What's next for CBJ? Jarmo Kekalainen gives his thoughts

For one day, Jarmo Kekalainen does get to say he told you so.
While NHL pundits, experts and prognosticators looked at the players who left the Blue Jackets ahead of the 2019-20 season and saw a team that was a playoff afterthought, the Columbus general manager saw a strong core that remained that was going to allow the team to compete.
With the team overwhelmed by injuries -- with 419 man-games lost to injury in 70 games, Columbus was out an average of six players per game -- Kekalainen likely didn't see the path the Blue Jackets would eventually take to that fourth straight playoff appearance, but he deserves credit for putting together a team that absorbed those free agency losses, brought along two young goalies and further forged a winning identity.
"I think I remember us defending our roster, defending our core, believing in our goaltending from the start," Kekalainen said. "And I think that we were underestimated in a lot of different areas as far as how we were going to be this year."
So, kudos to Kekalainen.
Now, what's next?

Hey, being the man in charge of assembling an NHL roster is always a "what have you done for me lately?" job, and that's the reality for Kekalainen as he looks at what the Blue Jackets did this past season and how they can build on that going forward.
And while Kekalainen has proved he can put together a contending organization, now the Blue Jackets general manager must help the franchise take the next step.

Columbus is one of just three teams to make it to the round of 16 in each of the past four seasons and one of six to make it to the playoffs each of those years, but the Blue Jackets are yet to advance past the conference semifinals.
While Columbus boasted one of the top defensive teams in the league this season thanks to a deep blue line, committed forwards and a pair of goaltenders who each burst into the spotlight at different times this season, the next step will likely hinge on finding some more offense after the team placed 28th in the NHL in goal scoring.
Part of that was injury related -- one year after Cam Atkinson, Oliver Bjorkstrand and Josh Anderson combined for 91 goals, all missed big chunks of the season and ended with a total of 34 goals between them -- but a team with serious Stanley Cup aspirations likely needs to bolster its scoring depth to truly contend.
And make no mistake, the Blue Jackets do enter a window of contention here, with Columbus boasting a wealth of young talent and Kekalainen's planning locking up 15 different players who skated with the team this year for at least the next two seasons.
So, we reiterate, what's next?
There are a number of ways Kekalainen and the rest of the CBJ front office can attack bolstering the team for next season and beyond. Here's the general manager's thoughts on each of them.

Improving from within

There's no question that this will be a big part of the Blue Jackets growth. You don't have one of the youngest teams in the NHL without expecting gains to come from the experience those players received throughout the season.
For the Blue Jackets, young talent comes in many forms. There are three forwards who were 20 years old this year and should only keep getting better in Alexandre Texier, Liam Foudy and Emil Bemstrom. There are such names as Zach Werenski and Pierre-Luc Dubois, with the former leading NHL defensemen in goals this year at age 22 and the latter serving as the team's No. 1 center at 21.
Then there's Vladislav Gavrikov, Eric Robinson and Oliver Bjorkstrand, who spent the majority of the season at age 24 and made huge steps this season, with more room to grow for each. Even such names as Seth Jones, Josh Anderson, Markus Nutivaara and Alex Wennberg were just 25 this year, with the chance to continue to get better as well.
Add in rookies like Kevin Stenlund (23) and Andrew Peeke (21), who each impressed in short cameos, and there's plenty of young talent that will just keep getting better.
"It's the team that wins games. It's not going to be a departure or an addition of one player or two players," Kekalainen said. "It's going to be the team. That's how we're going to keep building. We want to be a team. We have shown that for many years now that we are a hard team to play against because we play as a unit, we play hard, we are competitive, and that's what it has to be all about.
"It doesn't mean that we're not going to try to get better in many different areas, but we've done a good job building through the draft and having some depth. That was tested this year obviously with the injuries, but a lot of the guys that got that opportunities either lived up to the expectations or exceeded it. And that's a good thing."
Looking at the team's prospect pool, from an offensive perspective, Trey Fix-Wolansky will be a name to watch, as the winger overcame an early injury to post 26 points in 43 games with AHL Cleveland as a 20-year-old rookie. Kole Sherwood also had an injury-filled campaign but retains the size and speed to be an NHL player, while Blue Jackets fans also got to see such names as Stefan Matteau, Ryan MacInnis and Calvin Thurkauf in a limited role this season.
Overseas, Blue Jackets fans have had an eye on Russian forwards Kirill Marchenko and Dmitri Voronkov, who each impressed as KHL rookies a year ago, but Marchenko has signed a contract for the next two seasons with SKA St. Petersburg while Voronkov also recently inked a deal with Ak Bars Kazan to stay at home for the next three seasons.
While those players will likely be NHL-ready when they do make the move, for the time being, such names as Foudy, Texier and Bemstrom are the ones who will be counted on to make big steps over the coming seasons.
"We have some really good young players that have taken a big step in the right direction, and they'll take another one or two in the near future," Kekalainen said. "Liam Foudy, Alex Texier, Emil Bemstrom, those guys, and we have some excellent prospects in our system we're unfortunately are going to have to wait for a couple of more years in Russia playing in the KHL with Marchenko and Voronkov.
"Those guys are a big part of their KHL teams right now already and most likely will be ready to play in the National Hockey League right away when they come here. But again, we'll have to wait for them a little bit."

Trades

This might be the most intriguing possibility for the Blue Jackets.
Make no mistake, it should be an active offseason on the trade front around the league. With the NHL salary cap staying flat at $81.5 million thanks to the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on league revenues, a number of teams will have to make some moves in order to get under the cap.
While some other teams around the league will have more cap space for teams who need to trade contracts, the Blue Jackets do have some talented depth that will likely interest contending teams. That's particularly true on defense, where the Blue Jackets went 10 deep this year, and in net, where Columbus has two strong goalies in Joonas Korpisalo and Elvis Merzlikins who inked two-year extensions this spring and impressed in their growth this season.
Add in the trade talk that has seemed to surround Anderson over the past few months and the Blue Jackets could be active in the market. Kekalainen just wants you to know it's not always as easy to make a move as it seems.
"We are going to try to improve each and every area that we can, but it's easy to be the armchair GM or whatever they call it and say, 'OK, trade this guy for that guy,' " Kekalainen said. "There's 30 other teams in this league and 31 pretty soon, and they're all pretty smart people. They don't just give away their players. It's a little harder to make a trade than a lot of people imagine, but we're going to have all those conversations.
"I'm going to go through very team that is a potential partner with us to see if there's something we can do to improve our team, and they're going to try to improve theirs."

The NHL draft

One key for the Blue Jackets this year at the trade deadline was to keep the team's first-round pick, as Columbus dealt its pick in both the 2017 and '19 drafts.
Kekalainen has made clear the Blue Jackets need that selection for the future, especially considering Columbus had just three total draft picks a season ago and have five in the seven-round 2020 draft, which is tentatively scheduled to begin Oct. 9.
With the Blue Jackets winning the Stanley Cup qualifier over Toronto, they were eliminated from contention for the No. 1 overall pick and will instead draft 21st. That likely means the team will be getting a player who will require some more seasoning in the junior ranks or overseas rather than someone who will be an impact player immediately, but that player will certainly be a big part of the puzzle for the coming seasons.
While the Blue Jackets have been prolific at unearthing gems later in the draft under Kekalainen, as the general manager points out, one of the realities of the team's recent success is being unable to draft highly enough to add an immediate game changer.
"To get a player like Alexis Lafreniere, you going to have to be winning the lottery or being in last place to have the best chance to win the lottery," Kekalainen said. "That's how the system works. That's why the league has so much parity is the system that it has in place right now. We've seen it. We drafted Pierre-Luc Dubois third overall and Zach Werenski at eight.
"In order to get those types of impact players, usually you have to be in the top 10 or maybe even in the top three, and that means you're pretty close to last place in the league. But there are other ways to improve and we're going to look at them all."

Free agency

This is a spot where the Blue Jackets have traditionally been conservative under Kekalainen, with just Gus Nyquist and Riley Nash on the current roster as players whom the general manager signed on the open market after being established in the NHL.
The Blue Jackets already have made one signing this spring, inking Russian forward Mikhail Grigorenko to a one-year deal after the 26-year-old former first-round pick had 36 goals and 93 points over 102 KHL games the past two seasons.
After that deal, the Blue Jackets currently have a little more than $7 million available under next year's cap per CapFriendly.com, and with restricted free agents like Dubois, Gavrikov and Anderson requiring new contracts, things will be a little tight.
With Kekalainen acknowledging Brandon Dubinsky most likely won't be able to return because of a chronic wrist injury, the team could utilize long-term injured reserve for his $5.85 million cap hit next season, which will provide some flexibility. But any fan with eyes on signing a high-scoring forward like Taylor Hall, Mike Hoffman or Evgenii Dadonov on the open market might be disappointed unless the team can get creative to make the numbers work.
First, the team will have to create flexibility through the trade market to be a major free agent player, and secondly, any signing will have to be the right fit.
"I don't believe in the July 1 signings to be the answer or recipe for success," Kekalainen said. "That's been shown very many times. It's going to be a different date obviously this offseason, but we've grown from within, and that's going to be a key for us."