue Jackets is here to tell us what it means and what to expect from the Blue Jackets this year next on today’s Locked On NHL podcast. You’re Locked on NHL, your daily podcast on the National Hockey League, part of the Locked On podcast network. your team every day. Gil Martin here. Welcome everybody to the Monday edition of the Locked On NHL podcast. We are part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. I want to thank everyone who makes Locked on NHL your first listen every day. Don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts so you never miss an episode. It is my pleasure to welcome back to the show the host of Locked on Blue Jackets, Jay Foster. And uh Jay, big trade over the weekend for the Blue Jackets. Kind of surprised me a little bit. Uh Ivan Fedatov coming over to Columbus. Talk to me about your initial reaction to this deal. Uh I also was pretty surprised by this trade. Um I’d literally just finished recording something else, flipped over to social media and they were like, “Hey, Columbus is getting a goalie.” I was like, I guess so. Um, this is I wouldn’t call it a big trade necessarily. It’s not going to move the needle. It’s not going to, you know, change a lot of things, I don’t think. But what it does do um is give the Blue Jackets a little bit more depth um further down the lineup, but is not going to challenge for one of the f one of the the NHL spots. He’s going to be the third goalie. um he is gonna have to go through waiverss to get to the AHL, but my guess is and I think Donell’s guess is no one’s gonna want to take on that $3.2 million capit if they try, you know, they’ll sneak him through waiverss, he’ll play in the AHL, he’ll be fine. Um this is an extremely reasonable depth move that they they got him for a sixth round pick. This is extremely low risk and there is potential for you know I wouldn’t say high reward but definitely kind of mediumish reward if succeeds in the AHL. So Fedotov starts the season in the AHL. Where do you see him down the line? Is there a chance he eventually steps up if they trade Elvis or if they uh make some kind of a move, you know, in goal? What does that mean? I mean maybe. And like there’s all this goalending makes no sense sometime, you know, goalending is nonsense. There’s no way to sit here and predict that, you know, it’s going to be Elvis and Jet by the end of the season. Um, you know, like Elvis’s contract is potentially untradeable, but with the cap explosion, um, and all it really takes is wanting to really need a goalie and Elvis to have a not terrible year that suddenly Elvis’s contract doesn’t look quite as bad as as it looked a couple of years ago. He’s going to be a UFA at the end of I believe not next offseason but the offseason after that. So I believe his contract is up in 2027. Um so if you can follow that cap hit for you know the next season and a half or whatever. You know there’s a world where he does get traded potentially for comes up but I I don’t see him getting significant NHL time this season and he’s a UFA at the end of the year as well. So like you know worst case scenario is that he doesn’t pan out in Columbus. They let him walk at the end of the year. You know there there’s an option where you know I’m going to knock on wood here because curses. Um a goalie gets injured. Elvis misses a lot of time because of injury because of illness. Elvis struggles a lot with fatigue. Um which is probably because the team overplays him. But you know we’ll see if that gets fixed this this off this this season. Um, you know, so there’s room for Fedotov to get some NHL starts, but I don’t think he’s going to be a significant extended NHL presence unless something goes wrong with one of the one of the two goalies that they have currently. Was an interesting off season. Not not the biggest headline making off season. Talk to me about the moves and your feelings about them. I mean, here’s the thing. Would I have likedell to go out and get Mitch Mana and pay him a bajillion dollars until the end of time? Sure. Would I have liked him to go out and get someone like a Nick Elilas um or you know try to get a Vaslav Gabriov or an Aaron Eblad or you know someone like that to to add to this to to this roster. Sure. But the thing about the Blue Jacket is they are very clearly betting on their homegrown guys and their guys that are already here, right? They’re betting on Adam Fantily getting better. They’re betting on Carachenko being one of the best wings in in the in the league and he was he was top 15 in scoring for wingers last season. You know, he had 31 goals. Adam Fantelli might score 40 goals this season. Um they’re looking at Kent Johnson to improve. They’re looking at Zachki to continue being good, right? So, I can understand the organization betting on themselves and not bringing in an outside piece. That doesn’t make it not disappointing from a fan’s point of view when, you know, you’re looking at, well, we’ve been told that, you know, we want an impact top six winger and we want a new defense. We’re going to reach all the defense. I’m going to get a new goalie and then it turns out that actually the biggest acquisition is, you know, Charlie Coyle. Um, who, you know, they arguably overpaid for. I like Charlie Coyle. I do think that trade was was extremely lopsided and not in the Blue Jacket’s favor. Um, but I think the sometimes the best move is the one that you don’t make, right? Um, I think and you know what I I wasn’t going to call any specific contract out. Um, you know, but I think you know the prop contract is bad. There’s there’s no there’s no doubt about that. Um, but I think someone like you know I think the Sam Bennett contract is probably going to age pretty poorly, you know. Um, so again, sometimes the best move is the one that you don’t make. Arguably, they shouldn’t have made the Prov move. Arguably, Florida shouldn’t have made the Bennett move, right? So, it’s I I would rather them be a little bit more conservative with their movement, especially when you consider how much money they’re going to have to hand out to guys like Fantily, Johnson, Marenko in, you know, as soon as next off season. that I’m I’m actually kind of okay with them not handing out a bajillion dollars to someone this summer to try and speed up the rebuild because that’s what got it off the rails last time is they tried to speed it up and it went horribly wrong. Talk to me about Coyle. I’ve always been a Charlie Coyle fan. One of those guys who quietly does his job and does it well. Yeah, he’s not going to move the needle, right? He’s not going to come in and be a a game-changing player, but I think what you’re going to get with Coyle is that you’re going to get someone that can play pretty comfortably in the middle six. Um there is a void at the minute in on that second line of I don’t know who’s going to play on Adam Fantelli’s other wing with Ken Johnson. I don’t think it’ll be Coyle, but there is the opportunity for that, right? Um he plays center. He plays it well. Decent faceoff guy. Um decent penalty kill guy. Like again, like like you said, he just kind of quietly goes about and does his job well. Um, and I think that that’s there’s something to be said for just kind of quiet competence, right, in in this league. He like I said, not fancy, but you need guys like Coyle to win. and he’s got a a I think he might now have the most um he might be the most playoff like he might have the most playoff games of anyone on the Blue Jackets roster if I’m not forgetting someone vital which I might be but my guess is that Coyle probably has the most playoff games of anyone on the Blue Jackets roster right now. Talk to me about some of those homegrown prospects who the team is looking at who may be able to contribute something this year. I mean, if if we for prospects, we we’ll take guys like Fantelli out of the out of the equation. He’s two years into his NHL career, which feels insane to say. Um, but, you know, there’s there’s guys like Luca Delaloo, who was called up when Shawn Monahan was injured last year, and I think had eight points in 11 NHL games as a 20-year-old. Um, former second round pick. Um, just has has that energy of wants to make it, so is going to make it. wouldn’t be surprised to see him contributing to to the NHL this season. Um, another Luca, Luca Penelli, uh, far and away the best Blue Jacket player at the prospect tournament that’s happening. Um, will be done by the time everyone listens to this, but uh, we’re recording this just before the third of three games and he’s got six points in his first no, five or six points in his first two games, right? Um, again, just a guy that shouldn’t really amount to anything based on where he was drafted. And, you know, he’s he’s 5’9 and was drafted in the fourth round. Like, it makes no sense that he would make it as an NHL player, but he’s decided that he’s going to make it and he succeeds at every level that um that he reaches. So, he’s he’s a really exciting one as well. um guys that are not at the prospect tournament that just happened. You know, you’ve got guys like Jackson Smith uh who just started his season in the NCAA. You got Kaden Lindstöm who is finally healthy after basically an entire year of um missing time due to back surgery. If all of these guys click and all of these guys hit in two to three years, Columbus is going to be an extremely young and extremely scary team, which is a lot of fun if they all hit. the big if, you know, but something to look forward to for Blue Jackets fans, no doubt. Jay, why don’t you tell our viewers and our listeners where they could find the podcast and where they could find you on social media. So, you can find the podcast wherever you listen to Lock on NHL. We are on YouTube. We’re on basically every podcasting app you can think of. Um, you can find me on Blue Sky Jakob Fo R. You can find the show, the podcast on Twitter still at Lo Bluejacket. and I don’t post from it often enough, but you can also find L-Blue Jackets over on Blue Sky as well. All right, Jay, thanks so much. Thanks for having me. Today’s episode is brought to you by your friends at FanDuel. The NFL season is here and FanDuel is making sure you’re ready for kickoff with a can’tmiss offer. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your first bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. That’s $300 in bonus bets to use across the app if your first $5 bet wins. I love using FanDuel because it fits however you like to bet. You like player props, maybe putting together a same game parlay to win even bigger, or even jumping in live as the action unfolds, FanDuel has it all for you. So, are you ready to play? Download the FanDuel app now by visiting fanduel.com to get started. That’s fanduel.com to get started. And if your first $5 bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets. fanduel.com. Check it out today.
The Columbus Blue Jackets have acquire goalie Ivan Fedotov to add goaltending depth before the start of training camp.
Jay Forster of Locked On Blue Jackets joins us to discuss how Fedotov fits in with the organization and what it will take for Adam Fantilli, Zach Werenski and company need to do to take a step forward and return to the playoffs this season.
All this and more on today’s Locked On NHL Podcast with Gil Martin.
Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!
IndeedNow, you can speed up your hiring process with a $75 Sponsored Job Credit. Just go to https://indeed.com/lockedonright now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply.
Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNHL at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnhl for 50% off your first year.
FanDuelDownload the FanDuel app now by visiting FanDuel.com and win $300 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins.
FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)
Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…
🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LONHL?sid=YouTube
Locked On NHL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Prospects & More
🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNHL
Follow Locked On NHL on Social
Twitter https://bit.ly/3hXyu5w
Facebook https://bit.ly/3BubZNc
#NHL #Hockey #columbusbluejackets