The Columbus Blue Jackets are absolutely jam-packed with players on NHL contracts. They have 16 or 17 forwards who should spend time with the big club next year, which means general manager Jarmo Kekalainen has some work to do culling the herd.
What was once a dearth of NHL-caliber centers has now become an abundance. The list of forwards who can play the pivot position is long, featuring Adam Fantilli, Boone Jenner, Kent Johnson, Sean Kuraly, Jack Roslovic, Cole Sillinger, Alexander Texier, and Dmitri Voronkov.
Someone has to slide out of this crowded house and my first bet is Roslovic. While it would be tough to trade one of the three Columbus-born players on the team, there is a case to be made as to why a trade might be in the best interest of both parties.
Why Roslovic is the Odd Man Out
What could make Roslovic expendable is the combination of inconsistency and his contract situation. He’s the definition of a streaky scorer, appearing on the scoresheets of 32 games last season, but he also having eight scoreless streaks of three or more games — three of those were over five games long. As Jerry Reed once sung: when he’s hot, he’s hot, and when he’s not, he’s not.
Despite his inconsistency, he still managed to score a career high in assists, 33, and was one away from matching his points record with 44. Two consecutive 40-plus-point seasons on one of the worst teams in the NHL and still only being 26 years old should make him an attractive piece for the right acquisition cost.
In the final year of his contract, he’d be a great selling chip from now until this year’s trade deadline for a team willing to bet on his high upside. The Blue Jackets are in a favorable salary cap situation for retention with so many players on entry-level contracts. So while there might be some question marks about acquiring him at his full cap-hit of $4 million, he’s much more palatable with half of his salary retained at $2 million.
There may also be a benefit to the player in going somewhere new. We saw the best of Roslovic when he was filling in as the Blue Jackets’ number one center in the last 10 games of the 2021-22 season. He was electric, scoring 10 goals and 13 points across that span. There were only flashes of that in 2022-23, which means he may have set an unrealistically high bar for himself in Columbus.
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Considering how crowded the forward corps is and if he gets off to a slow start, he will be relegated to limited minutes and opportunity. Under such circumstances, that bar will be nearly impossible to reach again. He could succeed if traded somewhere that sets a more realistic bar for him, since many players have carved out solid careers as 40-50 point scorers. On the other side of the coin, when he was at his best, he was playing alongside the best. If he’s traded somewhere that a center is desperately needed between one or two top forwards, he could explode.
What a Roslovic Trade Might Look Like
A trade return for Roslovic looks radically different based on which version of him a team is trading for. His two-faced play could swing a team in either way.
In recent Blue Jackets’ history, the biggest comparison that comes to mind for Roslovic is through trade speculation around Max Domi in 2022. Both players have high ceilings and low floors; both were shafted down the lineup because of crowding at their respective positions; and both are incredibly streaky scorers. The speculative returns of each also wildly varied from high to low.
In a best case scenario, Roslovic could net a late first-round pick or a package involving a B-list prospect and mid-level pick. However, in a worst case scenario we could see an almost identical trade to Domi’s at the 2022 deadline — one that was ultimately underwhelming after such robust speculation. I’m leaning more towards the low-end of value for Roslovic’s return because a team would have to be blind not to see how tight the Jackets are for available roster spots. As things currently sit, they have little leverage in any negotiation process.
The Blue Jackets have a couple more roster decisions to make before the new season rolls around. The crowded house of the forward corps could lead to a trade or two before October. Jack Roslovic is someone who would have a list of suitors on the trade market and meets other criteria to make him one of their most tradeable forwards.
