Blue Jackets president of hockey operations and interim general manager John Davidson appeared on Wednesday's episode of The Inside Edge on 97.1 FM The Fan and provided some context around the team's moves at the 2019 trade deadline.
Gearing up for a playoff run, the team acquired Matt Duchene and Ryan Dzingel for a 2019 first-round pick, second-round picks in 2020 and 2021, and forward Anthony Duclair over two separate trades.
One player already on the team who was a pending unrestricted free agent was two-time Vezina Trophy winner Sergei Bobrovsky, who would sign a seven-year, $10M cap-hit deal with the Panthers that summer. There was some controversy about letting Bobrovsky leave for nothing instead of trying to trade him at the deadline, but Davidson revealed that trading him was not going to happen.
"I know that with Bobrovsky," Davidson said. "He didn't want to waive his no-trade (clause), so we couldn't trade him. And I get that, he had every right in the world. That's nobody's fault. It's just what it is."
He also spoke about fellow pending unrestricted free agent at the time, Artemi Panarin, who would sign a seven-year, $11.64M cap-hit deal with the Rangers in the summer.
"With 'Bread'," Davidson said. "Everyone in the world knew he was going to New York, so why would some teams give up valuable assets knowing he's going to New York?"
With the 2023 NHL trade deadline under 42 hours away, this was certainly an interesting tidbit from Davidson.
