Breaking down the 5th Line's trade ideas for two Blue Jackets stars

Yesterday, we asked the 5th Line for their Zach Werenski and Kirill Marchenko trade ideas via X and Facebook. Today, we're going to break down the ones that stood out the most, and give our input on them.

Werenski to Dallas is a popular idea.

Starting right at the top of the list, we saw a lot of people pondering the team trading Zach Werenski to the Dallas Stars. Maybe it's easiest to lump some of these together. On Facebook, Anthony Gigliotti mentions targeting Thomas Harley, Mavrik Bourque, and a first round draft pick for him.

This was an idea that was floated several times on X, as well, though with some different pieces involved:

Obviously, the 5th Line is a big fan of acquiring Harley in a Werenski deal. To be honest, it just makes too much sense to ignore.

At his peak, Harley could be a near 1-for-1 swap for #8. He's only 24 years old, and is signed for the next 8 seasons at a similar cap hit. While his offensive numbers have not yet popped like Werenski's have over the last two seasons, there is still some room for growth there. Especially if he were given the #1 role-something he does not have in Dallas.

The caveat here: would he be interested in a move to Columbus? He doesn't have any trade protection, so it's not like the Stars have to cater to him. But, Waddell has to be extremely careful about acquiring a player like this, because if he doesn't want to spend the next 8 years of his life in Columbus, well...we have seen that play out before.

The addition of Bourque is intriguing, but the thing I keep coming back to is this: does he really move the needle for the Blue Jackets? He's 25 years old, and has just two full NHL seasons under his belt. This past year, he scored 20 goals and 41 points for the Stars, while putting up very impressive underlying numbers.

The problem I have with picking him up is, it feels like he would just be another middle-six winger. And the Blue Jackets already have a few of those. I suppose the question here would be, what else are the Stars throwing in?

Emil Hemming was a popular choice in these proposals, and that makes a lot of sense. He's a former first round pick, and his brother was just selected by the Jackets with pick #14 of the NHL Draft this weekend. I like this player, and I do think he would be of interest as a sweetener.

Add in a first round pick, and I do see the value in this trade from a CBJ perspective-depending on how they feel about Bourque and his upside. However, I would be remiss if I overlooked the proposal that stood out the most to me. This is one I have pondered as well:

For starters, I don't see Jason Robertson happening. He already declined a trade to Seattle with a life-altering contract in front of him. No chance he comes to Columbus, especially with Werenski leaving.

However, I do wonder if the Stars might have an appetite to acquire both Marchenko and Werenski in this kind of deal. If they put Harley and Johnston on the table, a two-for-two swap actually makes a lot of sense for both sides, in my opinion. Sell it, Don...

We know the Stars would love to keep Robertson, but at this moment, they do not have the cap space to do so. Trading both Harley (8 years, $10.587m AAV) and Johnston (4 years, $8.4m AAV) would give them the room to do so.

In return, they would actually save about $1m from Harley to Werenski, and Marchenko carries just a $3.85m cap hit through next season. With that cap set to take another big leap, the Stars could have their cake and eat it, too; signing Marchenko to a big ticket deal next summer and using him as Johnston's replacement in their lineup.

This one may just be dreaming on my behalf, but I love the idea. Lets take a look at some different proposals on the next slide.

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