Columbus Blue Jackets Rumored to be Seeking Trade

On Tuesday afternoon, the Blue Jackets were brought up as a team seeking a trade involving one of their defensemen. Who might they be shopping, and what would their value be?

This doesn’t come as a huge surprise, really. The Jackets are loaded with seven defensemen under NHL-only contracts, and they have a couple of guys (Nick Blankenburg and David Jiricek) that they would probably like to have spots for at some point this season. Frank Seravalli reported the rumor yesterday afternoon.

With three obvious locks that they won’t move (Zach Werenski, Ivan Provorov, and Damon Severson), there are a few directions the Jackets could go here. Could they look to dump an ugly contract by moving Erik Gudbranson? Could they take what they could get for a guy like Andrew Peeke, or maybe even Jake Bean? Or, could they swing for the fences with a big Adam Boqvist trade?

I’m one of those weird old school fans that loves having a guy like Gudbranson around, especially with such a young roster. As long as they can keep his minutes sheltered better than they were able to last year, I think he’s an important guy to have because we don’t want people running around after our young stars. He’ll never be worth that $16 million dollar contract; but I don’t see the team realistically paying another team real assets to take him away, just one season after signing him for four years. Mark this one off as not likely to happen.

I’ll put Bean and Peeke into a conversation together, because I feel like it could go either way with either one of them. Both guys are NHL players, I don’t think there’s any question there. But neither has stepped up and proven that they’re legitimate top-four guys to this point. Peeke is, in my opinion, probably the most likely to be traded, and he may be a classic “change of scenery” player who could go elsewhere and rejuvenate his promising career.

It isn’t that Peeke has been terrible for the Jackets; it’s just that he’s been thrown to the wolves one too many times here without much success. To the extent that the team opted to go out and acquire a long-term solution in Severson. Peeke’s value wouldn’t be crazy high – I would imagine the team could secure some combination of mid-round picks (similar to the package they got for Oliver Bjorkstrand?).

Jake Bean spent most of last season on the IR, but he has shown flashes of being a solid contributor for the team since they acquired him two summers ago. He’s never been quite strong enough to win those pesky net-front or board battles; but his skating and all-around play make him an intriguing part of the third defense pairing here. If he comes back with some confidence, I think he’s more than fine in this role – and he’s paid accordingly. Also, there aren’t many other options on the left side, unless the team wants someone to play their off-side. I think Bean sticks around, unless someone wows Jarmo with a high draft pick or prospect.

Which leaves the final player that I feel is up for grabs here: Adam Boqvist. In my opinion, Boqvist should have some serious trade value, even though he’s been through some tough stints on the IR early in his career. He was scoring at a 60+ point pace for a good chunk of last season, he’s still just 23 years old, and he was an eighth overall pick just five years ago. If Boqvist is moved, I think it could be as part of a package to upgrade another position on the roster (center, anyone?). In any case, if they’re moving this player, I expect a nice return. He’s young, productive, and is in a very good contract situation (two years @ $2.6m AAV, RFA).

For a long time now, it seems like the team has needed to make some moves to free up space on their back-end. Really, ever since acquiring Ivan Provorov and Damon Severson, which happened back when the Stanley Cup Finals were still being played. We’ll keep a close eye on this rumor until something breaks, I do think there’s some business going on here.