Blue Jackets Open To Taking On An Expensive Contract

Back in August when the Blue Jackets moved Patrik Laine to Montreal, Blue Jackets GM Don Waddell acknowledged that teams were already making inquiries about their willingness to take on an expensive contract.  At the time, he cautioned that while they had ample cap space, they weren’t necessarily willing to use it right away to absorb a big-ticket deal.

It appears they’re more open to doing so now.  Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reports (video link) that Waddell has let teams know that he’s willing to take on a big contract alongside some additional assets.  That shouldn’t necessarily be construed as them looking to add short-term help to build off a surprising 5-4-1 start as speculatively, the assets they’d be acquiring with the contract would be the priority.

However, it appears they have a limit on how long of a contract they’re willing to take on.  At this point, Seravalli notes that the inquiries thus far have been about their willingness to add a longer-term term deal in the three-to-five-year range.  Generally speaking, those types of cap dumps have been either expiring deals or ones with only one year remaining.  For now, at least, it appears adding someone signed for that long isn’t in their plans.

With a long list of injuries to start the season, the Blue Jackets were able to open the season above the $65MM Lower Limit of the salary cap with them needing to carry more than 23 players.  However, despite that, they’re projected to finish the year less than $2MM above that mark, per PuckPedia.  As some of their injured players return and their replacements are sent down, they’ll dip closer to the minimum.  If they do wind up selling before the trade deadline, they could conceivably drop below that amount as things stand.

With that in mind, it certainly makes sense for Waddell to be exploring the options that are out there in terms of taking on an unwanted contract in a move that would likely upgrade their current roster and give them extra assets for the future.  But for now, it appears their preference is to add the type of expensive short-term contract that other teams aren’t willing to pay to move off of just yet.