Columbus Blue Jackets: Which free agents are coming back?

Matt Duchene

Out of the big name free agents on Columbus, Matt Duchene’s case is the most interesting, after his short tenure following a blockbuster trade deadline deal. His career as an NHL player has been one of a mercenary: going to whoever will give him the best chance of a cup. So far, every single one of his efforts have failed.

Duchene is cup chasing, much like Marian Hossa was before finally hoisting one in Chicago in 2012. Even though Duchene, as a top center, will be more than attractive on the free agent market, he might be the easiest for the Columbus Blue Jackets to retain.

After Panarin and assuming Bobrovsky leaves, they have more money to open up the bank to offer him a reason to stay. He might not give them the best chance of a cup, but after his nomadic playing career of the past few years, signing a short term deal with a team he already knows might be a nice change of pace for Duchene.

Duchene will also give them something to build around. The silver lining for Columbus in this scenario is that their defensive core isn’t going anywhere, but losing Panarin and Bobrovsky would be bad enough, losing them plus Duchene will be devastating.

With Duchene in place, Columbus can at least put on a façade of competitiveness to attract some more names to stick around as Kekäläinen picks up the pieces of his shattered roster.

On the opposite side, Kekäläinen is going to have to weigh the cost of keeping Duchene. If Duchene resigns, Columbus’s loses another first-round draft pick in 2020. With their stockpile of draft picks already thin, Kekäläinen has to decide if he can get more value in re-signing Duchene, to whatever contract they agree to, or holding onto that pick.

Of course, without Duchene, Bobrovsky or Panarin, the Blue Jackets will have to go into full rebuild mode, which they don’t have the resources of draft picks to do after so heavily investing in this season.