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Freeeeee Agency

By Bethany | July 5, 2008

It has been a busy few days for the Columbus Blue Jackets. Free Agency began on Tuesday at noon, and the Blue Jackets have been busy ever since. The first order of business for the Jackets was sending under-achieving forward Gilbert Brule to Edmonton for Raffi Torres. Torres is a bit of a bruiser, who hits hard, and who always is willing to sacrifice his body in order for the team to succeed.

The Blue Jackets were in the running for free agent stud Wade Redden, until the bitter end…sort of. Redden chose to go to the New York Rangers, not because of money, but because he felt he had a better chance there. Good for him, and good for the Rangers for throwing more money at an unrestricted free agent.

Scott Howson was determined to bolster our blue line so he signed Mike Commodore. Commodore won a Stanley Cup with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006, and was traded at the deadline to the Ottawa Senators. Commodore is a hard hitting defenseman and while he may not be the offensive machine we desperately needed, he is a significant upgrade from what we had.

The next move sent Nikolai Zherdev and Dan Fritsche to the New York Rangers for Fedor Tyutin and Christian Backman. Tyutin and Backman are solid defensemen, and they are young. Sending Nikolai Zherdev hurt our offense, kind of more than a lot, and well losing Fritsche sucked, but, we are a little crowded on checking forwards. When this move happened, all the Blue Jackets ‘fans’ freaked out a bit, I won’t lie, I did too, I mean Z was our second leading scorer…and we’re a goal deprived club.

Our next move was a free agent signing, Kristian Huselius. We got back Z’s points plus some. Kristian is a young forward, who wilted under Iron Mike Keenan’s coaching. We are hoping that he will excel under Ken Hitchcock and be able to use his big body to create some space.

What is next? Well, the Blue Jackets are currently negotiating a contract with UFA Michael Peca…my guess is it’s a 2 year deal. Also, they are working on a contract with RFA’s Pascal Leclaire and RJ Umberger. Is it hockey season yet?

x-posted on The Sports Diva Magazine

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