The Blue Jackets made four trades in February of 2019, giving up some serious assets to add to a roster barely on the playoff bubble.
The first trade was a big one. It sent shockwaves throughout the entire league:
This trade tree is pretty easy to follow because these all ended up becoming throw-away assets for the Senators. Both of the prospects showed promise, but neither developed into anything worthwhile. Abramov would play just 4 games in Ottawa, and is now playing in the KHL. Davidsson got into 6 games as a Senator, only to return to his native Sweden, where he still plays in the SHL.
The Jackets opted not to re-sign Matt Duchene after their season was over, so the condition on that second pick was never met - they retained their 2020 first round pick. Thank goodness they did. The first round pick they actually gave up was used by the Senators to select Lassi Thomson 19th overall in 2019. He was the most prized part of the return for Ottawa, and he only got into 18 NHL games over parts of two seasons. He's also back playing in the SHL.
Even from a distant perspective, this trade was a HUGE win for the Blue Jackets. 33 games (10 in the playoffs, where he starred) of Matt Duchene were far better than a combined 28 games worth of the prospects they sent the other way.
The other move with Ottawa was brutal.
The very next day, the Jackets added another Ottawa forward to their ranks:
This trade aged horribly for the Blue Jackets. Dzingel was a back-to-back 20+ goal guy in Ottawa, but did not have the same level of success in Columbus. He played 21 regular season games and 9 playoff games, but was given 4th line minutes and even spent time as a healthy scratch before walking in free agency. Duclair was the best player in this deal, zero question. He was more productive for the Sens down the stretch, and even signed on for another year in Ottawa; where he scored 40 points.
Where this one really stings though, is when you look at what these draft picks turned into. Ottawa was able to turn these picks into a Stanley Cup winning goalie (Matt Murray) and a strong veteran center (Derek Stepan). The draft slots ended up being pretty good prospects: Pittsburgh used that 2020 pick to select Joel Blomqvist, while the (then) Coyotes took Josh Doan in 2021. This trade stinks from a CBJ perspective, and will haunt us seemingly for as long as these guys are floating around.
Two minor trades filled out the depth charts.
Neither of these trades were significant enough to move the needle in any direction. Kinkaid never played a minute with the Jackets. That 5th round pick turned into Petr Hauser for the Devils, who hasn't played an NHL game. Adam McQuaid got into 14 games with the Jackets and looked pretty good in his role, before his career was ended on a dirty hit by Andrew Shaw.
None of the assets that went to the Rangers became anything meaningful. Julius Bergman was a throw-in from the Duchene deal, while those draft picks became Hunter Skinner (4th) and Eric Ciccolini (7th). These looked like depth deals at the time, and that's all they were. Moving on, let's see what the Jackets might have gotten in return for their two superstar pending UFAs, had they opted to kick-start the rebuild instead.