The NHL Trade Deadline came and went without much fanfare for the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Nobody expected them to necessarily be major players on (or leading up to) Monday afternoon, but ... it's safe to say that the entire affair was underwhelming.
With only a few UFAs in Max Domi, Dean Kukan, Joonas Korpisalo, and Brendan Gaunce on the roster, the Blue Jackets were in a position where they could afford to largely avoid the fracas.
On the other hand, for a team well outside the playoff picture and with a plethora of cap space, I thought (hoped?) that the organization would be more active. That isn't to say that I wanted them to move on from players with term or control, like Gus Nyquist or Jack Roslovic.
And, more specifically, I recognize that GM Jarmo Kekalainen probably didn't have much opportunity to either use his additional cap space to help cap-crunched teams add players in exchange for a draft pick. After all, only one such broker was made during the entire day, and ironically it was the Blue Jackets three-way trade that sent Max Domi to the Carolina Hurricanes. The Blue Jackets retained the maximum allowable salary percentage (50%), but, even still, the Hurricanes needed an additional team (the Florida Panthers) to eat some cap space in order to fit him under the cap.
Heading into the deadline, I had hoped the Blue Jackets would answer "yes" to these three questions. Did Kekalainen:
- Acquire draft picks?
- Act as a broker?
- Move his pending UFAs?
Unfortunately, the answer to all three questions posed is no. Again, this isn't necessarily an indictment of Kekalainen, who surely hoped to add draft picks (he's a scout by trade, for God's sake) to his 'reload'. No, instead, the Blue Jackets lost a draft pick, which is not something I had on my BINGO card. Like 15 other GMs, he had probably hoped to act as a broker and take on some expiring contract. In a sense, the answer to #1 and #2 are inextricably linked.
But what's frustrating, and I think is fair to say, is that Kekalainen failed to get value for his pending UFAs. Yes, goaltenders Elvis Merzlikins and Daniil Tarasov are both injured. But this has less to do with now and more to do with yesteryear. We've been calling for Korpisalo to be traded since February of 2020, at least, long before Korpisalo was the literal worst goalie in the NHL. He became untradeable, but he wasn't always.
I have less of an issue regarding Dean Kukan, but I am surprised they weren't able to flip him to 'Contender X' for a conditional 7th round pick. Where's the downside? Or was nobody willing to pony up all-but-nothing, and Kekalainen didn't want to be perceived as desperate? And while I am glad that from a management standpoint, Kekalainen moved on from Domi, the return was pretty underwhelming, unless you're a huge fan of Aidan Hreschuk.
Again, I understand the nuance. It's easy to rip on Kekalainen and co. without being in the war room. Obviously, with one (1) trade from the entire day requiring a broker, it's not like he missed an opportunity while others got theirs. And it's easy to say that they should have gotten more of a return (or anything at all) for UFA(s), but that's more of an indictment of the players than of the manager. Also, Kekalainen mentioned that he believes it's easier to make the type of trades that they're "looking for" in the offseason, and I think that's fair.
But, sitting here looking back from the opposite side of the trade deadline, it's easy to feel like the organization failed to move the ball down the proverbial field.
