Jarmo Kekäläinen has a special problem

Jarmo Kekäläinen is trying to sell his defenders. PDO

The Columbus Blue Jackets were reviewed by the following reporter Aaron Portzline tells The Athletic in an article published on the pages of the magazine, that Sinitake has too many players.

– Of course, the biggest concern is the NHL lineup, but it is not the only club that is full. In the AHL, Cleveland has five extra forwards and three extra defensemen, Portzline says.

This means that not all players can play. The problem is especially young and talented promises that do not develop in the stands.

For example, the booking of the second round of summer 2022 in Columbus Luca Del Bel Belluz19, has been in the AHL in the early season on a trip to Cleveland, but the youngster has not been able to play a game yet, despite being completely healthy.

– Kekäläinen works on the phone and tries to trade a defender, Portzline reveals.

Columbus really has an oversupply of pucks on the NHL side. A skilled and promising Swedish team Adam Boqvist has had to sit down lately Andrew Peeken with in the pop department because Columbus has eight healthy defensemen.

Only super promise from them David Jirice too, 19, could be sent to the AHL without having to go through the transfer list. However, the Czech player has been so good that they want to play him in the NHL team.

So Columbus now has two healthy NHL-level defensemen sitting in the stands.

Last season, the situation was the opposite. Columbus suffered the second most injuries in the entire NHL, so there were hardly any healthy giants sitting in the stands.

Columbus players were on the sidelines for a total of 545 regular season games last season. The number one injury statistic was Montreal, whose players missed a total of exactly 600 regular season games last season.