{"id":451062,"date":"2024-09-16T10:12:58","date_gmt":"2024-09-16T14:12:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=451062"},"modified":"2024-09-16T10:12:58","modified_gmt":"2024-09-16T14:12:58","slug":"nhl-rumours-columbus-blue-jackets-looking-for-roster-additions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/09\/16\/nhl-rumours-columbus-blue-jackets-looking-for-roster-additions\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Rumours: Columbus Blue Jackets Looking for Roster Additions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s time for another round of NHL rumours. We&#8217;re closing in on the start of training camp in just a few days. However, general managers have been active most of the summer. Teams are trying to fill out their rosters with the start of the regular season less than a month away. One team that&#8217;s had to endure plenty this summer is the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/09\/08\/playing-for-johnny-the-2024-25-columbus-blue-jackets-puck-drop-preview\/\" target=\"_self\">Columbus Blue Jackets<\/a>. The team is still trying to figure out how to deal <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/08\/30\/columbus-blue-jackets-star-johnny-gaudreau-and-his-brother-matthew-have-passed-away\/\" target=\"_self\">with the sad loss<\/a> of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/g\/gaudrjo01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-09-16_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Johnny Gaudreau<\/a>. This edition of NHL rumours talks about the Blue Jackets trying to fill roster spots.<\/p>\n<p>All NHL rumours come from the original source and are subject to change.<\/p>\n<h2>NHL Rumours<\/h2>\n<h3>Columbus Blue Jackets Trying to Add More Forwards<\/h3>\n<p><em>Rumour: The Athletic&#8217;s Aaron Portzline talked to General Manager <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/w\/waddedo01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-09-16_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Don Waddell<\/a> about the roster moving forward. Columbus&#8217; GM said they are trying to add more forwards to NHL deals and not player tryouts.<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/CBJ?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#CBJ<\/a> GM Don Waddell says he\u2019s talking with agents for current free agents, looking to sign one or two players before camp. Not PTOs, actual contracts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re two forwards short.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Aaron Portzline (@Aportzline) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Aportzline\/status\/1835035797357006941?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">September 14, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><em>Analysis:<\/em> Waddell has seemingly made good on that talk so far in signing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/v\/vanrija01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-09-16_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">James van Riemsdyk<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/09\/15\/veteran-forward-signs-add-depth-squad\/\" target=\"_self\">to a contract<\/a> on Sunday. However, it seems that &#8220;JVR&#8221; may not be the only addition to the Blue Jackets forward group.<\/p>\n<p>The Blue Jackets GM stated that the club is two forwards short of having roster ready for the start of the season. Adding a veteran like van Riemsdyk does help with that. The 35-year-old said that he was willing to sign with the club to <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/5769249\/2024\/09\/15\/van-riemsdyk-blue-jackets-contract\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">help out at a difficult time<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Waddell also mentioned he will try a plethora of different ways to add more players to the roster. Portzline mentions that the Jackets are looking to add players via PTOs along with signings and trades.<\/p>\n<h4>More Additions Likely Coming<\/h4>\n<p>The Columbus general manager stated the team isn&#8217;t likely to make offer sheets to any restricted free agents that are on the market still. There are players like<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/09\/10\/2024-25-puck-drop-preview-detroit-red-wings\/\" target=\"_self\"> Detroit Red Wings<\/a> youngsters <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/s\/seidemo01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-09-16_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Moritz Seider<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/r\/raymolu01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-09-16_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lucas Raymond<\/a> that are unsigned. However, it does seem like Waddell wants to waste draft capital at this point.<\/p>\n<p>Columbus may have to keep adding prospects to the pipeline and unmatched offer sheets would mean the team would have to give up draft choices. It doesn&#8217;t seem like something the franchise would want to do.<\/p>\n<p>The club does have nearly $25 million in salary cap space according to <a  href=\"https:\/\/puckpedia.com\/team\/columbus-blue-jackets\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Puckpedia<\/a> after the van Riemsdyk signing, so it means the team could take some risks with short-term contracts.<\/p>\n<h4>Who Could Be on the Radar?<\/h4>\n<p>Let&#8217;s keep in mind that there are veterans like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/k\/kesseph01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-09-16_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Phil Kessel<\/a> out on the market still. The soon-to-be 37-year-old is eight points away from 1,000 points and thinks he can still play. A low-risk contract could be worth a shot for this Blue Jackets team.<\/p>\n<p>A number of free agents are still out there are Waddell does have a chance to add some leadership to a club that will go through a season unlike any other. The season may have been a challenge<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/08\/28\/nhl-rumours-columbus-blue-jackets-cap-space\/\" target=\"_self\"> even with Gaudreau,<\/a> but this team will be in uncharted waters.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s going to be an emotional season in Ohio. However, this team may not be done reshaping its roster.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main photo by: Adam Cairns-Imagn Images via Columbus Dispatch\/USA TODAY Network<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s time for another round of NHL rumours. We&#8217;re closing in on the start of training camp in just a few days. However, general managers have been active most of the summer. Teams are trying to fill out their rosters with the start of the regular season less than a month away. One team that&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2352,"featured_media":451063,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,4547,4548,4321],"tags":[5982,3255,234,249,128],"class_list":["post-451062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bluejackets","category-hockey","category-nhl","category-rumours","tag-columbus-blue-jackets-rumours","tag-don-waddell","tag-james-van-riemsdyk","tag-johnny-gaudreau","tag-phil-kessel"],"modified_by":"Dan Mount, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2352"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}