Today it was announced that Andrew Bodnarchuk was claimed off waivers by the Colorado Avalanche. He has played 16 games this year and scored two points on the year. The journeyman defenseman looked to carve out a bit of a home with the Blue Jackets. The team went through a bit of a rough patch injury-wise on the back end prompting his call up. The surprising bit is that some people were crestfallen when he was claimed.
Don’t be sad. In fact you should probably be happy.
Bodnarchuk was having a well below average year to this point. While it was nice that he was able to get his first career points in the NHL with the Blue Jackets, his offensive contribution was minimal. His p/60 at even strength is a shade over a half point per game which isn’t good overall but actually is middle of the road on the Blue Jackets defense. His CF% is one of the lowest on the team at 43% only beaten out by the other AHL call up Justin Falk who is sitting at 42%.
It is a bit of a puzzling move as Falk has cleared waivers in the past and is worse than Bodnarchuk in almost every metric. Both players are career AHLers, they aren’t the type of players that fans should lose sleep over but it is an interesting side note in a disappointing season. If anything, this may open the door for younger players like Dean Kukan and Michael Paliotta to slot in if injury becomes a problem again.
Nothing wrong with looking toward the future.
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