Brace yourselves and start your rumor engines.
You're going to hear the Blue Jackets connected to several players over the coming weeks and months. It's no different than the summer, when they were linked to Matt Duchene, Alex Galchenyuk and others who were reportedly available for trade.
It's not stopping anytime soon, especially considering where they stand with their roster.
GM Jarmo Kekalainen usually comes up with something that no one sees coming (hello, Saad-for-Panarin) and does a ton of work to exhaust all options and find players who could potentially be available if the right deal was on the table. He's more than likely burning up the phones once again, trying to find a fit with another team who can offer a top-six forward to bolster his suddenly-silent offense.
Yeah, they've got injuries. Key injuries, too; Lukas Sedlak's absence throws everyone out of position. Matt Calvert's been one of their better forwards. Alexander Wennberg is their No. 1 center and has battled through a tough start, but don't think for a second they're a better team without him. They need help. They need another person to help score some goals and relieve Sergei Bobrovsky from the kind of pressure that demands him to be near-perfect on most nights.
They missed out on Duchene. That one stings, because the player was a fit. The jury's out on Galchenyuk and his future in Montreal. But a new name has popped up in the last day or so, and that's Jason Spezza of the Dallas Stars.
Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic mentioned Spezza as a possibility and so too did Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet – they're both plugged in and don't typically pass off their own random musings without some modicum of intel, but even so, Spezza is a name that makes you raise your eyebrows. He's 34, is playing a reduced role in Dallas under Ken Hitchcock, and can still score. The Blue Jackets were rumored to be interested in Spezza a few years ago when he was a member of the Ottawa Senators, but instead he was later dealt to Dallas in a multi-player deal.
One would think a Spezza deal would be a close-to-the-deadline move if only because the Stars are in contention; if they were to drop out or at some point decide they need to move on from Spezza, it's hard to see them making that determination in mid-November. GM Jim Nill has a window with the Stars and he was (again) aggressive this summer, but they're plodding along right around .500.
At least now, it's obvious: the trade market is active and GMs are talking (the GM meetings are happening this week in Montreal), and the Blue Jackets find themselves with a need and a desire to make something happen.
TV SPOTS ON TV SPOTS
I'm supposed to be in the middle of my 30-day Star Wars embargo period. We're off to a bad start, friends.
In the last day or so, I've watched every trailer and TV spot (and those are dropping every other day) and have started to piece as much together as I can. The Last Jedi has so many layers, so many character mysteries and questions I'll probably leave the theater without answers to. If I don't get those, I'll just send Rian Johnson a tweet. He'll get back to me.
The latest TV spot features a line of dialogue that is quirky and fun, but also something I'd expect them to save until the movie, mainly because it involves General Leia.
Poe: "Permission to jump in an X-wing and blow something up?"
Leia: "Permission granted."
That's great stuff. And it leads me to believe we're in for a movie full of great stuff.
YOU SHOULD BE READING
- A look at some additional trade options for the Blue Jackets, particularly at center.
- Bobrovsky is pulling the Blue Jackets through a challenging offensive stretch.
- How long can the Jackets sustain their overtime and shootout success?
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