San Jose and Toronto are likely trade partners with the Columbus Blue Jackets for Artemi Panarin, but who are some dark horse candidates?
Summer is coming to an end and the Columbus Blue Jackets still haven’t traded Artemi Panarin. Smart money is on the Jackets trading the star forward sometime before the trade deadline. It doesn’t appear as if anything has changed with Artmei’s stance toward re-signing and that means he will likely be traded. Jarmo is too smart and won’t allow what happened to the Islanders to happen here in Columbus.
Hockey insider Elliotte Friedman reported earlier in the summer that San Jose and Toronto were both early favorites to land Panarin. Acquiring Panarin makes sense for these teams and could still happen. But to this point neither team has sealed the deal for the Breadman.
So beyond Toronto and San Jose, who are some dark horse candidates to land Panarin? Who makes sense in terms of cap space, assets to give up, and timing? Lets break down a few teams that could be dark horse candidates to land Panarin.