The Three Best and Worst Deadline Moves by Jarmo Kekalainen

Jarmo’s first trade deadline, in hindsight, did not turn out the way the team hoped. It happens, but at least he took a shot, which is more than we could say for previous management over the years. At the following deadline, he tried to ratify his mistake by trading Gaborik away. No way he could lose a Marian Gaborik trade twice, right? Wrong.

This is the kind of trade that really hurts. Just one year after acquiring him, the Jackets dealt Gaborik away at the 2014 deadline. And, for the second time in three years, the Jackets sent the Kings a player who became a key member of an eventual Cup winning team. Only instead of getting back Jack Johnson and a first round pick like they did for Jeff Carter, the Jackets picked up 4A player Matt Frattin and a couple of mid round picks.

Gaborik would post 16 points in 19 regular season games, then 14 goals and 22 points in 26 playoff games, lifting the Cup with the Kings that spring. Frattin played 4 games in Columbus, registering one assist. The 2015 second round pick (#34 overall, Travis Dermott) was eventually packaged with a 2015 third round pick (#68 overall, Martins Dzierkals), to move up 5 spots at the draft and select Gabriel Carlsson 29th overall. In hindsight, they might have been better suited standing pat and selecting the player who went 35th – Sebastian Aho (the one in Carolina) – but, they can’t all work out. I cannot find what happened to the conditional pick in this deal.

If you’re following along with this trade tree, the Jackets turned Brassard, Dorsett, and John Moore into a forgettable stint with both Gaborik and Frattin; and eventually Gabriel Carlsson. The Rangers have gotten a decade of productivity from two talented centers, and the Kings came away with a Cup.

For our next terrible move…

We’ll look back at a trade made at the 2019 trade deadline. This was a fun year, with the Jackets sneaking into the playoffs and upsetting the President’s Trophy winning Tampa Bay Lightning in a thrilling four-game sweep. Key to this success was deadline acquisition Matt Duchene, acquired from the Ottawa Senators (more on him later) – but the other trade the Jackets made with Ottawa, did not work out.

If you could go back and redo this trade, I don’t think you would give up any one of the assets traded by the Jackets for Ryan Dzingel – let alone all three. Dzingel was quickly in John Tortorella’s doghouse, playing deep in the lineup in spite of his relatively solid productivity.

He scored 12 points in 21 games (4 goals), and then added one goal in 9 playoff games before being allowed to walk to free agency after the season. Since the trade, he’s bounced around four franchises – even passing through waivers – while failing to find the success he had in his last two seasons in Ottawa.

On the other side, Anthony Duclair was solid in his next season in Ottawa, and has spent the last two years in Florida. The speedy winger has become a vital piece of the Florida offense, scoring 31 goals and 58 points in 74 games last season. If he had done that in Columbus, he would have led the team in goals, and been second in points.

The first draft pick Ottawa acquired, was later sent to Pittsburgh in the Matt Murray trade; they selected Finnish goaltender Joel Blomqvist. The second pick was traded to Arizona as part of the Derek Stepan deal; the Coyotes later taking Josh Doan, son of former long-time Coyotes captain Shane.

The Jackets selected Tyler Angle with the 7th round pick that came the other way. It will be years until we see how these draft picks all turn out; but it seems logical that the Jackets may have benefitted in this rebuild by having additional second round picks to play with.