Blue Jackets notes: Voracek’s size, passing sparked Atkinson trade
Atkinson #Atkinson
The Blue Jackets are being pulled apart at the seam.
That’s a fairly literal description. While trades have reduced their core leadership group to just a handful, seam passes are a big reason Jakub Voracek was brought back to Columbus on Saturday, and Cam Atkinson was dealt to Philadelphia.
“It’s a hockey trade,” said Kekalainen, who agreed to the one-for-one swap during the second day of the NHL draft. “I think it serves a need for both teams. They were looking to change things with their lineup. I think that Voracek’s a good fit for us with the shooters, the right-handed shooters, that we have.”
Atkinson used to be one of them.
Now he’s a Flyer, largely because the Blue Jackets had too much of a good thing. They have additional right-handed shots with Patrik Laine, Oliver Bjorkstrand and Emil Bemstrom, all who have the potential to score goals in bunches.
That’s where the seam comes into play.
Voracek is a skilled passer who can thread “seam” passes through the middle on power plays, trapping penalty-killers out of position and setting up right-handed shooters with feeds to the left circle.
“We’ve talked about our power play struggles here for a long time, and I think one of the key ingredients in a good power play is a guy who can find the seam and make that pass through the seam, not just pass it around the penalty killing foursome there,” Kekalainen said. “So, Jakub Voracek’s one of the best at it.”
That should be music to Laine’s ears.
After slumping last season, the 23-year old star forward hopes to return to peak goal-scoring form. Receiving passes from Voracek, especially on power plays, could help him get there.
“I would say he’s one of the top five most dangerous guys in the (offensive) zone, when it comes down to shooting the puck,” Voracek said. “Everyone knows about Laine. He’s one of the best pure shooters and scorers in our era, and if we’re going to play together, I hope we’re going to find chemistry and help the team as much as possible to win games.”
The Blue Jackets have fielded offers for goalie Joonas Korpisalo the past couple weeks, and a source thought a deal might be completed Saturday.
After it didn’t happen, Kekalainen finished the draft with two talented NHL goalies still on his roster, each going into their final year of their contracts. Korpisalo and Elvis Merzlikins have occupied those slots the past two seasons, but this offseason was supposed to break them up.
The Blue Jackets had planned to expose the late Matiss Kivlenieks to the Seattle Kraken in last week’s NHL expansion draft and then make him their NHL backup if he wasn’t selected. He would’ve been the primary backup to whichever goalie the Blue Jackets kept between Merzlikins and Korpisalo.
Kivlenieks’ tragic death in a July 4 fireworks incident forced a reassessment of those plans. Journeyman Cam Johnson was re-signed and exposed to address that issue, but the Jackets still have a dilemma to solve. They want to give top prospect Daniil Tarasov a full season with the Cleveland Monsters to develop, which means their NHL backup options are limited.
They can keep Merzlikins and Korpisalo for a third season or trade one and find an NHL-caliber backup through free agency or trade. It’s starting to sound like they’ll go with option one.
“We have two really good goaltenders still under contract for one more year,” Kekalainen said. “Unfortunately, they both can become unrestricted free agents at the end of next year, but it’s also a luxury to have two goaltenders that can play any given night and fill that role with No. 1 capabilities. We’ll see what the future brings, but we love both Elvis and Korpi, and they’ve been great for us. We’ll make some decisions as we go here.”
bhedger@dispatch.com
@BrianHedger
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Blue Jackets notes: Voracek’s size, passing sparked Atkinson trade