With the looming trade requests and scenery changes over the last week in the hockey world, including but not limited to Brady Tkachuk, William Eklund, Simon Nemec, Bowen Byram, Jordan Kyrou, Joseph Woll, and Mackie Samoskevich, there appears to be more on the horizon. On the heels of the United States of America’s first gold medal with professional skaters, the hunger for winning is costing Canadian and losing American teams to form superstar teams combined with the rising salary cap in the NHL. Quinn Hughes moved from a struggling Canucks team to a contender in Minnesota. Tkachuk joins his brother in Florida. Connor Hellebuyck is welcoming a change of scenery from the Winnipeg Jets. Dylan Larkin, the captain of the Detroit Red Wings, has requested out of town and is willing to join Florida, Vegas, Minnesota, and Dallas. Vincent Trocheck was almost moved at the deadline, and remains in trade rumors. There is speculation from top insiders that next out could be Norris Trophy and gold medalist winning Zach Werenski from the Columbus Blue Jackets. Werenski is under control for this season and next season at $9.58M against the salary cap, and a total salary of $7.25M for each of those seasons with $6.25M of it being bonus money paid out on July 1.
This is the biggest test of general manager Don Waddell. They must build a winning product and keep Werenski. It is confirmed that Werenski and management will meet after the draft, but Bowness, Nash, Bowness, Clark, Vogelhuber, and Waddell must do. Involve Priest and McConnell. The franchise cornerstone and greatest defenseman in organization history must remain here for this team to win. Sure, this could be noise, but there is reported interest from Edmonton, Vegas, Florida, Detroit, and Toronto. There is a lot of turnover expected this summer as Jenner, Marchment, and Gudbranson are all walking to the open market. The 14th pick is being shopped and there are plenty of connections to Jake DeBrusk out of Vancouver as the next power forward winger coming east. The next 2 weeks between now and my birthday will define this Blue Jackets team for September’s training camp. More is coming…