Columbus Blue Jackets make Perplexing trade with Arizona Coyotes

The Columbus Blue Jackets ship Jacob Graves and a draft pick to Arizona for Ryan MacInnis.

Jarmo and Company are keeping their minds off of Artemi Panarin‘s contract situation by swapping minor leaguers with a desert teams. Today, the Columbus Blue Jackets acquired center Ryan MacInnis from the Arizona Coyotes.

In exchange the Yotes get Jacob Graves, a 23-year-old defenseman who has spent the last two years bouncing between the AHL and ECHL. The worst part of the deal is that the Jackets also gave up a conditional 2019 6th round pick that could turn into a 2020 5th round pick.

Ryan MacInnis certainly has a rich pedigree. His father, Al MacInnis is a Hall of Famer and a Stanley Cup trophy winning defenseman that spent his career with Calgary and St. Louis.

The Younger MacInnis played for the U.S. National Development Program, played in the U-17 and U-20 World Championships, and ended up as a second round draft pick in 2014.

Columbus Blue Jackets

But MacInnis, a center who has played for the Tucson Roadrunners for the last two seasons, has not lived up to that pedigree. In 127 games in the AHL, MacInnis has racked up 14 goals and 17 assist for a whopping total of 31 points. That is .24 points per game. Woof.

He has failed to spend a single game at the NHL level even though he spent the last two years with a dismal Coyote team that played plenty of young players. Although Jacob Graves isn’t much to send away, the pick isn’t a great part of the trade.

MacInnis at this point has a minuscule chance of making an impact at the NHL level. Much lower than a 6th round pick does of making the NHL. The Jackets should know, they have two 6th round picks in Lukas Sedlak and Cam Atkinson that are both making impacts.

And if MacInnis does beat the odds and plays 20 games for the Columbus Blue Jackets, the 6th round pick turns into a 5th round pick in 2020.

So what? It’s a late round pick that may not work out either. Well, now the Jackets now only have four draft picks next season. They traded away the 2nd round pick in the Vegas expansion deal. The 2019 5th was swapped for a 6th round pick this year that turned into defenseman Tim Berni. Now the Jackets will be without their 6th round selection in all likelihood.

All those moves add up and give an organization less chances to hit on a prospect turning into an NHL player. And all for a player who on average scores a point ever four games in the AHL.

The front office clearly knows something we don’t or they are too distracted by the Artemi Panarin chaos to make a good deal. The pick is killer for a player like MacInnis who will be in Cleveland for most of the season.

This deal is screaming “Another Move is Coming” to me. The Jackets have decent stable of young AHL centers and with the addition of Riley Nash, they have decent options on the 3rd and 4th lines in Nash, Brandon Dubinksy, Lukas Sedlak and Jonathan Davidsson if he can make the team.

Time will tell if this move was to open up another trade Jarmo has in mind.