Ron Hainsey to test UFA waters, Blue Jackets to pursue Blake Wheeler

A couple of interesting nuggets this morning from the Columbus Dispatch:

The first being that to no one’s surprise Ron Hainsey will test the UFA waters on July 1st:

Defenseman Ron Hainsey will test the waters of unrestricted free agency, his agent said.

"We've had very cordial talks with the Blue Jackets," Matt Keator said. "They like Ron. But they want to see what's out there, and that's their prerogative.

"Ron loves it in Columbus, and they've been very fair to him. Scott (Howson) has been great to deal with. But we agreed to go to July 1 and see how it unfolds. We told them we won't sign with anybody after July 1 until we talk to the Blue Jackets first. We made them that promise."

There are only four quality puck-moving defensemen available via free agency -- Brian Campbell, Redden, John-Michael Liles and Hainsey.

I sure wouldn't put Ron Hainsey's name with that group. Those other 3 have done it longer, more consistantly and are quite frankly are better in all 3 zone than Hainsey. Hainsey is in that second tier with guys like Michal Rozsival.

I've been over this multiple times in this space, so I won't go into overkill here. For the Jackets, this is the right decision. I mean close to $5 million an offensive defenseman who, with all the power play time in the world, could only muster 32 points?

No thanks.

He was also a -7 against other teams' second lines most of the year. Down the stretch he certainly did not do much to warrant that kind of payday. He scored four points and was a whopping -13 over the last 15 games.

As I've stated before, he's come a long way since the Jackets acquired him off waivers from Montreal, but this team must think bigger.

Our transition game and power play were horrendous and Ron Hainsey was a big part of that. Could he be better in a lesser role? Maybe, but then again only seven of his 32 points came at even strength. So with less power play time, what would we be getting for up to $5.5 million a year?

I appreciate his willingness to stay in this market but you know what? David Vyborny and Jody Shelley loved Columbus. Should we have re-signed them too?

Do you want to win or do you want a losing team with a bunch of players who love Columbus?

Right now, the Jackets defense looks as follows:

XXX Klesla
XXX Hejda
Rome/Tollefsen/Russell/Methot/Wilson/Sigalet

*of course Klesla/Hejda could be paired as well

Putting Hainsey in that top for a high price will not be good enough to turn this defense into a playoff caliber one, especially in terms of generating offense. That's the goal here.

Also, don't rule out a trade to acquire a defenseman in addition to signing a big UFA. There has been a lot of speculation about the Jackets shipping their 19th overall pick for Pavel Kubina of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Names to keep an eye on include Campbell/Redden/Liles/Rozsival/Kaberle/Kubina/Pitkanen/Whitney

Another very interesting nugget was the fact that the Jackets plan on pursing free agent Blake Wheeler.

If you recall, in 2004 the Phoenix Coyotes shocked the NHL with the selection of Minnesota's Blake Wheeler, the fifth overall selection. At that time it was widely believed Wheeler wouldn't be selected until late in the first round, but Phoenix obviously liked his size and potential and drafted him as a project.

Hockeysfuture's talent analysis on Wheeler:

Over the last couple seasons, Wheeler has added a lot of size. He’s s filling out, and still growing into his frame. Wheeler is a good skater, has deceptive speed, and has great acceleration when needed, but needs to increase his stamina. He can stickhandle at top speed, but needs to develop more moves, especially power driven moves coming out of the corner. He needs to be a bit more creative on the forecheck, using his body and keeping his legs constantly moving. When he shows spurts of confidence driven play, he can be very effective on forecheck, most notably down low. He needs to continue to improve on creating space and or distance while he’s on the puck. He has the ability to play on special teams.

Wheeler is a 6' 3" 205lb right wing who played three years at Minnesota before turning pro this summer.

He scored 23, 38 and 35 points over that span. Not bad considering NCAA hockey only plays about 40 games a year.

He couldn't come to contract terms with Phoenix, so he will become an Unrestricted Free Agent. The Coyotes will be compensated with the 34th pick overall (which unfortunately bumps everyone down a spot after including knocking the Jackets 36th to 37th).

As alluded to in the paper, it's thought that Minnesota will be the odds on favorite to land Wheeler. I'm sure in addition to the Jackets, there will be many more teams interested in signing the 22 year old.

Do the Jackets have a realistic shot?

It all depends on what Wheeler is after. He'll obviously favor his hometown Wild for obvious reasons. If that doesn't work out, it's anyone's guess.

Does he want the bright lights of the big city like New York, LA or Toronto?

Does he want to go where he puts himself in the best position to make the NHL? If that's the case, then perhaps the Jackets make some sense. Wheeler would fit nicely just behind Jakub Voracek on the depth chart.

Does he want to go where there is some hockey history? If so, cross Columbus off the list.

What about a young and upcoming team? If so, then teams like Columbus, Chicago and LA would make sense. Of course so did Phoenix.

I personally wouldn't count on the Jackets landing Wheeler. It would be a nice addition, but who wouldn't like young power forward who already has some key development years under his belt?

Unfortunately, Columbus is probably pretty far down Wheeler's list, but it's good to know Howson is interested and you never know because after all the tradition, hometowns, young teams and Cups, money typically talks the loudest.

-LTL

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