The Columbus Blue Jackets have made a trade to start the process of unclogging their roster jam. Turns out the roster space was much-more needed than first anticipated.
The Blue Jackets traded winger Eric Robinson to the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday in exchange for a 2025-conditional seventh-round pick. According to CapFriendly, the condition on the pick is if Robinson plays 45 NHL games this season, the Blue Jackets get a 2025 seventh-round pick that originally belonged to the Nashville Predators. Anything short of that threshold would result in no pick being transferred.
Since Robinson has already played in seven NHL games this season, those count towards the 45-game mandate. He would need to appear in 38 of the Sabres’ last 56 games in order for the condition to be activated.
Why would the Blue Jackets make this move now? Given the other news that came down from the team on Wednesday, there was both opportunity and some urgency to get the deal done.
Many Roster Moves
Shortly after the official news broke of the Robinson trade, the Blue Jackets announced a list of roster moves in advance of their game Thursday night against the New York Islanders. Injury and illness have caught up to them.
First, Adam Boqvist suffered a should strain in Tuesday night’s game against the Los Angeles Kings. He is expected to miss four weeks. He is on injured reserve retro to 12/5.
Next, Elvis Merzlikins is battling an illness and is expected to miss a week. He was able to finish the game Tuesday night. He is also on injured reserve retro to 12/5.
In addition, Cole Sillinger was moved to injured reserve retro to 11/26. He is considered day-to-day with an upper-body injury.
The Blue Jackets called up Emil Bemstrom as a regular recall and then called up both Nick Blankenburg and Jet Greaves as emergency recalls. Finally the team converted Daniil Tarasov’s rehab assignment to a regular one instead of an LTIR one. Tarasov started for the Monsters in their game Wednesday night in Hartford.
The Blue Jackets had a need for the roster spot now. With all of these moves, the team has a full 23-man roster.
Need for Flexibility
Even if all of the above roster moves weren’t needed, the Blue Jackets had a glut of extra players throughout their organization. With Robinson set to become a UFA after this season, he was an obvious candidate for trade.
This trade allowed the Blue Jackets to both free up a roster spot and salary cap space. There was no salary retention in the trade so the cap hit of $1.6 million came off of their books completely. The extra cap space now allowed the Blue Jackets to make all of the recalls. Eventually that extra space could help facilitate other trades. They now don’t have to pay that cap hit to someone that wasn’t going to play a lot of NHL games for them moving forward.
As for the roster spot, the trade allows the Blue Jackets to carry three goalies once Tarasov is ready to come back. It can also allow other considerations once they decide how to proceed.
The Blue Jackets have plenty of similar players to Robinson from a bottom-six perspective. They’ll miss his speed and energy. But in the end, the flexibility this creates was a more pressing need.
What Sabres Will Get
The Sabres have dealt with their own injuries of late. Jordan Greenway and Zemgus Girgensons among others are on their injured reserve. There was a need for a bottom-six veteran presence who can kill penalties. Robinson fits that need.
Robinson might just become one of the fastest skaters on the team. His skating and energy is easy to notice with him. His issue has always been consistently finishing. He does have 38 career goals so at times, he has shown an ability to finish.
In a game against the New Jersey Devils on Black Friday, Robinson scored the game-winning goal by finishing a breakaway against Akira Schmid. He uses his speed for separation to try and make plays. He also uses that speed on the penalty kill by looking to attack.
In all, this trade filled an immediate need for both teams. The Blue Jackets got cap and roster flexibility while the Sabres got a veteran player who can fill a need lower in the lineup at a very minimal cost. It was a tidy piece of business for both sides.
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