Seattle Kraken Acquire F Oliver Bjorkstrand from the Columbus Blue Jackets
After the Columbus Blue Jackets signed F Patrik Laine, they exceeded the NHL's salary cap by about $6.3 million, per CapFriendly. In order to become compliant, they needed to offload a contract or two before October 13th.
Well, they did just that this afternoon when they traded F Oliver Bjorkstrand to the Seattle Kraken. In return, the Kraken sent a pair of 2023 draft picks, relieving the Blue Jackets of Bjorkstrand's $5.4 million cap hit.
Bjorkstrand was the obvious casualty off of Columbus' roster. $5.4 million is a lot of money to spend on a guy who has never reached 30 goals or 60 points. Especially now that the Blue Jackets employ Johnny Gaudreau & Patrik Laine at a combined annual salary of $18.5 million. On the other hand, Oliver Bjorkstrand is an analytics darling, posting great underlying results.
Seattle gets a great deal here, taking advantage of a cap-strapped Columbus group. They get a proven point-getter who plays hard on the puck for merely a pair of mid-round picks. Tidy work for Seattle & just the way the cookie crumbles in Columbus.
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Kyle Connor | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Alex Tuch | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Owen Power | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Michael Bunting | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Drew Helleson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jirí Kulich | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Isac Lundestrom | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Vladislav Namestnikov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nino Niederreiter | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Gabriel Vilardi | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jason Zucker | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Leo Carlsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nikolaj Ehlers | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ross Johnston | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Evgeni Malkin | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Josh Morrissey | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Cole Perfetti | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Bryan Rust | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Mark Scheifele | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Trevor Zegras | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Complete stats | ||||
| STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Jets | 20 | 17 | 3 | - | 34 | |
Wild | 19 | 13 | 3 | 3 | 29 | |
Hurricanes | 19 | 14 | 5 | - | 28 | |
Devils | 22 | 13 | 7 | 2 | 28 | |
Capitals | 19 | 13 | 5 | 1 | 27 | |
Golden Knights | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | |
Maple Leafs | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | |
Rangers | 18 | 12 | 5 | 1 | 25 | |
Panthers | 20 | 12 | 7 | 1 | 25 | |
Flames | 20 | 11 | 6 | 3 | 25 | |
| Conference | Cumulative | ||||||