Nathan Horton – Officially a Columbus Blue Jacket

Less than an hour into this year’s unrestricted free agency word came in that the Columbus Blue Jackets had landed one of the biggest fishes in free agency (both literally and figuratively). Nathan Horton is officially a Columbus Blue Jacket. That feels nice to say. I have long been a huge fan of Horton, and he is the perfect fit for the Blue Jackets. A big skilled right-winger, Horton has no qualms about crashing and banging, brings it every night, and isn’t afraid to go to the net. Most importantly, he brings size to the Blue Jackets but in the right way to add size. Bringing in a 4th line masher who happens to be big is pointless, but adding a former 30 goal scorer who tops the scales at 230lbs while standing 6’3″ is how you need to do it.

Here’s what I had to say about Nathan Horton in my breakdown yesterday:

“Made $5.5m last season in the final year of a deal signed with Florida way back in 2007-08. He’d be a perfect fit alongside Dubinsky on the second line, would fit the mold of what the Blue Jackets want in a player, adds a potential 30 goal scorer, and he’s only 28 years old. The downside is that he will probably cost upwards of $6m on a reasonably long term deal, and he’s been dealt a few concussions. I would love to see him in the union blue, but I think he’ll have many suitors and end up somewhere else.”

Looks like I was off in a number of ways here. For one, he ended up in Columbus. But just as important is the cap hit. A $5.3m hit is fantastic for a player who brings everything that Horton does. I was expecting this to come in much higher, although I’m assuming the 7 year term of the deal was more important than a straight cash grab. Word is that it is heavily front-loaded, so my $6m over 5 year thought may be correct, with a couple of lower priced years on the backend.

So who is this Horton guy anyway? As I said earlier, he’s a 6’3″, 230lb righthanded shooting right winger, who was drafted 3rd overall by the Florida Panthers in 2003. He spent his first six years in Florida, before moving onto Boston, where he spent three years, winning the Stanley Cup in 2011. Horton has scored 198 goals and 204 assists for 402 points in 591 career games. Averaged out over an 82 game season that’s 27 goals and 55 points. Not too shabby.

However, there are a couple caveats. For one, he suffered brutal concussion in the Cup Finals in 2011, and hurt his shoulder this past season. He’ll be having surgery very shortly and is expected to miss the season opener. He also is coming off a down year, with only 13 goals and 9 assists in 43 games last year.

So how does he fit in the lineup? I would expect him to be the anchor on the second line. The temptation is there to try and pair him with Marian Gaborik, but that would require having one of them play out of position. I would rather see him paired whoever it not with Gaborik out of Artem Anisimov, Brandon Dubinsky, Ryan Johansen, RJ Umberger, and Nick Foligno. A lineup down the right side of Gaborik-Horton-Atkinson is pretty fantastic. This currently gives the Blue Jackets a top nine of Gaborik, Horton, Anisimov, Dubinsky, Foligno, Johansen, Atkinson, Umberger and Matt Calvert. I’d currently line them up as such:

Foligno – Anisimov – Gaborik

Umberger – Dubinsky – Horton

Calvert – Johansen – Atkinson

Not a bad group there, but I would rather see them add another top six player, or a top nine centre. That would allow Umberger to drop to the third line, as they currently only have three players who should be full time top nine centres (although you could also go Dubinsky – Johansen – Horton, Umberger/Calvert – Letestu – Atkinson). It sounds like the Jackets aren’t done yet, so we’ll be back to update this as the day(s), weeks, months of free agency continue.