Blue Jackets won't be scared to trade
If it were baseball season, these would be the August dog days.
Players in the middle of the 82-game NHL grind are leg-weary and often playing hurt. Some probably wonder what city they're playing in and what day of the week it is. Fans of teams in the playoff hunt are getting antsy.
It's also closing in on decision time.
With the March 1 trade deadline looming, six teams are within six points of the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Another, Carolina, is eight points back. My Crooksville math tells me that is 15 of the 16 teams in the conference.
In the Metro Division alone, Washington, Pittsburgh, Columbus and Pittsburgh have outscored every other team in the league except for Minnesota. Each have goal differentials of at least plus-40. Only the Wild, at plus-57, can join that conversation.
The Blue Jackets once won 16 straight games and sat atop the league. Now, after losing six of 10 games, they're seven points back of the Capitals for first place in their own division and two back of the rival Penguins entering Friday night's game against them at Nationwide Arena.
That's how quickly things can change in today's NHL.
In past years, the Jackets would be one of the only sellers in the league. Their coveted pieces would certainly get a haul of draft picks. Those days, at least for one year, are gone. They're now among the top teams pondering whether to make a move and make a push for the Stanley Cup.
And Columbus is no stranger to moving and shaking.
Its June 30 trade for winger Brandon Saad, prior to the 2015 season, was supposed to solidify a team hoping to carry over momentum from a 15-1-1 finish the season prior. An 0-8 start ended those thoughts, but Saad is now a critical player in the current team's rise to contention.
They also made an April 2013 trade for Marian Gaborik, then of the Rangers, who later was sent to the Kings for draft picks a year later. Nine months before acquiring Gabby, it traded its only star, Rick Nash, to the Rangers for Brandon Dubinsky and Artem Anisimov, who was included in the Saad deal.
And lest we forget, under the previous front office regime, the Jeff Carter trade to the Kings that netted top-four defenseman Jack Johnson and the 27th pick of the 2013 draft. The Jackets turned that into forward Marko Dano, who acquitted himself well as a rookie and also was in the deal to acquire Saad.
But the best move might have been in 2016. Center Ryan Johansen was a bright young star who figured to be a centerpiece of the team's future. The Jackets, out of the race and needing blue line help, sent him to Nashville for defenseman Seth Jones.
Jones, an All-Star this season, signed an extension and has responded with 10 goals, 31 points and leads the team in ice time. He could be the most integral piece on the roster not named Sergei Bobrovsky.
It's safe to say the Jackets will be bold.
We also know the luster of the streak has been lost. It's been clear in recent weeks of treading water that they need to recapture their mojo — in fairness, coach John Tortorella says they're very close to doing that — and a trade might just be the necessary potion.
But where do you start? And what are you willing to lose? With so many teams still in contention, the cost of doing business will be nothing short of cutthroat.
That's a scary proposition for a team on the cusp. This is a team with a young defensive foundation and stellar goaltending, but the Dubinskys, Folignos and Johnsons of the world aren't getting younger. And as we know, with this franchise, next year's success is never guaranteed.
GM Jarmo Kekalainen told the Columbus Dispatch on Friday that the team doesn't plan on any major shakeups. But this is Jarmo, whose guile rivals a ninja. He is the architect of most of the current roster.
When it comes to taking chances, fear won't be part of the equation.
sblackbu@gannett.com
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Twitter: @SamBlackburnTR