CBJ2022: What the Blue Jackets roster might look like in a few years

The year is 2022. Covid-19 is a thing of the past (we hope). There will be flying cars (we hope).
Just one big question remains.
Who's on the roster for the Columbus Blue Jackets?

For the past few seasons, projecting the CBJ roster has been a pretty easy task. The Blue Jackets have mapped out a steady plan that has just about every key piece on the roster locked up through the next two seasons. Simply put, short of big trades or any further signings,
we pretty much know
who will comprise the majority of the team's roster in 2020-21 and 2021-22.
But things are different when we get to 2022-23. It sounds far away still, but in reality, that's just two years from now. And currently, looking at the team's roster, only three players who saw NHL ice time this past season have contracts that will have them signed into that campaign -- forwards Cam Atkinson (signed through 2024-25) and Gustav Nyquist (whose four-year contract will be in its final year that season) as well as defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov, who signed an extension through 2023-24 on Thursday.
In fact, here's a look at some key Blue Jackets players who will hit free agency, either restricted or unrestricted, after each of the following two seasons.
After 2020-21: Brandon Dubinsky (UFA), Nick Foligno (UFA), Riley Nash (UFA), Oliver Bjorkstrand (RFA), Mikko Koivu (UFA), Mikhail Grigorenko (UFA), Kevin Stenlund (RFA), David Savard (UFA), Alexandre Texier (RFA), Andrew Peeke (RFA).
After 2021-22: Max Domi (UFA), Boone Jenner (UFA), Eric Robinson (UFA), Nathan Gerbe (UFA), Emil Bemstrom (RFA), Liam Foudy (RFA), Seth Jones (UFA), Zach Werenski (RFA), Dean Kukan (UFA), Scott Harrington (UFA), Gabriel Carlsson (RFA), Joonas Korpisalo (UFA), Elvis Merzlikins (UFA)
In other words, general manager Jarmo Kekalainen and assistant GM Josh Flynn, who has taken over handling contracts after Bill Zito left for Florida, will have a lot of negotiations on their hands over the coming years.
So what will the CBJ roster look like come 2022-23 when you take your flying car to Nationwide Arena for a game? There remain a lot of question marks, and that also includes an expansion draft that will see one player headed to Seattle after next season.
Let's go position by position.
Forwards:Atkinson and Nyquist are currently the only forwards under contract past summer 2022, but the cupboard here isn't as bare as it seems.
For example, Pierre-Luc Dubois is currently a restricted free agent (as most CBJ fans know) and in the process of negotiating a new contract with Columbus. It remains to be seen what the term is, but it would likely lock him up past 2022, and either way, Columbus will retain his RFA rights.
The same can likely be said for Bjorkstrand, who is a restricted free agent after next season, but it seems the Blue Jackets will want to lock up the Danish sniper who is coming into his own as one of the league's top goal scorers. Inking Bjorkstrand to a long-term deal will be one of the key projects of next offseason, if not earlier.
The young trio of Texier, Bemstrom and Foudy also will remain under team control into 2022-23 (and well beyond), so even though all will reach RFA status over the coming two years, they remain key building blocks for the franchise who aren't going anywhere.
Such names as Stenlund, Kole Sherwood, Calvin Thurkauf, Trey Fix-Wolansky and Ryan MacInnis are all RFA-eligible players over the next two years who would remain under team control as well. In addition, 2018 second-round pick Kirill Marchenko, who has been playing on the top line of KHL power SKA St. Petersburg, will have completed his contract in his native Russia and is expected by many to head to Columbus to begin his NHL career in 2022-23. It also remains to be seen when 2020 first-round pick Yegor Chinakhov, whose contract with Avangard Omsk runs through this year, will come over as well.
In other words, while just two players are signed, there's a lot more to the CBJ depth chart two years down the road than it seems. But there are also some big pieces to the puzzle that are due to hit the open market over the next two years, a list on the forward side that includes Foligno, Domi, Jenner, Nash, Koivu, Grigorenko, Robinson and Gerbe as well as Zac Dalpe and Stefan Matteau.
Some of these players likely won't be back -- we also didn't include Dubinsky, whose contract will expire after this year and who is unlikely to return because of a continued wrist issue -- but others likely will end up signing new deals to keep themselves in union blue.
The good news is this provides the organization flexibility in a pandemic situation when the league remains unsure when revenues will return to normal. The bad news if you're a fan is nothing is set in stone until ink meets paper.
Defensemen: This is a spot to which Blue Jackets fans will likely turn a lot of their energy, as the team's two standout blueliners in Jones and Werenski both will see their contracts expire at the end of the 2021-22 season.
Jones will absolutely be a focus for the franchise, who would like to lock up one of the league's best defensemen on a long-term deal. He certainly won't come cheap, but Jones is perhaps the biggest fish currently in the tank that the Blue Jackets must sign over the coming two years.
Werenski wouldn't be far behind, though he would still be a restricted free agent at the end of the three-year deal he signed last fall. He also would be arbitration eligible at the end of the 2022 season and likely due an even bigger raise than the $5 million AAV deal he signed last year.
While defensive depth has been a hallmark of the organization in recent years, it will be interesting to see how the Blue Jackets attack this position over the coming years. Gavrikov's new deal provides some stability here as he should just keep getting better and better with more NHL experience, but Savard, Gavin Bayreuther and Adam Clendening will be unrestricted free agents at the end of this year and followed by Kukan and Harrington the next season, which means much of the current depth will need to be re-signed to stick around past 2022.
One other piece of good news, though -- Peeke, who will be an RFA after next season, remains under team control through at least 2022-23 and also likely can be counted on to be a key piece of the puzzle on the right side. Prospects Jacob Christiansen and Tim Berni are also on entry-level deals until 2022-23 and could be contributors at the NHL level by then as well.
Goalies:Both Korpisalo and Merzlikins signed two-year extensions this past spring, which means the Blue Jackets are set to go between the pipes for the near future.
But there also is a fair amount of speculation around the position as far as a potential trade, as the thought around the league is Columbus has two players who are capable of filling a starting role but just one net between them.
It seems likely both will be on the roster whenever the 2020-21 season starts, but it might make sense down at the road at some point for one to be dealt. That's speculation, of course, but at some point, it seems like the organization will have to make a decision, so one of those two goalies will take the job and run with it.
When it comes to the rest of the CBJ pipeline, Veini Vehvilainen is an RFA after next season while Matiss Kivlenieks (last year's No. 3 goalie) and Daniil Tarasov are RFAs after 2021-22. It wouldn't be a huge surprise that by 2022-23, either Merzlikins or Korpisalo is the starter with one of these three as the backup.