Blue Jackets have a building block duo in Saad and Johansen
Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen sees newly acquired winger Brandon Saad and center Ryan Johansen as making sweet, sweet music together for a number of years.
“We’ve been looking for a left winger, left shot, left wing for Ryan Johansen who’s a right shot centerman,” Kekalainen said after he dealt for the power winger from Chicago for a package that included Artem Anisimov and Marko Dano. “Brandon seems to be a very good fit and good candidate for that role, he’s played on the first line, first line minutes first line role for the Chicago Blackhawks in winning two Stanley Cups and I think there can be some good chemistry between those two.”
There is that pesky issue of getting Saad, who reportedly wanted upwards of $6.5 million per-year on a six-year contract, signed as a restricted free agent. But Kekalainen didn’t seem to think that would be an issue he said on a conference call.
He noted that Columbus would match any potential offer sheet thrown at Saad when free agency starts Wednesday. The Blackhawks said they were totally going to re-sign Saad. Alas, this clearly did not happen. So much for trusting everything teams tell you.
“We’re working on it basically as we speak and before this and right after this,” Kekalainen said. “As soon as we’re done I’m going to head back to my office. The whole crew is here and we’re working on it.”
With one move, Kekalainen may have turned the Blue Jackets into a dark horse Stanley Cup pick in 2015-16.
The team already has a duo that scored over 70 points each last year in Johansen and Nick Foligno.
Saad had 23 tallies and 52 points last season. He’s just 22 years of age.
The Blue Jackets led the NHL last season with 508 man-games lost per Man Games Lost and still finished the season with 89 points, winning 12 of their final 13 games.
There are questions on defense – will Ryan Murray stay healthy for an entire season being the main one. But this team is strong up front and it has Sergei Bobrovsky in goal.
Saad basically replaces former team captain Rick Nash as the team’s big power winger to complement Johansen. Plus he can actually score in the playoffs – as his two Stanley Cups note. Nash? Eh, not so much.
Kekalainen referred to the two Cups quite often during the interview.
“A winner,” he called Saad.
He said the deal didn’t really start to materialize until Monday. And then Tuesday, “Talks got accelerated fairly quickly here,” he said.
Um, yeah they did. They caught the whole hockey world off guard.
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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper
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