Welcome to the new Columbus Blue Jackets forum, a place for Jackets fans to have a voice as their team looks to make some noise in the Western Conference at long last.

I'll be the first to acknowledge that I am certainly not a diehard Blue Jackets fan but that being said, I am a passionate and informed hockey enthusiast and a good fantasy hockey GM. I have multiple keepers, some of which I Co-Commish and also have been absolutely golden in one-year Yahoo leagues the last three years.

I chose to cover the Blue Jackets because of the tremendous potential I see in the team and the fans. Where was Nashville a few years? Losing in the first round to Red Wings on the heels of Dan Ellis's best series of play he likely will ever have. The Wild? Outside of the one remarkable run in 2002-2003, the Wild haven't done too much. The Thrashers? We all know where they are now. I am not suggesting that the Blue Jackets are a better team, especially historically than any of these expansion teams, but I am suggesting that they might really surprise people.

I plan to provide you with impressions of individual's game performances with overall game recaps this upcoming season, as I will have NHL Gamecenter on my laptop. I also am an aficionado of prospects, so I will do posts on Blue Jackets prospects as well. I attend Ithaca College as a journalism student in one of the few areas that in addition to the black outs for national broadcasts I also miss out on any game with the New Jersey Devils, New York Rangers, New York Islanders, and Buffalo Sabres. However, this means I will try to provide Blue Jacket analysis and recaps as often as I can.

Welcome aboard man. Nice to see somebody picking up the coverage for these guys. I agree that they should be a very interesting team to watch after this off-season. Looking forward to the coverage!

Quick tip: it looks like you must have wrote this first post in MS Word and then pasted it in here. If you do that, be sure to reload the page, and edit your post or else those question mark symbols shows up instead of an apostrophe.

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Follow me on twitter: @bruins42

Without me, it's only "aweso".

14 Team 22-man H2H Keeper League (Keep 15 - 4th Year)

G,A,+/-,PIM,PPP,SHP,GWG,SOG,Hits, W,GAA,SA,SV%,SHO

Dress:
3C,3LW,3RW,1F,5D,2G,5BN,3IR

C - Malkin (RW), Backstrom, E Staal, Stoll
LW - Zetterberg (C), Datsyuk (C), Whitney, Latendresse, Ruutu (C)
RW - Backes (C), Clowe (LW), Perry, Skinner(RW), Frolik (C)
D - Chara, Letang, Shattenkirk, Carle, Girardi, Giordano
G - Rask, Schneider, Fleury

Welcome aboard!

Lets get to it!

What can we expect from Prospal, Nash and which of Moore or Savard is the better option - will either make an impact this year (2nd PP)

thanks

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19 team Dynasty League - POINTS ONLY. Daily starts: 9 fwds, 6 D, 1 goalie

G=2pts, A=1pt, Dman G=3pts, GWG=1pt, Goalie Win=3.5pts, SO=4pts, L=-1pt


Kovalchuk, Couture, Wheeler
Parenteau, Elias, Little
Desharnais, Hemsky, Zuccarello
Smith, Rattie

Karlsson, Letang, Ehrhoff
Carle, Giordano, Martin
Hamhuis

Fleury
Schneider

Thanks for the quick tip 4T2, I keep forgetting about that but will remember one of these days.

As for your good questions loco man:

1) Carter is an essential piece to this season will go especially for Nash and Prospal likely. All three of those forwards can produce like they have for awhile on their own but if the three can really gel or work with Umberger or Brassard than it could be a strong campaign that takes Columbus to new heights (there will be a lot more on this in my off-season moves recap coming shortly).

2) Moore compared to Savard is an interesting debate and I can see either of them winning out. I do think that with the addition of James Wisniewski could take a hit to both of their short term values. However it should be noted that I feel Savard is trending up while Moore is more stagnant in terms of their places in the organization.

Fire away more questions people and I hope to have an off-season moves recap for you soon.

Welcome aboard. Good Luck.

awesome! welcome aboard. going to be following this thread as i have wisnewski and russell in one league and i also have mason in 2 others.

looking for big things fromt these guys. the addition of carter and wiz should help out there powerplay which i think is good for owning wiz and russell. kind of was a bit upset at first thingking ohwell there goes the chance of russell doing anything. but then reading reports that the 2 should be on the top powerplay unit and then my mindset switched to great.

russell i think can learn alot from the wiz.

thoughts on these guys if you have time?

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12 team H2H Keeper League
g/a/+-/PIM/PPP/SHP/SOG/W/GAA/SV%/SHO
play 4c/4lw/4rw/6d/2g (2min start)
Center: Datsyuk, Getzlaf, Marleau, Ribiero, Brian Boyle
RW: Hossa, Horton, Downie, Franzen, vrbata, Cole
LW: Kovalchuk, D.Sedin, Semin, Fleischmann,
Defense : Enstrom, E.Johnson, Goligoski, Wisniewski, Hamilton
Goalies: Lundqvist, Brodeur, S.Mason, Garon

Farm noteables: Niederreiter, Avtsyn, Greiss, Frazee, Kinkaid

The biggest news of the offseason for the Blue Jackets was without a doubt the acquisition of Jeff Carter from the Flyers for Jakub Voracek, a 1st round pick (#8 overall) and a 3rd round pick.

Breakdown: First let's start with what the Blue Jackets gained in Carter who in 08-09 had 84 points and the last two years has had 60-something points with the Flyers. He can play either right wing or center and many have him projected as a center with Columbus with Nash to start. If the two stars (something that Columbus has never been able to say before) can play well together than they will stay on the same line but it remains to be seen if the duo can't get going as the cornerstones to the top scoring line, and how long Coach Arniel will stick with it if they don't hit it off right away.

As it is stands if the two of them work out, that is great. If they can't get on the same page than Columbus' underrated new-found depth may benefit from it (more on that in my depth and new faces writeups). Either way Carter should find a way to help this team and take some of the burden of all the pressure that has been on Nash from Day One.

As for what the Blue Jackets lost in Voracek is all the promising upside in the world (cue Nikita Filatov too) and a pick that ended up being Sean Couturier and a 3rd round pick (Nick Cousins). Sean Couturier while close to being NHL ready is he really that much different or better than Columbus' Ryan Johansen? I don't think he is. Even if the Blue Jackets had picked someone else, I do not believe there was anyone left on the undrafted board at #8 that would be certainly better than Carter. Even if someone turns out to be better than Carter at #8 or later, would you really trust the Blue Jackets to have picked them considering the lack of results from recent high picks (Filatov comes to mind again)? After you also factor in a varying amount of wait for the player's NHL debut with the fact that Blue Jacket fans need to start seeing a jumpstart I think the pick is fine to let go.

For Voracek, Philadelphia might work out very well for him or he might be the inconsistent tease he has always been with the Blue Jackets. Remember that even if he does generate magic with or without Claude Giroux, that Columbus gave it a long try and nothing was working for long periods of time. Philadelphia is a very different team so Voracek may get very different results.

In summary, I believe that Carter will find a way to be effective in Columbus because of his talent alone even if he doesn't develop chemistry with any linemates, he is talented enough to make things happen as a high-end 2nd threat that Columbus has always needed. He also gives more options to the PP which along with newcomer James Wisniewski (who I will highlight later) should improve the PP overall. So I believe Carter will work out and the pieces that Columbus gave up while valuable just didn't make sense with what the team needs and has patience for right now.

I'll be recapping the FA movement tomorrow but still will answer questions and discuss things with you all in the mean time.

Blue Jackets and Panthers all in one day I love it. Welcome board Guthey- looking forward to it.

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Welcome aboard Guthey indeed!! I finally have someone with fewer views than my Flames site We'll see if that lasts!

Good luck, and keep the info coming! Nice write-up.

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XGL Commissioner - 16 Team, Points Only
$108M cap, 54+ Players
2x Reigning Champion

F: Ovechkin, Datsyuk, Kessel, Benn, Couture, Heatley, Steen, Landeskog, Brouwer, Doan, Peverley, Bonino
D: Subban, Yandle, Edler, Goligoski, Brodie, A MacDonald, Cowen, Tanev
G: Lundqvist, Smith, Allen
- - - -
Prospects:
F: Etem, Bennett, Killorn, Spooner, Hartikainen, Gaunce, Mk. Granlund
D: Clendening, Donovan, Lindell, Schmaltz, Forbort, Burlon

Awesome man! As a Nash owner from day one Ive always had a soft spot for columbus- lol!

I also wouldnt mind hearing some insight on Russell. It seems that every year I get conned into drafting him late in the draft only to be disappointed time and again. Do you have any insight on how his role has progressed? Has he gotten the opportunities and just not capitalized? Or has his development hit a snag? Or is he just taking his time but otherwise on the right path to success? He just seems to puzzle me- so much potential/opportunity- so little results...

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Thunder Bay Fighting Emu
12 team HTH CBS league
C(3)- Malkin, Carter, Little, Huberdeau, Galchenyuk
W(6)- Perry, Nash, Yakupov, Voracek, Wheeler,Cammalleri, Okposo, Hemsky
D(4)- Green, Weber, Hedman, Vishnovsky
G(1)- Lundquist, Rask
Goal/sog heavy- daily changes- slight bonus for pims- No +/-
Keep 12.