Columbus Blue Jackets Add Veteran C Sean Monahan In Free Agency

the Blue Jackets only made one move in free agent frenzy to bring someone into the team but a handful of guys left who's gone what does Shawn manahan do best for this team and uh what does the team look like now we're going to talk about all of that on today's lock on Blue Jackets you're locked on Blue Jackets your daily podcast on the Columbus Blue Jackets part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day hello and welcome to lockd on Blue Jackets part of the lockon podcast Network your team every day am as always your host Jay Foster here to give you the Good the Bad and the Ugly about your favorite team and mine the Columbus Blue Jackets before we get start I want to thank everyone for making this your first listen of the day every single day lock on Blue Jacket is free and available on all podcast platforms and over on YouTube also want to let you know's episode is brought to you by FanDuel make every moment more playoffs are over but the sports don't have to stop sporting summer FanDuel is hooking up all customers with a boost or a bonus every day that's right there's something for everyone every single day all summer long just isit fanduel.com locked on to get started uh lot to talk about today uh the Blue Jackets only really made one actual move but there was a bunch of moves that they didn't make I guess is the is the best way to say it they brought they bring in Shawn manahan we're going to talk about that contract um and how I feel about it and uh a handful of the Blue Jackets uh UFA depth guys from the monsters basically all uh basically all gone so we'll talk about that in uh in in a little bit here but I wanted to talk about the um the Sha manahan signing uh because I didn't like it at first um I talked about it a little bit on on yesterday's episode I think I don't remember I think I think I mentioned that he was an option um and I thought you know but I was like okay let's get sha Mahan for like two years at two million or three years at three million or something like that um blue Jack had sign him to a contract five years at five and a half million dollars a year I was like immediate my immediate reaction was oo and then I thought about it a little bit I looked at the cap situation um I looked at Shawn Monahan kind of as as a player um and I'm I'm still not like it's still a little bit too rich for my taste um maybe a year too long and a million and a half too much um but I've actually kind of come around on on the contract quite quite a bit um potentially that is um there's a lot of again this is this a team with a lot of moving pieces right now there's a lot of things that I think need to happen for the Sha Monahan signing to be deemed a success um and there's a lot of things that they need to avoid um so we'll talk about that in a minute but I want to talk about Shawn Monahan just kind of as as who he is and what he brings to the table um and first and foremost sha manahan is a legitimate option at Center probably best in a middle six role um wins faceoffs is consistently in the top half of Faceoff wins um consistently over 50% I believe he was top 20 in Faceoff wins last season um and is I want to say 29 years old so like this is this is his kind of probably his last is contract it's probably his last big contract anyway um and he is uh he is he's gone out and he's gotten his uh his paycheck so like good for him honestly um he has played most of his career with the Calgary Flames had a season and a half or a season and a little bit with the monreal Canadians played uh 25 games in 22 23 17 points in 25 games and then 35 points in 49 games with the Canadians before they flipped him to Winnipeg at the deadline where he had 24 points in 34 games uh had 26 goals this season in uh he had the rare 83 Game season because of what was happening when the uh when the trade went down um so we actually ended up playing 83 games this season which is I mean like he hasn't played a full season in in in a long time uh he played 6 five games in 2122 which I believe the season was about that long um played 50 games for the flames in 2020 21 um which I believe I think they got shut down very shortly after the 50 game Mark passed so like he's played most of two full seasons but he hasn't actually played a full 82 Game season since 201617 barring last year you know so last year I thought was a really good sign he produced well on a quite bad Montreal Canadians team um and then held his own on a on a playoff bound winipeg Jets team kind of quiet in the in the playoffs uh played five games for the Jets and only recorded one assist um 13 shots on goal was but was 50% in faceoffs and uh if we go back to faceoffs in the regular season he's a career uh 51% um last the last handful of years actually he's been uh he's been excellent so 2122 53.1 2223 was 55.1 was 55% with the Canadians last year and then 40 54.7 when he got flipped to the Jets so that I haven't checked the numbers but that's probably if not the best on the Blue Jackets roster it's definitely up there and I think that's that can't be understated that the Blue Jackets having a a center that knows how to win faceoffs and actually is a center because you know I've been banging the banging the bo Jenna drum for for a little while now love him as a player I think he's a great player he is so much more effective on the wing yes he's the only one that can R be win faceoffs right now but bringing in a guy like sha Monahan is great if only for that reason um there's a couple of other reasons that I kind of lik this signing I think uh Johnny GD uh obviously those guys are are really really close I think in press of today sha Mahan said that they were best friends um gdo wasn't necessarily the reason he came to Columbus Columbus was on his radar anyway Alle L um but having gdo here certainly helps um and this is a player that that gdo has played with a lot you know he's he's kind of he's not had a consistent linemate while he's been in Columbus and has still been you know just under a point per game player or near enough bring in someone like Monahan who gdo played with for a long time you know there was I think four years in a row where they were first and second on the team in scoring um back before Monahan got real injured and started to to fall off um and that's uh that's really enticing as well because if you can get Johnny Gad going and maybe he won't reach that 115 Point uh Pace that or Mark that he hit his final year in Calgary but if you can get you know 80 to 90 points out of out of Johnny GD or even you know if he can flirt with a 100 again because of sha manahan again that contract feels almost worth it you know know and and it's not like the contract is like super over like overpaid and over budget or whatever um I think he's his his contract estimate comes in as he is worth 4.6 but he got 5.5 so an extra 900k um and again probably a year twoo long but the Cap's going up next year the Cap's hopefully knock on wood going to continue to go up and I think that contract it might age not great but I think it'll probably age better than um a handful of other contract that the Blue Jackets have so it's not the worst contract on the team by any means I don't think it's going to age the worst on the team by any means um and I don't know I just the more I think about it the more I like this signing um and there's there's one more thing that I want to talk about in terms of Shawn Monahan and why I like this signing but that also ties into a potential issue with this contract signing so we're going to talk about that in just a second here un locked on Blue Jacket first I want to tell you about FanDuel I love sports I love them so much I never want them to stop but they got to stop sometime uh the NHL is done for the summer we're getting no games right now the sports aren't sporting like I want them to but FanDuel is here for you they let me keep the sports going whenever I want you can keep the sports going whenever you want all you got to do is open the app dream up bets anytime you're in the mood this summer Fel is even even hooking up every single customer with a boost or a bonus every single day that's right there something for everyone every day all summer long so head on over to fanduel.com lockon and start making the most of your summer FanDuel offal sports betting partner of Major League Baseball welcome back to lock on Blue Jackets we talking about Shan Monahan and what he what he brings to the team uh and maybe what he doesn't bring to the team and uh but mostly the first one if I'm being honest um something I didn't get a chance to talk about in in the first segment which is um again a not inconsiderable reason why they brought him in I think is the Blue Jackets have a lot of young centers you know fanly singer Veron COV um and now obviously Kaden Lindstrom in the mix as well he's not going to be on the team next year but he's going to be in the mix um Monahan should still be on the team by the time Lindstrom is ready to make the jump to the NHL um having someone that these kids can learn from I think is invaluable um there isn't really anyone on the team that is like like Sean carall ostensibly but he's not that same kind of high level Center that that Monahan could be if he manages to stay healthy we'll talk about that in in a second here but um you know like the Boon Boon is here Boon is a great veteran he's a great Captain I don't know that he's great at teaching the kids what they need to know to become great centers in this league I think sha Monahan knows he's been around the block um he was great as a veteran pres in Montreal for those two years we're going to have one of the um one of the wonderful folks over at lock on Habs come on the show to talk about sh manahan later this week um and we'll we'll surely talk a little bit about that um but having someone for them to learn from I think is is great again would I have done would I have done the contract for this long and this much money no but free agency you've got to overpay I don't think it's a Columbus tax in as much as it's a free agency tax I saw a couple of takes about that um earlier today people saying well that's the price that Columbus has to pay to get free agents um and I don't think it's a Columbus tax I think it's a free agent tax you see it every single Year everyone gets overpaid in free agency you know um but that's uh that's another really big reason is is letting the kids learn from him letting him kind of go into that next stage of his career where he does get to be a veteran he does get to be a teacher and will still hopefully be able to provide potentially top six I would put I would put him more in the middle six position um for at Center but again you could move him up and down the lineup but I would start him with goodro um and if that means that GD is on the second line in order to give fanelli more minutes I'm okay with that um which is what I want to talk about now actually which is kind of the flip side of having onean come in as a veteran Center and as someone that knows Johnny G is he's likely going to command those those Topline minutes unless you do a real kind of 1 a 1B situation with um with Monahan and fanelli but Boon is going to move to the wing I hope obviously this is all kind of up in the air in terms of who the new coach is we'll probably get an answer about that in in a week or so but if you can move Bo Jenna to the wing then your centers down the middle are fanelli Monahan Cinder Kali in that order please Blue Jackets um and then you've got Boon who can step in if needed you've got fonov who can step in if needed um and I imagine Sean caral is probably if not gone at the deadline it's probably gone as a UFA um at the end of the season anyway that frees up a spot for someone like ronov to slide back in to the center roll and then you know in a couple of years when Lindstrom is ready to make the jump you can move things around again um that being said if Monahan is going to get all of the ice time that we think fanelli should like that's kind of when I'm going to start to have a problem with this signing I think we saw it with buenna last year you know Bo Jenna played 24 minutes a game 27 minutes a game he played too much and the kids got less and less ice time or inconsistent ice time now a lot of this is because the coach going to be a new coach we don't know who it's going to be we know it's going to be someone with NHL experience my money is still on Todd MCL wouldn't hate Jay Woodcraft as an option but I think Todd mle is the front runner right now um Don woodell said in his in his press conference today that he started doing interviews so we'll see kind of where where it goes from there um but if we start seeing sha manahan get the bo Jenner effect then like that's something that I think I'm probably going to take I'm probably going to take umra at um and add into that Shan manahan's injury history he had a really great season this year I think he was fully healthy this year for the first time in you know quite a long time CU that was you can really kind of see the decline of I believe it was around about 2018 2019 when he got injured and you can see just the sheer drop in efficiency for him in points he went from having 82 points in 78 games to 48 points in 70 games the next year 28 in 50 23 in 65 um and then when he was with the Canadians started to pick back up again had 17 points in 25 games for them but did miss most of that season again with that kind of I believe it's a recurring hip injury so if Sean mahan's healthy if he's fully healthy if he's ready to go if he doesn't get injured again which knock on would we know what the Blue Jackets are like we know the injury curse sha please don't wear 27 um because we need to just keep that number away from everyone who has even a hint of potential injury H bad luck but that's kind of again there's a lot of ifs with the Monahan contract it's if he pans out if he gets injured if he can stay healthy if he can recreate that chemistry with goodro like there's a lot of again moving Parts a lot of ifs lot of butts lot of um up in the air n that's not a thing but um my point here is there's a real high risk High reward or medium risk medium reward probably high medium high medium mediumish um you know I don't think he's going to turn into an elite Center all of a sudden but if he can be a serviceable quite good Center that can win faceoffs and be a good influence on the kids and he can be that for the for the bulk of his contract great if he gets injured year one and the blue jacket have to bury him in in longterm I or if he comes back and just kind of limps his way through the contract then that's not great you know so I imagine it'll probably be somewhere in between those hopefully closer to you know I would love to see him play you know 70 to 80 games this season if not more but I feel like someone with injury history someone uh who is kind of in in that stage in his career if you can get 70 to 80 games out of Shawn Monahan and if you can get 780 good games at of Shawn Monahan then that feels like a pretty um it's like a pretty good value for money contract for me um again in terms of like what I'm expecting for points he had UH 60 he had 59 points this season in total I believe if I am doing the math right um 59 points in uh 83 games if we can get 50 to 60 points maybe maybe 60 to 70 depending on you know but but okay let's aim for 50 to 70 we can get 50 to 70 points out of out of Shawn Monahan and 20 to 25 goals next season I'm thrilled you know I'm not expecting the moon I'm not expecting more than that but I uh I am quietly optimistic and I know that quietly seems stupid because I've just spent 17 minutes talking about it and giving my opinion but I am I think more optimistic now that I've had time to sit down and look at the player look at the contract look at the situation um that uh I feel feel much better than it this morning um and then the other thing as well which I haven't really talked about isn't really like much of a deal with Monahan specifically but the Blue Jackets even with the Monahan signing still have uh $18.8 million in cap space they only need to resign marenko singer and Johnson with that money potentially Jake Christiansen will uh will make a jump um but I'm not again I'm expecting Maybe 1.5 maybe two maybe probably not even that for Christianson so not going to break the bank even if that does Go full two million that's still almost $16 million to spend on marchenko singer and Johnson I think I said yesterday that if you could get all three of those players done for 12 million that feels reasonable um and if you move L then you get an extra almost $9 million that you can do stuff with you know um I I do think that this signing means that it is a little bit more important that you move all of L's contract um I feel like before this signing I was happy for us to retain a little bit but I think I would rather take a slightly lower return than retain money in this case so you know there's there's potential to have again I can't do math on the fly but potential to have almost $27 million in cap space I don't think the Blue Jackets are done they're looking for a depth defenseman who's that going to be we just we don't know um but again I'm not expecting the bank to break there exactly you know in my in my opinion they're looking for a Scott Harrington type which again I talked about yesterday of someone who is maybe gonna play 25 to 30 Games he's going to fill in for injuries he's going to spend most of his time in the Press Box um and is going to should be that depth guy that that doesn't need to play every night and is not an active liability when he's on the ice um as you know rare as the case may be um and again that's 1.52 million for a year two years that that feels again I'm not I'm not mad about that so they've still got cap flexibility I'm still Everything is Everything is Fine obviously freeing up bists three million is gives them more flexibility um they're not signing Bean uh they haven't signed neander um so now we wait and see what maeno Johnson and cylinders contract are going to look like and uh they'll probably sign them uh I'm going to be on a plane like July 10th so look out for a big news day then um gon to take another quick break and then I want to talk about who the monsters lost this uh on on this this free agent day because a lot of the monsters ufas um have gone to different teams so we're going to talk about who's left and uh who has gone and where they've gone so we'll talk about that in just a second here unlocked on Blue Jackets welcome back to lock on Blue Jackets we're talking about uh free agency and the boot jackets only brought one player in um but they did sign two players to uh extensions minor league extend or um elc's technically I imagine both players will uh will probably spend most of the time with Cleveland um but a bunch of their ufas have have gone elsewhere so let's let's talk about that um first off we'll talk about who stayed uh Owen singer has signed a one-year contract it's a two-way contract he I believe is uh too old to sign what's technically an ELC but that's basically what it is and then um Cole Clayton who is a depth defenseman for the monsters and had a very good season with the monsters and a decent playoffs as well rewarded with a onee ELC for him as well I think both of those things are um potential injury cover and hey let's see if we've got some depth pieces here um Owen singer I like a lot he plays that kind of um friend of the show de Weinheimer always calls him the Swiss army knife you know he does that BNA thing if he plays anywhere in the lineup first line fourth line Wing Center you could put him on defense and he'd probably be okay maybe not in goal but hey who knows um again Clayton really solid depth defenseman for the monsters not expecting to move the needle at the NHL level but is good to have insurance especially because uh a lot of the monsters veteran core has gone elsewhere um so Josh Dunn has gone to Buffalo um and I believe signed a two-year contract there um Nick blankenberg has gone to Nashville uh Brendan GN has gone to Minnesota and uh veteran defenseman Billy Sweezy has gone home to Boston so that's that is three big pieces of the core including the monster's captain and uh one potential top four defenseman in blankenberg so that's uh there are some holes to fill there and um GA dun uh all four of them actually were on um had NHL contract because they all played um up in the NHL this season I believe I don't remember if Billy Sweezy played this season or last season but he has played in the NHL for the Blue Jackets either this season or last so there's four guys on NHL contracts that they could use for call-up so like it makes sense that they have um moved or or given some some more guys NHL invited some more options for NHL lineups um we'll probably see a fair amount of them in preseason uh but it's going to be a very different uh a very different Monsters uh very different monsters team I believe that's all of the all of the ufas um have have left um Carson Meer hasn't gone elsewhere but has um is going elsewhere essentially um because they basically have just said that they're not um they are not signing um they basically said they're not giving him a contract he hasn't signed it anywhere else yet but he is going somewhere else um in terms of other other um players that haven't signed elsewhere but are former Blue Jackets um I believe I think I do think that's all of them um minus Carson Meer obviously um but yeah it's going to be a and they didn't really add anyone to to fill out the um the monsters and they did have a lot of players this year they had a kind of a log Jam especially a lot of a lot of young players came in um the blue jacket are um the the Blue Jackets are gonna have to make a decision on players like d Muk who could potentially be a monster players like Gavin Brindley I think with the addition of Shawn Monahan makes it likely that Brindley is going to at least start the season in the AHL and is going to have to work his way up um something else that Don woodell said in his press conference earlier today is um that or yesterday excuse me I'm recording this on on Monday night um he said that it's really important not to rush Prospect and just because they look like they can play in the pros doesn't mean they're ready to play in the pros and this was kind of in regards to a guy like Kaden Lind it was in regards to David yek actually and D Mauk and he said he was really impressed with d matuk watched him in the handful of games that he played for the monsters um at the end of the season in the playoffs and um I think this applies to some like gav Brindley as well I really wouldn't be surprised to see him with the monsters I think he'll make a push to make the team but adding in Monahan um again lots of moving Parts if line goes you could see a space open up there for Brindley but uh as of as of right now I think it's going to be a very young monsters team uh because all of the players are just uh babies are just um Blue Jacket prospects which is not a bad thing um I I can see monsters fans being a little bit kind of disappointed by this especially you know they had such a excuse me the pun monster season last year um that taking us it'll feel like taking a step back but looking at the players that the Blue Jackets have um under contract for the monsters next season um Hunter maau is still there Mel pucher um Luca penelli uh Luca Del Bell B Jordan deay Cameron Butler who played last season Max McHugh is is starting his pro career James mesta who was an option at the NHL level I believe um this this organization likes him a lot TR fix wanski is still there and of course Owen singer um similar things on defense Cole Clayton uh cson kouman is still there they've got yurich and matuk both on uh the the uh minor league roster right now Samuel kesco o julan Bor molm St fosil and J needs a new contract but is still there um oh I've remembered another UFA Malcolm suban who I don't believe has signed anywhere yet but I is unlikely to be back with the team I think um I think Nolan L will be uh making the making the jump to to the the pros so again lots of moving Parts lots of people uh I assume we'll get more information uh kind of as in when it happens probably as soon as um you guys listen to this there will be more signings more leavings potentially a trade um so we'll we'll update you as as best we can um we're going to have another double episode day because um yesterday I had a really great chat with James tub who work for a newspaper in Medicine Hat covers the Medicine Hat tigers and I wanted to get his Insight on Kaden Lindstrom so we're going to have that out for you um later this afternoon I had a really great talk really really even more excited about Lindstrom than I was previously um so that's coming up later today thank you for listening to this episode for making it your first listen of the day every single day lock on Blue Jackets continues to be free and available on all podcast platforms over on YouTube and on SiriusXM thank you for listening uh once again I have been Jay Foster you can find me on Twitter _ ja j a k o b f o r s t e r you can find the show at lore bluejackets if you have comments questions criticisms email me at locked on bluejackets gmail.com thank you once again for listening and until this afternoon make sure you stay locked on