As the season progresses and the Blue Jackets continue to rack up losses, it begins to put the front office in an unenviable spot. They need to look toward the future and the season that they are currently playing in as a cause that is nearly lost.
Their poor results mean that players that have been around for some time and are beloved by many will be put on the trade block. It won't only be hard on the franchise, but it will also be hard on the fans.
As the games begin to slip away, it begs the question: should someone like Nick Foligno be traded away for assets?
It can be attacked in a lot of different ways, but the very first portion of it would be from the emotional standpoint. Fans have taken a liking to the captain of the team and everything he has done for the city. He has been a vocal spokesman and someone who has even donated charitably to the local children's hospital. Frankly, it is a tough sell. The Blue Jackets don't have a storied history when it comes to captains, Foligno is the first to really join the club and put his stamp on it.
While emotionally it would be difficult, the pluses that come along with it need to be weighed as well. The assets that may come over would be helpful for a team that needs to stock up in the prospect department. How the rest of the league views him is the clear difficulty here.
Adding to the difficulty is the no-trade clause that he has and what exactly the parameters are around it. Who does he not want to be traded to and who are his desired destinations? The cap hit that he has that for his play and output do not match up at all, which could also affect the output. For a contending team, who will likely already be up against the salary cap, the Blue Jackets will need to eat some salary to make it happen — a move that seldomly happens for the Blue Jackets.
And then, there's a report that the Toronto Maple Leafs may be already checking in on the Blue Jackets captain. In addition to the Toronto Sun report, a couple of other outlets have also said that Foligno to the Leafs makes sense.
As far as destinations go, this would check a lot of boxes for the Blue Jackets. The possibility of a good prospect in the return package would be enticing. The Leafs still have a lot of good players in the AHL and also currently riding the bench in the NHL. If Foligno did decide to re-sign with the Leafs, he wouldn't be in the Blue Jackets' division, which would be an added plus as well.
There are a lot of what if's tied to the possibility of moving on from Foligno. At the very least, it's a discussion that needs to be had if the Blue Jackets want to look toward the future.
