Blue Jackets’ dilemma: Cash for Nash or barter with Carter?

You know it’s going to be a long season when you start counting down to the draft before the calendar turns to November.

That’s the situation the Columbus Blue Jackets found themselves in after a summer of great expectations swiftly turned into another season spent waiting for the draft lottery.

After making a number of big splashes in the offseason, the Blue Jackets had playoff aspirations. But an early injury to Jeff Carter and an eight-game suspension to James Wisniewski led to a 0-7-1 start to the year, and just like that, the season was essentially over.

The Blue Jackets are languishing in last place in the league and are not even close to Edmonton for the 29th spot.

The train wreck has spared no one. Trade rumors are swirling around the team, the biggest of which involve captain Rick Nash and the newly-acquired Carter.

If the rumors are to be believed, in the span of less than a year, the Blue Jackets are abandoning their plan to make a run at the playoffs and are instead investing in a major rebuild, likely surrounding rookie Ryan Johansen. And if they are gutting the team, they will be engaging in the worst method of team building: buy high, sell low. 

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The Blue Jackets traded Jakub Voracek and the eighth-overall pick (used to select Sean Couturier) for Jeff Carter. At this point, after multiple injuries, a perceived poor attitude and sub-par production, Columbus isn’t going to get the same value for Carter as they gave up. Why would they?

Plus, there’s Carter’s contract; the same one that posed no problem in dealing the center in the summer is now looked at as an anchor. Carter is signed through 2022; that’s 10 more seasons at a little more than $5 million a year.

If the Blue Jackets deal Carter now, regardless of his 40-goal talent, they will be receiving 50 cents on the dollar.

If Columbus is truly unhappy with Carter, or vice versa, the team should wait until next season and hope that Carter rebounds with a clean bill of health. It’s much easier to trade someone with a huge contract if they are actually producing. $5 million a year is an awfully nice number for a perennial 30-goal scorer. If Carter starts scoring at that kind of pace, the Blue Jackets won’t get teams low-balling them; they’ll get offers commensurate with a No. 1 center.

The other name floating in the rumor mill is that of Nash, who leads the team in goals and points, but is on pace for only 26 goals and 52 of each – the worst mark of his entire career.

Nash has the fifth-highest cap hit in the league and is signed for the next six seasons. Despite his elite talent, Nash’s contract and his current production are going to make teams hesitant to trade the farm for him.

And if you’re Columbus, why are you willing to trade either Nash or Carter for anything less than top dollar?

If the Blue Jackets really are committed to a rebuild, waiting for a bounce back from either player is essential to ensure the package coming back to Columbus is sufficient enough to warrant trading such game-breaking talents.

Waiting another year before blowing up the roster is the right move for another reason: the Blue Jackets at least owe this group a chance to perform when healthy and with a capable goalie.

Since winning the Rookie of the Year award in 2008-09, Steve Mason has regressed terribly, with this season being beyond bad. Mason’s .881 save percentage is the worst in the league by any goaltender with at least 12 games played, and his 3.53 goals-against average is lower than only Dwayne Roloson’s, a man nearly twice his age.

It doesn’t matter how much the team improved up front, if the last line of defence is the worst in the league, that’s where the team is going to end up.

That’s why the failings of the Blue Jackets this season cannot be solely attributed to the players. Scott Howson must accept responsibility for creating what he thought was a playoff team, then suddenly forgetting to address the hole in net.

It’s unfair to expect the key acquisitions to bring the Blue Jackets to the playoffs when the same goaltender that has failed to provide even average netminding is still backstopping the team.

Ultimately, that’s the most important reason the Blue Jackets must refrain from blowing up the roster, at least for the immediate future. The man who built this calamity is still running the team with the full support of ownership.

If Howson believed this group of players would bring the playoffs to Ohio, he needs to fall on the sword before any of the players. He built the team that has badly underachieved, so allowing him to build another team is just foolish. If you built a team this bad, you have no right to tear it down and start again. He’s had his chance. He’s out.

It’s been a brutally tough year in Columbus, but starting the rebuild now isn’t going to create a long-term winner any sooner. If recent history is any indication, it might just prolong the misery.

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