Insider: Blue Jackets Ready To Take On Big Contract

The Columbus Blue Jackets have plenty of cap space, and it appears that the time has come that they're looking for ways to make use of it. One way would be to take on bloated contracts as long as they come with some nice asset capital.

Per hockey insider Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff, GM Don Waddell is listening —but there is a limit to his 'generosity'.

(Waddell) has let teams know that he is interested in taking on contracts that may be viewed as undesirable in exchange for assets.

The problem, Seravalli says, is that so far, most of the players that have been offered to him have three-to-five years left on their deal, and "Waddell's response has been, 'I'm not interested in guys for that long, because somewhere in that 3 to 5 year window, my team's gonna be better and pushing for the playoffs and I don't want to devote cap space to players who are already deemed as undesirable.'"

So rival teams take note—bad contracts that have a year or two left: good. Bad contracts that last longer than that: bad.

But as the Jackets move through the season, they could be at risk of dropping below the salary cap lower limit of $65 million. They're currently less than $2 million above that floor. They'll need to do something to give them some breathing room.

Columbus is off to a decent 5-5-1 start, though aren't under any illusions that they're a serious playoff contender just yet.