Zherdev and Rick Nash combine to form one of the most dynamic young scoring duos in the NHL.

Blue Jackets primed
to make a move
By Phil Coffey | NHL.com
Sept. 9, 2005

The Columbus Blue Jackets are looking at some harsh numbers entering the 2005-06 season. The Blue Jackets finished 2003-04 with a 25-45-8-4 record, 62 points, and no berth in the Stanley Cup playoffs. The eighth and final seed in the Western Conference was Nashville, and the Predators had 91 points -- 29 more than the Jackets.

That's a lot of ground to make up, but the Blue Jackets are a confident lot -- confident in the quantity and quality of their off-season acquisitions, and confident in the quantity and quality of players already on the roster who should be ready to make a significant leap forward.

Rick Nash and Nikolai Zhredev are regarded as two of the top young forwards in the game today, and they're the building blocks for this franchise. Nash is already an NHL trophy winner; he shared the Rocket Richard Trophy for most goals in a season with Calgary's Jarome Iginla and Atlanta's Ilya Kovalchuk after all three scored 41 goals in 2003-04. The sky is the limit for Nash, a big, strong power forward.

Defenseman Rostislav Klesla, the team's first-ever draft pick in 2000, now has plenty of NHL experience and should become the cornerstone of the defense.

The Blue Jackets also have some quality and quantity in goal with Marc Denis, newcomer Martin Prusek, and 2001 first-rounder Pascal Leclaire.

But will it be enough? With so much movement in the NHL this summer, the pecking order has shifted -- but to what extent, no one seems to know. Writing off a team that boasts the likes of Nash, Zhredev, and Denis would be a mistake. But it also would be a mistake for the Blue Jackets to think that their off-season moves guarantee a playoff berth. It's going to take a lot of sweat equity to make that goal a reality, but Columbus has the balance to make it happen.

Forwards

Let's start with Nash, a 6-foot-3, 200-pounder who has shown improvement in both his NHL seasons. As a rookie, Nash scored 17 goals and 22 assists in 74 games. In 2003-04, Nash improved to 41 goals and 16 assists in 80 games. During the lockout, he played in Davos, Switzerland, scoring 27 goals and 20 assists in 44 games.

At 19, Nash became the youngest player in NHL history to lead the league in goals and the first teenager since Edmonton's Jimmy Carson in 1987-88 to score 40 goals in a season. He also led the NHL in power play goals with 19, ranked 12th in game-winning goals with seven, and appeared in his first All-Star Game Nash then proved his mettle on the international level. At the 2005 World Championships, he helped Team Canada capture the silver medal as he scored nine goals and six assists in nine games. He led all scorers in goals, ranked second in points, and was named to the All-Tournament Team.

That's called being the real deal, folks.

Zhredev, Columbus' first-round pick (fourth overall) in 2003, joined the team in early December 2003 after questions about his eligibility were solved in the Blue Jackets' favor. Over the remaining 57 games of the season, Zhredev scored 13 goals and 21 assists. He tied for third on the team in goals and was third in assists and power-play goals with five.

Using the two offensive-minded youngsters on the same line makes a world of sense. So did the signing of veteran center Jan Hrdina, who may well be the playmaker that puts the kids in a position to do a lot of damage. Hrdina split the 2003-04 season between Phoenix and New Jersey. With the Coyotes, Hrdina scored 11 goals and 15 assists in 55 games, while with the Devils, he netted a goal and six assists in 13 games.

Sticking with the Columbus center corps, 2005-06 could be the breakout season long expected for Manny Malhotra. A former first-round pick of the New York Rangers, Malhotra got very limited ice time in New York, and that set his development back. He started to come into his own after a trade from Dallas, where he was scoreless in nine games, to Columbus, where he netted 12 goals and 13 assists in 56 games.

The Blue Jackets need to see better production from Todd Marchant. Signed as a free agent from Edmonton after he scored 20 goals and 40 assists in 72 games in 2002-03, Marchant dropped to nine goals and 25 assists in 77 games with the Blue Jackets in 2003-04.

Tyler Wright figures to be the fourth-line center. The veteran scored nine goals and nine assists in 68 games in 2003-04 after scoring 19 goals and 11 assists in 2002-03.

A couple other names to consider in the mix at center are Dan Fritsche, who is coming out of the junior ranks, and Gilbert Brule, Columbus' first-round pick in 2005, who may be closer to an NHL job than most first-round selections this year.

Geoff Sanderson had 29 points in 67 games with Columbus in 2003-04.

After Nash on the left side is veteran Geoff Sanderson. In 67 games with Columbus in 2003-04, Sanderson scored 13 goals and 16 assists. He was traded to the Vancouver Canucks at the trade deadline and scored three goals and four assists in 13 games with the Canucks, but re-signed with the Blue Jackets. Tough guy Jody Shelley had three goals and three assists in 76 games in 2003-04 and also picked up 228 penalty minutes.

On the right side, David Vyborny is coming off an excellent 2003-04 season, in which he scored 22 goals and added 31 assists in 82 games. He will be a linchpin to the team's success this season. Also factor in Trevor Letowski for a good chunk of minutes this season. In 2003-04, Letowski scored 15 goals and 17 assists in 73 games.

Defense

The Blue Jackets made a couple significant additions to the defense during the summer.

Most notable was veteran Adam Foote, a member of both of the Colorado Avalanche's Stanley Cup championship teams. Big, strong, and mean, Foote commands plenty of respect in front of his net and should log lots of minutes, which will be a comfort to the goaltenders. Foote's value is in preventing goals, not scoring them, but he still posted good offensive numbers in 2003-04 with the Avalanche, scoring eight goals and 22 assists in 73 games. If anyone doubted how serious the Blue Jackets were about contending this season, signing Foote was proof positive that GM Doug MacLean is deadly serious about winning.

A second serious sign was adding Bryan Berard as a free agent from the Chicago Blackhawks. In 58 games with the Hawks in 2003-04, Berard scored 13 goals and 34 assists, so the acumen Foote brings on the defensive end of things is balanced by Berard's ability to move the puck and add some offense from the backline.

The Blue Jackets need a big season from Klesla. He has suffered from the same growing pains that have dogged the team as a whole, namely being young and learning to play a man's game. But for the Blue Jackets to move to the next level, Klesla has to help take them there. He has considerable potential, and with three NHL seasons under his belt, the time has come to put that experience and maturity on display and become a reliable veteran.

That's the status enjoyed by Luke Richardson. Not a big scorer, as evidenced by his one goal and five assists in 64 games in 2003-04, Richardson is the classic defensive defenseman, clearing the front of the Columbus net of wayward pucks and wayward opponents. It's a job he has done for a long time and he should continue on in much the same vein this season.

Acquired from the Phoenix Coyotes last summer, Radoslav Suchy brings size -- 6-foot-2, 196 pounds -- and experience to the Columbus backline. He had seven goals and 14 assists in 82 games in 2003-04 and has 372 NHL games under his belt entering the 2005-06 season. Duvie Westcott had seven assists in 34 games in 2003-04 and figures to earn his share of minutes in the Columbus defensive rotation. He is a stay-at-home defenseman. Also coming aboard for the Blue Jackets is Francois Beauchemin, who has been a solid AHL defenseman over the last four seasons. He was signed as a free agent.

Goaltending

In his fourth full season with the Blue Jackets in 2003-04, Marc Denis dropped his goals-against average considerably, from 3.09 in 2003-03 to 2.56. However, his victories decreased as well, falling from 27 to 21 over the same period, so go figure.

You don't have to figure that Denis will see a fifth season with lots of minutes. In 66 games in 2003-04, Denis posted a 21-36-7 record with the aforementioned 2.56 GAA and five shutouts. The previous season saw Denis go 27-41-8 in 77 appearances and break Martin Brodeur's record for minutes played in a season with 4,511. His minutes totals in 2003-04 was a more humane 3,796, but you don't need a calculator to figure out from these stats that Denis is the man in goal for the Blue Jackets.

In picking up Martin Prusek from Ottawa, the Blue Jackets added a quality goaltender who should take some of the burden off Denis' shoulders.

Prusek had his first sustained stretch of NHL play in 2003-04 with the Senators, posting a 16-6-3 record and 2.12 goals-against average in 29 appearances. He provides the Blue Jackets with a backup who can step in and not only win a game, but play in a stretch of games without a dramatic drop-off in quality.

Prusek's presence also allows Columbus to avoid rushing Leclaire, the team's top pick in the 2001 Entry Draft. Leclaire played for Syracuse in the AHL in 2004-05. In 14 appearances he was 5-6-3 with a 2.34 goals-against average.

Outlook

Here is the dilemma for the Blue Jackets. There are eight playoff berths in the Western Conference and plenty of contenders for those spots. Of the teams that qualified in 2003-04 -- Detroit, San Jose, Vancouver, Colorado, Dallas, Calgary, St. Louis and Nashville -- none figures to undergo a serious dropoff in 2005-06. The other Western Conference teams -- Edmonton, Minnesota, Los Angeles, Anaheim, Phoenix and Chicago -- all look improved, too.

That's some tough math and a sobering notion for a team that has made some solid moves in quest of its first playoff berth. And it also serves as a tremendous motivating factor, since the Blue Jackets know right from the get-go that a night off here and a night off there will have a devastating impact on their playoff hopes.

The keys for success here are the same as for any contending team -- solid goaltending, timely offense, competent defense, and avoiding injuries. In addition, players like Nash and Zhredev will need to continue to learn the ins and outs of the NHL while also producing at a high level. It's a lot to ask, but MacLean knows a thing or two about an underdog enjoying a surprising season. Remember, he coached the upstart Florida Panthers to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1996.