Cup contending team faces the most complicated trade situation of the season!

This season, no one can start talking about the Columbus Blue Jackets without addressing the elephant in the room. Let's call it a zoo. There are two elephants in the room with both star forward Artemi Panarin and number one goalie Sergei Bobrovsky being pending free agents with little interest to re-sign in Columbus. Yeah, there's your zoo. 

NHL insider Bob McKenzie was asked about poor Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen's situation and how he would managed to pull the most difficult trades of the year. No other GM across the National Hockey League wants to be in his shoes... Here is what McKenzie had to say, as recounted by Chris Nichols of Nichols on Hockey. 

“I think they need to do exactly what Jarmo Kekalainen, the general manager, is doing right now,” said McKenzie during a Friday morning radio hit on Winnipeg’s TSN 1290. “And that is just taking it one day at a time, not throwing any gas on the fire. He’s got a really difficult situation with Panarin and Bobrovsky, two guys that are unrestricted free agents at the end of the year, two guys that in one form or another have kind of indicated that they’re likely moving on but not 100 percent.

“So Jarmo’s calculation right now is, ‘Let’s not fan the flames here.’ He’s obviously got to listen if he gets trade action on any of these guys, and I’m sure he will on Panarin.”

“But you know the Blue Jackets are supposed to be a pretty good team this year, or maybe a very good team this year. But incumbent on being a very good team is Bobrovsky playing Vezina-caliber goaltending and Panarin being an elite offensive player.

“It’s funny, but the worst-case scenario might be for this team to be really, really good with Panarin and Bobrovsky, and those guys playing at the top of their game and the Blue Jackets leading the Metro Division coming up toward the trade deadline, and realizing that, ‘We don’t have either one of these guys under contract. The fact that we don’t have them under contract right now suggests that they’re going to walk in the offseason, and here we are, a Cup contender with them in the lineup.’

Of course, the Jackets need to find a solution and cannot let both players, even just one, walk for free this summer once the free agency market opens on July 1st. 

“So there are some concerns there. But from Kekalainen’s point of view, all you can do is let the season play out, keep an Panarin and Bobrovsky and try to chip away at them and see if you can get them signed. And if there comes to be a moment where you recognize, ‘You know what? The writing is on the wall. These guys are leaving,’ then you’ve got to do a real nice job of trying to keep your team competitive right now, and not send the message to the fans that the season is going down the drain.

“But you’ve also got to make hard decisions and try to get good value back for these guys before they walk out the door for nothing.”

The Columbus Blue Jackets are going to be a competitive team this season, but let's see if they can play the same game on the trade market...