Columbus Blue Jackets: Which free agents are coming back?
By Ant Barberio
Sergei Bobrovsky
As the regular season ran down, the pundits kept saying Sergei Bobrovsky couldn’t wait to get out of Columbus. Just like Panarin, he was destined to leave in the free agency. That, along with the reports of internal turmoil between the team and Bobrovsky, makes his departure even more apparent.
The rumor mill is lining Bobrovsky with Panarin in a possible move to the Sunshine State to join the Panthers, which would make a ton of sense. Florida needs goaltending, with their franchise goaltender Roberto Luongo clearly on his way out with no solid successor in place. The Panthers have flirted with success, so the arrival of Bobrovsky and Panarin can make them a legitimate playoff threat, and probably the duo’s best chance to pursue a Stanley Cup in free agency.
From Columbus’s perspective, they might want to try to keep the double Vezina winner. His arrival in Columbus was the turning point of the franchise from NHL mediocrity to a dark horse playoff contender in a small market.
Not only that, but he was a major force behind the Blue Jackets playoff push this season. More importantly, the Blue Jackets have no replacement in mind. Bobrovsky’s backup in Joonas Korpisalo seems to only be living up to potential as an NHL backup, perhaps a victim of playing in Bobrovsky’s shadow.
After he was the third-string goalie Keith Kinkaid acquired from the New Jersey Devils to play the role of nothing more than a bench warmer, but he is also an unrestricted free agent.
That leaves the European based Elvis Merzlikins as Columbus’s best bet, assuming he comes over from HC Lugano. By all means, he appears to have the makings of an NHL starter, but the transition from the European league to the NHL might not come as easily, or without its own stop in the AHL first on his welcome to North America tour.
If the Jackets enter 2019-2020 without a goalie, their demise as a competitive team will be expedited, so that might be worth the extra effort to at least try to have Bobrovsky stay around a little longer.