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Late Tuesday night reports came out from TSN's Aaron Ward and Blue Jackets beat writer Aaron Portzline that the Oilers and Blue Jackets were involved in trade discussions, presumably centering around David Perron and Artem Anisimov.
As I wrote at the time, on first glance a potential deal between the two sides makes a lot of sense. With Ryan Johansen, Brandon Dubinsky, Boone Jenner and prospects Alex Weinberg and Marko Dano not far away from making an impact at the NHL level, they can afford to move a center in order to parlay that into some help on the wing.
Jarmo Kekalainen and John Davidson are very familiar with Perron from their days in St. Louis, too, so again this is something that makes sense.
After the rumors heated up last night, Portzline poured a bit of cold water on them this morning saying that no deal is close just yet, and that the Jackets really like Anisimov and are hesitant to move him.
Darren Dreger added more to the rumors during an interview on TSN 1200 today (transcription via NicholsOnHockey.com).
“And you can understand why Jarmo Kekalainen and John Davidson would show interest in David Perron. They had him on the St. Louis Blues. And obviously the Edmonton Oilers need a centre. I just can’t believe the Columbus Blue Jackets would make that deal one-for-one. So maybe that’s what holding it up. They’re probably looking for, if not a little bit more, maybe even a lot more from the Edmonton Oilers to close on that deal. But that’s one of many irons that Craig MacTavish has in the fire.”
I really like Anisimov, but Perron is a 26-year-old possession driving winger who almost had 30/30 last season, and is signed through next year at a very cap friendly salary of $3.8 million. I figured Perron alone would be enough to get a deal done.
Dreger seemed skeptical, though, as if it'd take more, which kind of falls in line with what Portzline reported earlier. The Jackets are very high on Anisimov, and it looks like they want more than fair value if they're going to seriously consider moving him.
It'll be interesting to see what the return looks like if and when this deal is completed.
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