"We knew a player we didn't want to lose was going to be taken in this year's Expansion Draft, but our goal was to try to keep the core of our team intact," said Kekalainen. "While we didn't want to lose William Karlsson as he has been a good player for us, we believe this deal keeps our core group together and gives us additional financial flexibility to build on the success we had last season."
Karlsson, 24, collected 16-31-47 with 16 penalty minutes and a +3 plus/minus rating in 165 games since joining the Blue Jackets from the Anaheim Ducks via trade late in the 2014-15 season. In 2016-17, he notched 6-19-25, 10 penalty minutes and was +10 in 81 games.
Clarkson, 33, collected 2-2-4 and 37 penalty minutes in 26 games after joining the Blue Jackets in a February 2015 trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He missed most of the 2015-16 season and all of the 2016-17 campaign due to a back injury. He has 114-86-200 and 992 penalty minutes in 570 career NHL games with Columbus, Toronto and New Jersey.
