Blue Jackets gamble with expansion draft, leave Max Domi unprotected

Max Domi’s overtime goal against the Detroit Red Wings on May 8 was the Blue Jackets’ final goal in a season that concluded with a last-place finish in the Central Division. 

It might also be Domi’s final goal for the Blue Jackets, who are rolling the dice by leaving the injured forward unprotected and available for the Seattle Kraken in Wednesday's NHL’s expansion draft. Instead, the team included Eric Robinson on a list of seven protected forwards turned into the NHL at 5 p.m. Saturday. 

The league released the protection lists the Kraken will select from, excluding only the Vegas Golden Knights as part of a deal that team struck with the league in 2017 as an expansion franchise.  

Domi had shoulder surgery June 4 and won't be available at the start of the season. He's also a pending unrestricted free agent who can test the open market next offseason.

"It’s a calculated risk with his injury, and we’ll see what happens," Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen said. "We’re going to lose one player. There’s no way around it. We felt this was a way to protect another one and take a calculated risk that they’re not going to take a player who’s out until December and is a pending UFA.” 

The Blue Jackets' protected list includes Robinson, Patrik Laine, Cam Atkinson, Gustav Nyquist, Boone Jenner, Oliver Bjorkstrand and Jack Roslovic as seven protected forwards. Seth Jones, Zach Werenski and Vladislav Gavrikov fill three protected defensemen slots and goalie Joonas Korpisalo is the lone protected goalie. 

Elvis Merzlikins, who has split the net with Korpisalo the past two seasons, didn't require protection because he hasn’t played long enough professionally in North America.

Teams were given two options to protect players — the one the Blue Jackets utilized and one allowing teams to protect eight skaters regardless of position plus one goalie. Most teams used the 7-3-1 plan, allowing them to keep more players, but those who wanted to protect more than three defensemen could choose the 8-1 option. 

Domi tops a list of 11 Blue Jackets forwards available to Seattle. The others are Kevin Stenlund, Kole Sherwood, Nathan Gerbe, Zac Dalpe, Mikhail Grigorenko, Cliff Pu, Daniel Zaar, Stefan Matteau, Calvin Thurkauf and Ryan MacInnis. 

Exposed defensemen are Dean Kukan, Scott Harrington, Gabriel Carlsson, Gavin Bayreuther, Michael Del Zotto and Adam Clendening. The lone goalie available is Cam Johnson, who was re-signed Friday to a one-year, two-way contract that made him eligible to be exposed. The Blue Jackets were expected to expose goalie Matiss Kivlenieks, but he died July 4 in a fireworks accident. 

Domi was unavailable for comment. The versatile 26-year old forward is six weeks into his recovery from the surgery to repair a labral tear in his right shoulder. The recovery timeline following the procedure is five to six months, which means start of November is probably his earliest return possibility.

Assuming a mid-October start, that might still be a month into next season.

Domi has one year left on a two-year extension he signed with the Blue Jackets following a trade with the Montreal Canadiens in October in exchange for forward Josh Anderson. It's a deal that carries a $5.3 million charge against the NHL's $81.5 million salary cap, which creates a potential dilemma for Seattle.

Ron Francis, the Kraken's general manager, said Saturday he views cap space as his most valuable asset going into an important week. The Kraken's NHL roster will be determined with the expansion draft, and the team will gain a slew of prospects in the NHL's amateur draft on Friday and Saturday.

Regardless, Domi easily tops the list of available Blue Jackets in terms of age, talent, experience and rebound potential. He's also a center, which are scarce on the Blue Jackets' roster. Should the Kraken take Domi, Boone Jenner would be the Blue Jackets' best two-way center, and other pivots would include Roslovic, Stenlund and Alexandre Texier.

"Max played both center and wing for us last year, and if we lose him, we lose him," Kekalainen said. "That’s a risk we were willing to take, and it gave us an opportunity to protect somebody else. And as you can calculate here, he could only be of use for us from December to the deadline if he either wasn’t in our long-term plans or if he didn’t want to sign with us."

The Jackets feared losing Robinson more, despite just 15 goals, 15 assists and 30 points in his first 120 NHL games. Robinson has elite speed that can flip momentum in a matter of seconds. He also impressed while playing higher in the lineup, skating at times on a second line centered by Domi. He showed promise, driving puck possession and creating scoring chances, but Robinson has struggled to convert enough of his chances into goals at the NHL level. 

"He’s been progressing and trending in the right direction, and we see him as a guy we want to keep into the future," Kekalainen said. "He’s got a lot of things going for him and we hope that he can take it to another level.” 

Consistency was an issue for Domi, but he has put up strong offensive numbers in the past and showed significant improvement in the final weeks of this season, finishing with nine goals, 15 assists and 24 points in 54 games. 

bhedger@dispatch.com

@BrianHedger

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