A little more than three weeks after NHL Free Agency began, it seems like most of the big news has happened.
Zach Parise and Ryan Suter are now newly-minted members of the Minnesota Wild. Jaromir Jagr and Ray Whitney are now Dallas Stars. Matt Carle is back in Tampa Bay for a second run with the Lightning, and the New York Rangers made the trade that's been talked about for months, finally landing Rick Nash from the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday afternoon.
Alexander Semin, meanwhile, is still on the market.
The former Washington Captials winger , who scored 21 goals and handed out 33 assists last season, is considered by many to be the top free agent still on the market, and with 197 goals and 408 total points in 469 career NHL games, it's not hard to see why. However, questions about Semin's drive and work ethic coupled with interest from the Kontinental Hockey League have combined to keep the 28-year-old winger available for what seems like a lot more than 23 days into free agency.
Recent reports have Semin linked to the Carolina Hurricanes, who have been a busy club this summer with the acquisition of Jordan Staal from the Pittsburgh Penguins and the signings of defensemen Joe Corvo and Marc-Andre Gragnani. However, it just may be that the best fit for Semin is in Columbus with a Blue Jackets team that is sorely in need of the kind of skill that the Russian brings to the table.
The Blue Jackets, of course, traded their leading scorer to the Rangers on Monday, acquiring a package consisting of defenseman prospect Tim Erixon, and versatile forwards Artem Anisimov and Brandon Dubinsky. While both Anisimov and Dubinsky can play either center or wing, both have found some of their greatest success as centers for elite talent on the wing (Dubinsky with Jaromir Jagr in his rookie year on Broadway, Anisimov with Marian Gaborik over the last couple of years). Either player could likely perform a similar service for Semin should he choose to come to Columbus.
In addition, while the Blue Jackets have had their struggles in the past with Russian forwards (think Nikita Filatov and Nikolai Zherdev here), they have an intriguing group of Russians in their projected lineup for 2012-13. Included in that number is Anisimov, who joins defensemen Fedor Tyutin and Nikita Nikitin and newly acquired goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky with the Blue Jackets. If Semin wishes to play alongside several of his countrymen, as he has in Washington (Alexander Ovechkin, Semyon Varlamov, Sergei Fedorov, and Viktor Kozlov, to name a few), he could certainly do worse than Columbus.
With Bobrovsky in place behind a defensive corps that includes Tyutin, Nikitin and Erixon in addition to Jack Johnson, James Wisniewski and Ryan Murray, the Blue Jackets are setting up a poor man's version of the Rangers as coached by John Tortorella, right down to the hard-working forwards like Dubinsky and Anisimov. However, as the Rangers have shown by going after Nash, Brad Richards and Marian Gaborik, they need elite talent up front to really make things work, and Columbus faces that problem with Nash gone. A Russian forward with questionable work ethic sounds like a song that Columbus has heard too many times before, but if the Blue Jackets can get the Semin who scored 84 points for the Capitals three seasons ago, it could help make Columbus a surprise contender in a weakened Central Division in 2011-12.
