It didn't feel like it at the time, but looking back 17 years later it's obvious: the Blue Jackets clearly won the Adam Foote trade that returned their disgruntled captain to his beloved Colorado Avalanche. They did so by taking full advantage of the assets they got in return - several times over.
Ask any long-time Blue Jackets fan who the most hated player in franchise history is, and you are bound to get one of two names: Jeff Carter or Adam Foote. A CBJ historian might tell you that Foote walked out of Columbus so Carter could run out of Columbus.
One could argue that Foote's trade demand was worse, because he actually chose to come to Columbus as a free agent; whereas Carter was traded here by the Philadelphia Flyers before his long-term contract extension kicked in. Foote tainted his legacy in Columbus by breaking off negotiations and forcing the Blue Jackets to deal him ahead of the 2008 trade deadline.
The two sides couldn't agree to a new contract, with the team wanting to pay Foote less than he was asking to be paid. Rather than playing out the rest of the season and trying to negotiate in good faith; Foote - then captain of the Blue Jackets - threatened management by telling them that if they did not trade him, he would become a terrible teammate, player, and captain.
With their hands tied, the Jackets traded him to the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for two conditional draft picks. Those picks actually returned really good value to the Blue Jackets, while Foote would go on to play just 168 more regular season games in his career.
The Jackets found massive value with both picks.
In return for Adam Foote's grown-up tantrum, the Blue Jackets got conditional first and fourth round picks. The condition on the first rounder was that it would be Colorado's 2008 pick if the Avalanche made the playoffs, or their 2009 first rounder if they did not. That condition was fulfilled, and it's honestly too bad because their 2009 pick wound up being the third overall selection (Matt Duchene).
Still, the Jackets were able to net a #19 overall pick for a guy who wanted out, which they flipped to the Philadelphia Flyers ahead of the draft in exchange for Ohio State alum RJ Umberger. This trade also included a third round pick to the Flyers (Marc-Andre Bourdon), and a fourth round pick to the Blue Jackets (Drew Olson). Bourdon had 45 NHL games, but neither of these pieces made any big impact in the end.
Umberger became a pretty important Blue Jacket, however. He spent six seasons in Columbus, scoring 120 goals (5th most in franchise history) and 250 points (7th) in 445 games. "Umby" became a fan favorite in Central Ohio, and was a key piece of the leadership core during his entire tenure with the Jackets.
They were later able to sell high on Umberger in 2014; flipping him back to the Flyers along with a fourth round pick; in exchange for Scott Hartnell. Umberger played parts of just two more seasons for the Flyers before having the final year of his contract bought out; scoring 11 goals and 26 points in his final 106 NHL games. The Flyers flipped that fourth round pick to LA for a later fourth (Mikhail Vorobyev) and a sixth round pick in 2015 (Anthony Salintiri). The Kings picked Austin Wagner with the Columbus selection.
This was a massive trade win for the Jackets; with Hartnell spending the next three years in Columbus, scoring 64 goals and 146 points in 234 games. Like Umberger, "Hartsy" was a massive fan favorite in Central Ohio, and a key part of the leadership core that had some success with him on the roster.
Even if that were the only pick returned to the Jackets by the Avalanche, it would have been a massive win. But, we have to go all the way back to the fourth round of the 2009 draft. One Adam Foote re-signed with the Avalanche, the condition on the other pick involved in this trade was fulfilled. With that selection, the Blue Jackets picked a player who would become arguably the best shutdown defenseman in franchise history: David Savard, who was #5 on our list of the best draft picks ever made by the Blue Jackets.
Savard spent parts of 10 seasons with the Blue Jackets, playing in 597 games (5th most in franchise history), scoring 41 goals and 166 points. It wasn't about scoring with him, however; and in one regard he was the perfect return for Adam Foote because he played a similar brand of hockey. While he wasn't as physical or mean, David became one of the premier stay at home defensemen of his era. This was capped off by his career best +33 rating in 2016-17 - a year where he only scored 23 points.
That season, the Blue Jackets set a franchise record with 50 wins and 108 points. They weren't going to do that without Savard's elite shutdown play that year. He was a vital piece of the puzzle during the team's best stretch of success through the mid-late 2010s. And in the end, they were able to flip him for two draft picks. Again, they got ridiculous value.
One of those draft picks was a 2021 first rounder that they sent to Chicago in the Seth Jones deal; which ultimately helped the Jackets earn a high enough pick to draft Cole Sillinger. They also received a third round pick, which was used to select one of their current top prospects: Jordan Dumais.
The Adam Foote trade just keeps on giving.
In summary, for a disgruntled player who did not want to negotiate a new contract to stay in Columbus any longer, the Blue Jackets got six seasons of RJ Umberger, three seasons of Scott Hartnell. ten seasons of David Savard, and the pieces that became Cole Sillinger and Jordan Dumais. Hockey is never linear, but it would have been hard to predict such a win at the time.
With all of that in mind, I have to wonder: why do we hate Adam Foote so much? We should be thanking him, honestly.