What should the Columbus Blue Jackets do with Sergei Bobrovsky?
The Columbus Blue Jackets face a tough decision with franchise goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. How they handle it will determine everything.
Coming into this season, the Columbus Blue Jackets knew this year could be their best chance to win a Stanley Cup for a while. You need elite players to win championships. The Blue Jackets have three of them, one at each position – Seth Jones, Artemi Panarin, and Sergei Bobrovsky. However, the last two will be free agents after this season.
Despite this, the Blue Jackets refused to entertain chances to trade either of the two. You can’t blame them for wanting to win a Stanley Cup. As the second half of the season begins, the Blue Jackets are in the same situation. Except for one change – Bobrovsky.
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Bob came into this season as a two-time Vezina Trophy winner. Any reasonable team would have trusted him completely. However, Bobrovsky and head coach John Tortorella haven’t always been the best of friends. Their tensions towards each other blew up when the Blue Jackets suspended their goaltender after he didn’t return to the bench after being pulled from a game.
The choice is easy with Panarin. Columbus should sign him no matter what the cost. He’s an elite player in every sense of the word. And best of all, Panarin is still very young. The Blue Jackets can contend for the next few years with him.
However, the choice with Bobrovsky is far more difficult. It’s less complicated than it was because re-signing him is likely no longer an option. But that doesn’t make it any easier to decide what the Blue Jackets should do with him. There are two options – trade him or keep him for a few more months. Let’s examine the arguments for both.
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Keeping Him
The argument to keep Bobrovsky revolves around his resume. He hasn’t been as great as usually is, but those two Vezina Trophies are shiny. Bobrovsky has carried the Blue Jackets for years. He’s a true number one goalie. And, as they say, number one goalies don’t grow on trees.
Even in a down year, Bobrovsky has been closer to a number one goalie than his backup Joonas Korpisalo. The Blue Jackets were hoping he would develop into a starter at some point, but he’ll be turning 25 years old in April. Time’s running out for him.
NHL teams trust the known much more than the unknown. Even though Bobrovsky is in the midst of a bad contract year and he’s likely not returning to Columbus after this season, he’s much more of a “known” than Korpisalo.
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Trading Him
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Trading Bobrovsky is more complicated than you think. This is due to his no-movement clause, which gives him the power to refuse any trade he wants. It basically kills any leverage the Blue Jackets have, as well as most of the market for Bobrovsky.
That said, it’s undeniable teams value goalies like him. And all it takes is one team to be willing to give the Blue Jackets a king’s ransom for Bobrovsky for them to trade him. Losing both Panarin and Bob would be tough for Columbus. But at least they’d get something for one of those two guys if neither returns.
Between the San Jose Sharks, Calgary Flames, and dark horse teams like the Colorado Avalanche and St. Louis Blues, it’s likely at least one of them is going to be willing to give up a lot to get Bobrovsky. In that respect, the Blue Jackets are in a good position.
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Finally, there’s the issue of Bobrovsky’s postseason performances. During the Stanley Cup Playoffs, he has a career save percentage of .891 in 24 games. That’s still a bit of a small sample size, but it’s undeniable Bobrovsky has struggled against the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals in the postseason. Maybe this is due to his regular season workload. But whatever the reason, the difference between his regular season and postseason numbers is alarming.
No matter what the Blue Jackets choose, they might not win. Such is life. But no matter what they decide to do with Bobrovsky, it has the potential to be a franchise-altering move, whether that be a good thing or a bad thing.