Blue Jackets banking on improvement from within

The Columbus Blue Jackets won't be bringing in reinforcements.

Following another down season that began with an 0-8-0 stretch in October, the Blue Jackets are counting on the roster pieces already in place - as well as some promising prospects - to help right the ship in 2016-17, due mainly to a lack of salary-cap space.

"Our improvement is going to come from within," general manager Jarmo Kekalainen told Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Post-Dispatch. "It has to come from within.

"We have several guys, veteran guys, who have a lot to prove after the season they had last year, and I think they're going to be better. We have a group of young guys who are going to push them to be better."

Chief among those who need to be better are captain Nick Foligno and goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky; the former experienced a 19-goal drop-off from the previous campaign, while the latter was oft-injured and unable to find his Vezina Trophy form.

"I, 100 percent, appreciate (management) having trust in us," Foligno said. "They know we can get the job done.

"We should be humbled by the fact that they're going to give us another shot, and now we're going to run with it. This core group ... it's on us to push us to that next level."

The Blue Jackets also hope young players like Oliver Bjorkstrand, Zach Werenski, and Sonny Milano can parlay a Calder Cup championship at the AHL level into success with the big club as early as the upcoming NHL season.

According to General Fanager, Columbus holds less than $5 million in available cap space, and despite calls for improvement from players on the roster, Kekalainen will no doubt remain open to potential trades that would allow him to dump some of the more burdensome salary commitments.