Jackets coach plans to make use of roster depth

John Tortorella isn’t ruling out anything when it comes to the Blue Jackets’ opening-night roster.

While Tortorella and his coaching staff have cut down their roster earlier this year than in previous years, that doesn’t mean they’re done making moves.

Forwards Zac Dalpe, Markus Hannikainen and Ryan Macinnis and defenseman Adam Clendening cleared waivers Tuesday, one day after being assigned to the Cleveland Monsters of the American Hockey League. Yet all might play in an exhibition game tonight at Buffalo.

“As I’ve always said, competition for positions is healthy for your team,” Tortorella said. “That’s good news for an organization when you feel like you have some depth at positions. I think there’s six or seven guys playing (tonight) who were sent down, but they may play a really good game and it might make us do Blue Jackets rookie center Emil Bemstrom, right, has made his presence known on the power play during the preseason.

different things at the next practice. That’s the great thing about having Cleveland right down the street from us.”

The biggest areas of uncertainty for the Blue Jackets are the third and fourth forward lines, along with finalizing defensive pairings — things Tortorella said he’ll be looking at in the final three exhibition games.

“These are three

pretty important games for a number of people,” he said.

The Blue Jackets have 28 players on the roster, which needs to be cut to 23 by their season opener on Oct. 4.

A player sitting squarely on the roster bubble is Sonny Milano, a first-round pick in 2014 who spent almost all of last season in Cleveland. He has shown flashes (22 points in 55 games in

2017-2018), but making the Blue Jackets roster out of camp will be contingent upon him putting together a solid all-around showing.

“The most important thing is that he doesn’t always have to make an offensive play every time he’s on the ice. That’s what puts him in a jam,” Tortorella said. “I think he understands positioning — it’s when he has the puck and he’s trying

to make something out of nothing that is the problem. We’re going to keep looking at him.”

One of the key factors the coaching staff will be evaluating is how players perform away from the puck.

“I think we need to have more grind in our game when it comes to playing away from the puck,” Tortorella said. “We have two young goalies, and we need to let them get their feet underneath them as we start the year. That’s incumbent upon us being a really stiff team. It’s a tremendous concentration of mine to be able to play four lines.”

One player whom Tortorella said needs to improve playing off the puck is Emil Bemstrom, who could be a wild card in deciding the Blue Jackets’ third and fourth lines.

Bemstrom, who led the Swedish Hockey League with 23 goals last season, has excelled in the power play this preseason, including a power-play goal 52 seconds into the first game. If the 20-year-old continues to look like an NHL player, he could be a game-changer for the Blue Jackets.

“You have a different look on a fourth line if he’s there — maybe he even ends up playing higher than the fourth line,” Tortorella said.

On Tuesday, Bemstrom filled in on the first line for Pierre Luc-dubois, who missed practice because of an illness.

Regardless of what roster decisions are made, Tortorella’s depth will be on display almost immediately.

“I want to use my bench,” he said. “I think it’s very important that we do that and feel comfortable with that. I’m not saying I have all the answers and feel comfortable right now; we just need to let this develop.”