Kyle Wilson waived - What's going on?

What in the wide wide world of sports is going on over on Nationwide Boulevard?

I'm not talking about the Mike Commodore trade request.  That apparently happened last week (though we only found out about it today).  Plus, that's a player-initiated move.

No, what I'm talking about is the waiving of Kyle Wilson as part of his demotion to Springfield, this after being told by team management that he was going to stick around for the season.  This one's on the team - on Scott Howson and presumably Scott Arniel.  As such, it's much more significant to the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Our bubble boys can beat Minnesota's starters

Let's get the personal stuff out of the way - this was the first actual game to which I brought the Dark Blue Toddler.  Luckily, the tickets were dirt cheap and the section (209) was pretty much empty above us in row J, so he was able to munch on Cheerios, drink milk, crawl around the (widow-maker) stairs and run back and forth across the aisles.  Oh, and eat my fries.  He lasted almost two entire periods, not bad for a 16-month-old.

And, once we bailed out, the Columbus Blue Jackets started scoring.

A Jackets team made up of a small handful of starters and a whole bunch of players on the bubble won, 3-2 over a Minnesota Wild team that was comprised of their NHL-level lineup as they had made most all of their cuts already.  That's profound, something in which the CBJ can be pleased.  Or the Wild can be downright scared.  Take your pick.

Tom Sestito's closing argument as to why he should
make the Columbus Blue Jackets roster.

As I mentioned, I was chasing my son all over section 209, so my thoughts are admittedly incomplete and based largely upon quick glances as opposed to any detailed study of what I saw.  But here's my take:

• The Blue Jackets looked really ragged, which stands to reason as the roster was assembled with green-handled scissors and scotch tape in order to accommodate all of the players sitting on the roster bubble.  This was a night of forced chemistry, of proving to the coaches and management that you can perform in this new, Scott Arniel puck possession system.
• Alternatively, you can prove that you can offer other services to the team.  Mike Blunden and Tom Sestito ended up taking this route, getting in fights.  Blunden laid the beat down on his victim, and Sestito won in an impassioned decision.  By the way, Dark Blue Toddler enjoyed cheering with the fans over the fights...not that he understood what was going on.
• There's not a lot you can tell about a team on "last chance night," so I'll keep my profound statements about the team and their adaption to this new system to a minimum.
  

Time to step up: Mike Blunden

• Right wing
• 23 years old, 3rd year in National Hockey League
• $590,000 cap hit 
• 1% of Columbus Blue Jackets salary cap
• Contract expires at end of season
• 2009-2010 numbers: 40 games played, 2 goals, 2 assists, 4  points, +3, 59 penalty minutes, 8:07 avg. time on ice

To figure out where Mike Blunden's head is at, you just need to look at this year's salary and last year's.  This season, he's making $590,000 on a one-year contract.  Last season, he earned $735,000.  That says to me that Blunden is 23 years old, a fourth-liner and perhaps looking at the prospects of living out the rest of his career in the AHL.  This is a pivotal year; the fact that his new contract was for one year could be taken any of three ways: 1) Scott Howson doesn't want to invest in him for the long-term, 2) Howson and/or Blunden are looking at this season as a "step up" year to either boost his value or cut him loose or 3) Blunden is a placeholder as the restocked talent pool in the minors starts percolating up to the NHL (see: Calvert, Matt).

Blunden's NHL games (he also logged 39 games for the CBJ's AHL team last year) appears split almost equally in the pre- and post-Hitchcock games in 09-10, his first season where he had any extensive playing time.  Interestingly, though, he scored both goals and both assists toward the end of the season in games coached by Claude Noel.  Makes you wonder if some shackles came off once Claude took over.  The fact that he had a positive +/- rating on a team littered with negative numbers last season also speaks to a playmaking/defensive capacity that he displayed in limited ice time.