Columbus Blue Jackets
The Columbus Blue Jackets are in an interesting position. They don’t have a single UFA on their active roster. They do have expiring contracts but all of them are restricted. In fact, they have ten RFAs to work out.
Both of the Jackets’ goaltenders are RFAs this offseason. Jarmo Kekäläinen, the team’s general manager, will need to determine what happens with each of the 25-year-old stoppers, Joonas Korpisalo and Elvis Merzlikins.
One of Columbus’s RFAs is also a player that the Toronto Maple Leafs were supposedly interested in ahead of the trade deadline. That player is right-winger Josh Anderson. There is a chance that his time with the Jackets may have come to an end and the team looks to move him.
Anderson is an unknown entity at this point since he suffered a shoulder injury when he fought Mark Borowiecki of the Ottawa Senators. He hasn’t played a game since. Unfortunately, the injury has kept him out of action since December.
Doyle Somerby and Dillon Simpson
The only UFAs that Kekäläinen will need to think about are a pair of non-roster defensemen Doyle Somerby and Dillon Simpson. Both players came through the NCAA and neither was drafted by Columbus.
Somerby was a fifth-round pick in 2012, going 125th overall to the New York Islanders. After four years with Boston University, he has played three seasons with the Cleveland Monsters in the AHL.
Simpson was drafted in the fourth round of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft. He went 92nd overall to the Edmonton Oilers.
Simpson played four years at the University of North Dakota and then found some success as an offensive defenseman in the AHL. He even managed to get into three games for the Oilers. In those games, he averaged 10:53 of ice time, took a minor penalty and had two shots on goal.