Game #1 Preview: Another beginning, again

Thursday, October 10, 2024 – 8:00 PM EDT
Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, Minnesota
TV: Bally Sports Ohio; Radio: 97.1 FM

Columbus Blue Jackets

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Minnesota Wild

After a loooooooooooooooong and tumultuous off-season, it’s finally time to start a new Blue Jackets season. Most prognosticators think the 24th campaign will again find the team near the bottom of the standings. There are still reasons for hope for the future, however. The team enters the season with a new general manager and president of hockey operations, Don Waddell, and new head coach, Dean Evason. Both had success doing more with less in their previous stops (Carolina and Minnesota, respectively). One thing they’ve inherited is a core of exciting young talent that is poised to take another step forward, led by players such as Adam Fantilli, Kirill Marchenko, Kent Johnson, and Cole Sillinger.

Player to Watch

Kirill Kaprizov

Evason’s Minnesota teams were known for being hard-nosed and physical, but they also featured an exciting and highly-productive skill player. Kaprizov came over from Russia at age 23 and in his four seasons has scored 160 goals and 170 points in 278 games. Shutting down his line is key to beating the Wild.

There has been some noise around Kaprizov this week following a quote given by the team’s owner, Craig Leipold:

“Am I convinced that we can (persuade him to stay)? No,” Leipold says. “Am I convinced that we will have a better offer than anybody else can do in the league? The answer is yes.”

Kaprizov still has two years remaining on his contract ($9M AAV) but is eligible for an extension after July 1 next summer.

Jackets Notes

This team didn’t need any more setbacks, but it was dealt a couple big ones last week: Dmitri Voronkov was injured in the penultimate preseason game, then Boone Jenner suffered an injury of his own the next day in practice. It is the policy of the new leadership not to reveal specifics about injuries or their timeline, but it is being reported that both players are expected to miss months rather than weeks. Jenner’s may even be more serious … I get why the team would have that policy, but I think it’s a mistake given that it serves now to create more anxiety among an already emotionally-frayed fanbase. Between two straight years of injury hell and now the passing of Johnny Gaudreau, you can’t blame the Fifth Line for expecting the worst until we hear something more concrete … Little time was wasted in bringing in veteran reinforcements. First, Kevin Labanc was signed to a one year contract. He had been playing in preseason with the New Jersey Devils on a PTO, but that meant he was still free to sign with another team. New Jersey would have had to put him on waivers for cap reasons, but the Jackets were able to not only offer him an immediate spot on the NHL roster, but also a role in the top 6 … On Monday, the Blue Jackets acquired Zach Aston-Reese off of waivers from the Vegas Golden Knights. Aston-Reese is a fourth line player, but an excellent defender. His arrival allows James Malatesta to go back to Cleveland, where he can get more minutes … One final note on the projected lines: don’t panic about the potential Jack Johnson/Erik Gudbranson third pair. Yes, it looks bad. Yes, it will probably be a bad pair. But it’s just one game. With 8 D on the roster, chances are those two will rotate a lot with Jordan Harris and David Jiricek. If 3/44 are still playing as a pair by Thanksgiving, it either means they’ve gotten unexpectedly better, or things have gone terribly wrong for the rest of the defense.

The Other Bench

This week the Wild signed promising young goalie Jesper Wallstedt to a 2 year, $2.2M AAV contract extension which kicks in next season. But for now he’s being carried as the third goalie, behind Filip Gustavsson and the somehow-still-playing Marc-Andre Fleury … A second player to watch is Brock Faber, the 22-year-old defensemen. He scored 47 points in his rookie season and finished by Connor Bedard in Calder Trophy voting. Hopefully Evason can develop guys like Jiricek and Denton Mateychuk in a similar way … Evason was fired by the Wild 19 games into last season. It’s probably for the best to get this return trip out of the way early. The rematch is just over a week away as well.

Season Series

10/10/2024 CBJ @ MIN
10/19/2024 MIN @ CBJ

Stats

(2023-24 season)

Projected Lines

Columbus Blue Jackets

Minnesota Wild