Just when you thought the Blue Jackets couldn't add any more defensemen, they surprised everyone by acquiring Damon Severson in a sign and trade from Columbus for a third-round pick. And he's getting paid – eight years at $6.25 million per season. I don't think this trade affects Severson as much as some of the other defensemen on the Columbus roster, as I'll explain.

In a way, it's a smart move for the Blue Jackets. Most teams seem to be in the market for a true top-4 defenseman, and things get more challenging when one on the roster is injured. However, are the Blue Jackets going to address their main weakness, which is a lack of forward depth? When the discussion around who centers Johnny Gaudreau and Patrik Laine includes below-1C options Boone Jenner and Jack Roslovic along with not-yet-there Kent Johnson and Cole Sillinger and maybe even who they draft at third overall, there is a specific need. But the offseason runway is still long, and Jarmo Kekalainen might still have more up his sleeve. In other words, don't consider this a fully constructed roster yet.

What about all these other defensemen? The first place I went to was the Blue Jackets' CapFriendly page. Sure enough, not many defensemen are coming off the books. NHL/AHL tweener Gavin Bayreuther is the only UFA, while Tim Berni is the only RFA. I have to think that Kekalainen isn't done and at least one defenseman currently on the roster is traded for scoring help.

From the depth chart below, David Jiricek could still make the Blue Jackets this season, but if so, he will probably be playing limited and sheltered minutes and seems unlikely to have meaningful fantasy value right away. Denton Mateychuk will probably have to wait at least one more year and maybe more, which might be better for his development in the long run anyway.

And Severson.
This is lining up to be the most mobile group of D in the league:
This yr:
Werenski/Severson
Provorov/Boqvist
Bean/Jiricek

2024-25:
add in Mateychu/Ceulemans https://t.co/1NRtpfdGcv

— Dobber (@DobberHockey) June 9, 2023

Not listed and could be expendable:

Nick Blankenburg, who has shown some promise offensively and some peripheral value as well. The smaller (5-9, 177 lbs) onetime college free agent seems like he could often be a healthy scratch if he sticks around.

Andrew Peeke, who doesn't provide much offense but has very strong hits and blocked shots totals. Peeke also had the worst plus-minus in the league last season (minus-41), so I'd expect his icetime to be cut after averaging over 21 minutes per game over the past two seasons.

Erik Gudbranson, who has three more years left on his contract. Whether he's still effective at the NHL level is up for debate, but his trade value is most likely minimal.

Again, I'll reiterate that I doubt this defense is a finished product and that Kekalainen is most likely trying to shed one or more of the three d-men listed above. Jake Bean or Adam Boqvist could also be trade bait, but we'll have to see what happens.

For more, including a detailed breakdown of Severson's abilities, check out Cliffy's Fantasy Take.

–

According to Kevin Weekes, Ryan Huska will be named the new Flames' head coach at a press conference on Monday.

–

This week we'll spend some time in the assists category, specifically whether a player's assist total could increase or decrease. One way to determine that is through the primary and secondary assist category. Simply put, a higher-than-normal percentage of secondary assists means that the player has outproduced their expected assist total, and vice-versa. I'll start with players that experienced a high primary assist percentage, which should be an indicator that the previous season's total is sustainable.

Leon Draisaitl

This might be an easy or obvious one, but there are a number of reasons that Draisaitl should keep up his current point pace. One of which is a usually high shooting percentage, which I pointed out last week. Another is his percentage of secondary assists, which dropped from the 40-45% range the last few seasons to just 21% in 2022-23. In other words, Draisaitl recorded a career-high 76 assists, but only 16 of them were secondary assists. That's a sign that he was usually very involved in scoring chances.

Draisaitl was tied with teammate Connor McDavid for the league lead in primary assists (60). Just like the two Oilers ran away with the scoring title, they were also the leaders by a wide margin in primary assists, with Nikita Kucherov posting the next-highest total (48). As mentioned as well last week, Draisaitl's goal total was heavily concentrated around the power play, but the same can't quite be said about primary and secondary assists. A total of 39 of his primary assists were even strength, while just 20 primary assists were on the power play.   

Clayton Keller

Keller smashed his career highs in all scoring categories in 2022-23, which included a run of 48 points over his last 39 games. As you might expect on a team like Arizona, he was a key play driver, which showed in his primary assist rate (77.6%). Of his career high 49 assists, 38 were primary assists. Between 30-50% of his assists had been secondary, so a 22% secondary assist rate reveals that there is more room for growth.

The Coyotes' future is anything but certain in Arizona, and Keller may not want to stick around if the organization continues to spin its wheels. For Keller to reach his true upside, he may need to move on unless some of the young prospects come of age. Although the 24-year-old exceeded his previous career high by 23 points, his past season's output (86 PTS in 82 GP) seems sustainable.

Sebastian Aho

Aho maintained a similar goal total this season compared to last season, reaching the 35-goal mark for the second consecutive season. However, his assist total slipped from 44 to 31, which meant he fell below the point-per-game mark for his lowest point pace in six seasons (0.89 PTS/GP).

You can look directly at his secondary assist total for the reduction, as he recorded just seven secondary assists all season compared to 24 primary assists. Compare that to 2021-22, when he recorded 16 secondary assists and 28 primary assists. A 22.6% secondary assist rate is lower than the 35-45% secondary assist rate he has had for much of his career.

Although the Canes regularly juggle their lines, the loss of Andrei Svechnikov seemed to impact Aho in the assists department. Over his last 22 games Aho recorded just three assists, with most of those games happening without Svechnikov out of the lineup. That downturn shouldn't all be the result of one player, as Aho had just eight assists over his last 38 games. Certainly there's some room for improvement there, which I would bet on happening next season.

–

I was invited onto the Fantasy NHL Today podcast at Sports Ethos earlier this week, where I discussed pending free agents and other fantasy topics with Blake Creamer. Give it a listen, will ya? Blake likes to have fun and is very enthusiastic about the fantasy game. We discuss the Ivan Provorov trade before the Severson trade happened, thinking at that point that the Jackets already had too many d-men.

🚨 New Pod!! 🚨@Ian_Gooding joins me to discuss the upcoming free agents in the NHL and their fantasy outlooks for next season! This was a great conversation! LG2B!!#hockeytwitter

Spotify: https://t.co/CUsrv4vHf7
Apple: https://t.co/yKjHrGOI2m
Listen: https://t.co/EMbSkGxNC3

— Blake Creamer (@BlakeCreamerSE) June 8, 2023

–

Follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding for more fantasy hockey.