Jackets, Umberger agree trade is needed
The Blue Jackets’ offseason roster tweaks could include one of the club’s longest-tenured players being traded.
Sources have told The Dispatch that R.J. Umberger’s end-of-season meeting with Blue Jackets management and coaches ended with a mutual agreement that Umberger would go on the trading block this summer.
Umberger, who was a healthy scratch in four lateseason games, requested the trade, the sources said. He declined to comment when reached by The Dispatch on Friday. General manager Jarmo Kekalainen, reached at the
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world championships in Belarus, also declined to comment.
Umberger, who is signed through the 2016-17 season at a $4.6 million salary-cap hit, has a no-trade clause in his contract through June 14. On June 15, the full no-trade clause becomes a limited clause, and Umberger will provide the Blue Jackets with 10 NHL clubs to which he would not approve a trade.That would leave 19 teams.
Umberger was angered and hurt late in the regular season when he was made a healthy scratch four times in a sevengame stretch while the Blue Jackets were fighting for a spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Coach Todd Richards never said specifically why he was scratching Umberger, only that he wanted to play a faster, more physical game and had other players — Corey Tropp, specifically — who were playing more to his liking.
“I feel like I’ve been through a lot here with this team,” Umberger said at the time. “These are the kind of games I’ve always dreamed about playing here, so to not be out there is hard to take.”
Kekalainen said days after the Blue Jackets were eliminated from the playoffs by Pittsburgh in the first round that Richards and his assistants would be signed to long-term contract extensions this summer.
By all accounts, Richards and Umberger never let the situation become personal or unprofessional, but the prospects of playing out his contract in Columbus under Richards might not be attractive to Umberger.
Then again, it might not be easy for the Blue Jackets to trade Umberger, given his contract.
After averaging 23 goals and 50 points in his first four seasons with the Blue Jackets, he has only 26 goals and 52 points in his past 122 games.At 32, he’s not getting any quicker, but Umberger has a reputation for coming up big in big games, such as the playoffs.
What could help the Blue Jackets is all the upheaval across the league this summer.
San Jose, Pittsburgh, Vancouver and Washington — powerhouse clubs in recent years — are facing sweeping changes after disappointing seasons. Ottawa is looking to make changes, too, after center Jason Spezza requested a trade.
It’s unlikely the Blue Jackets would opt to buy out the remaining three years on Umberger’s contract. That would cost them roughly $1.55 million per season for the next six years.
Umberger had 18 goals, 16 assists and a minus-3 rating in 74 games with the Blue Jackets this season. He led the club with eight power-play goals.
After the season, he told the media that he had a broken finger, a separated shoulder, a herniated disc, a bruised left hand and a cut beneath his left eye that required stitches.But he gave no indication that he was expecting to leave Columbus, his second home since 2000, when he began a threeyear run at Ohio State.
After four years in the Flyers organization, Umberger was traded to the Blue Jackets at the 2008 NHL draft. Only right wing Jared Boll has been with the Blue Jackets longer, and only Rick Nash (674), David Vyborny (543) and Rostislav Klesla (515) played more games for the Blue Jackets than Umberger (445).
He’s second on the franchise list in goals (120) and powerplay goals (40), third in points (250) and winning goals (15) and fourth in assists (130).
If he is traded this summer, Umberger’s lasting memory in Columbus will be from one of his last games. In Game 4 against Pittsburgh at Nationwide Arena, Umberger hit the ice to block a shot by Penguins defenseman Olli Maatta. Seconds later, he made the pass that sprung Nick Foligno on a rush to score the overtime winner.