The Columbus Blue Jackets might be getting healthier, but they have enough bumps and bruises on their blueline that they needed to trade for some help. They did so on Saturday, grabbing veteran defenseman Jordan Leopold from the St. Louis Blues for a 2016 fifth-round pick.
Leopold, 34, has appeared in seven games this season, averaging just 13:04 minutes per night. He saw pretty limited action in St. Louis, yet the Blues’ deep defense probably accounts for some of that drop-off. He averaged as many as 23:20 minutes per game during his peak usage with the Buffalo Sabres in 2010-11 and has 659 NHL regular season games on his resume.
Jordan Leopold had talks with the #stlblues over the summer. Knows he needs to play if he's going to extend his career
— Andy Strickland (@andystrickland) November 15, 2014
Leopold is in the final season of a deal that carries a $2.25 million cap hit. The Blues will retain a chunk of that salary to make the swap, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Jeremy Rutherford:
The #stlblues will retain $500,000 (pro-rated) of Leopold's $2.25 million salary.
— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) November 15, 2014
The Blues will recall Chris Butler and will still save some dough in the process:
#stlblues recall Chris Butler creates $1.1 million of pro rated cap space
— Andy Strickland (@andystrickland) November 15, 2014
With Fedor Tyutin out four-to-six weeks, this trade makes that much more sense for Columbus.