When GM Don Waddell gave his exit interview last Friday, he made a few interesting comments.
One of the comments was that he thought he "has most of the pieces in the locker room" to make a playoff run soon.
The second was that he thought Elvis Merzļikins was better and won more games for the team than he lost, but he was still looking for more consistency.
The 2024-25 season for Merzļikins was much better for him. His win total doubled over the previous year, his GAA was down, and he was relatively healthy until the concussion he suffered at the end of the season.
Where Merzļikins didn't improve was his save percentage, and that's an issue. His SV% for this past season was .892%, which was a career low. The Jackets being able to outscore their problems (stopping pucks) saved their bacon on more than one occasion. For what it's worth, Daniil Tarasov's SV% was .881%.
Jet Greaves will be with Columbus next year, and Daniil Tarasov most likely won't be brought back, but what about Elvis? What are their options?
Merzļikins has two years left on his current deal at a cap hit of $5,400,000 per. They could trade him, but would most likely need to eat some of his salary, which they could easily afford.
The next option would be to buy him out this summer. This tool is something that Don Waddell said as recently as last Friday that they haven't considered "at this time."
A Merzļikins buyout would look like this per PuckPedia.com:
- $9,750,000 is the total remaining base salary.
- Because of his age, he would be due a 67% buyout for a remainder of $6,500,000.
- The Annual Buyout Cost would be $1,625,000 paid out over the next four years, ending in 2028-29.
- For the first two years, the CBJ would save $6,500,000.
- The actual cap hit would be $1,500,000(25-26), $2,800,000(26-27), $1,625,000(27-28), and $1,625,000(28-29).
So what do the Blue Jackets do? Don't be shocked if the two goalies in Columbus next year are Merzļikins and Greaves. There aren't too many UFA goalies on the market either. They could trade for one, but that would cost them some good assets. Waddell has two first-round picks this year and seems more than willing to part with them.
Stay tuned. Don Waddell is going to be a busy man this summer and will be making some important decisions. The goalie position is probably the most important one he has to make.
Let us know what you think below.
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