New Jacket for Umberger

Tag : Blue Long Jacket


Looking to improve their offence, the Colbumus Blue Jackets turnedto Philly and landed a former Buckeye.

Numbers Game looks at the deal that brought R.J. Umberger back to Columbus.

The Blue Jackets Get: C R.J. Umberger and a fourth-round pick

Umberger, 26, only scored 13 goals in the regular season, but hemay well be coming off the best year of his pro career, scoring acareer-high 50 points in the regular season before leading theFlyers with ten goals in the playoffs.

A restricted free agent this summer, Umberger will be due for ahealthy raise on the $1.25-million he earned in 2007-2008, but theBlue Jackets have more than enough room to fit him into theirsalary structure.

While Umberger may not have the same kind of talent around him inColumbus, he should get plenty of support from head coach KenHitchcock, who coached Umberger with the Flyers. The opportunitycould be there for Umberger, who played in Columbus at Ohio State,to play setup man on a line with Rick Nash and that could mean new career-best point totals.

The Flyers Get: The 19th pick and a third-round pick

With the 19th pick, the Flyers selected Swiss defenceman Luca Sbisa from Lethbridge in the WHL. The third-round pick, D Marc-Andre Bourdon was quite productive with Rouyn-Noranda of the QMJHL, tallying 59points and 114 penalty minutes.

Since the Flyers are in a difficult cap position, and reportedlynearing a new deal with Jeff Carter , it makes sense to get assets in exchange for Umberger and, allthe better, getting two puck-handling defencemen into theorganization addresses a long-range need for the Flyers.