Columbus Blue Jackets reduce salary with Voracek deal, flip Quick to Golden Knights
In a span of two hours, the Blue Jackets completed two more moves Thursday to address roster issues a day before the NHL trade deadline.
The first was a deal with the Arizona Coyotes to offload the final year of forward Jakub Voracek’s contract, creating $8.25 million in immediate salary-cap space. The second was a trade that made goalie Jonathan Quick both a Vegas Golden Knight and the likely answer to a future trivia question about which former Blue Jacket goalie had the shortest tenure in Columbus.
Quick, acquired early Wednesday from the Los Angeles Kings, never left his home in California and was quickly flipped to Vegas 36 hours later — sending the 37-year old to a playoff contender for what could be the conclusion of his NHL career. The Golden Knights sent goalie Michael Hutchinson, 33, plus a 2025 seventh-round pick to Columbus.
Hutchinson, who’s spent the entire season with Henderson of the American Hockey League, has an expiring one-year contract worth $750,000 at the NHL level. He’s expected to join the Blue Jackets on Friday to assume the backup role behind Elvis Merzlikins.
Columbus included its sixth-round pick in this year’s draft and received goalie Jon Gillies, 29, from the Coyotes in the Voracek deal. Gillies, who’s spent the season with the Tucson Roadrunners in the AHL, was assigned to the Cleveland Monsters.
“This move provides us with some organizational goaltending depth for the remainder of the season and flexibility from a salary-cap standpoint to improve our team moving forward,” Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen said in a statement.
Most important for Kekalainen in Thursday’s dealings were the cap space gained and money owed on Voracek’s final contract year, which now belong to the Coyotes. Voracek, who enjoyed an impressive return to the Blue Jackets last season, has missed most of this campaign with concussion-related issues stemming from a game in November against the Colorado Avalanche. His career might be over, which makes him a candidate for long-term injured reserve next season.
That's important because of the league's LTIR salary-cap relief exception. Had the Blue Jackets hung onto Voracek, they could've gained relief over the cap next season by however much adding his contract would've pushed them over the ceiling ― which for this season is $82.5 million.
Trading him freed up $8.25 million in immediately available cap space for the Blue Jackets, who can use it to help fill out next season's roster. According to Cap Friendly, the Blue Jackets have 16 players under NHL contracts for 2023-24 at a total of $63,204,166. Should the cap rise by a projected $1 million to $83.5 million, Columbus could head into the summer with $19,404,167 to fill out the remaining NHL roster via free agency (restricted/unrestricted) or trades.
The Blue Jackets could also bank cap space for future years, when a host of talented young players become RFAs for the first time.
As for adding two depth goaltenders, that became necessary after Korpisalo was traded while the Blue Jackets and Monsters dealing with a rash of injuries. Rookie Daniil Tarasov, who had hip surgery last season, has battled additional health challenges in Cleveland this year and the Monsters are still fighting for a playoff spot.
Other goaltending options in Cleveland include Jet Greaves, who’s shuttled between the Monsters and Blue Jackets as an emergency backup, and AHL rookie Pavel Cajan.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Blue Jackets find deals for Jakub Voracek, Jonathan Quick
