GM reveals he came very close to trading one of the top picks in the draft.

A National Hockey League general manager has revealed he almost pulled the trigger on a pretty big deal at the draft.

Columbus Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen told Sportsnet's Hockey Central At Noon that he nearly did pull the trigger on trading his #3 overall pick, confirming the rumors that had been around for weeks.

“Yeah, I actually thought we had a deal done, but then it fell apart in the last second. But we didn’t want to move anywhere where we couldn’t get Pierre-Luc Dubois,” said Kekalainen as per Nichols on Hockey.

“It was a small trade, and small movement back that we thought we had the deal done, but it fell apart and that’s why we picked him at 3.”

Unfortunately we are left to wonder exactly who the Jackets were contemplating trading with, but you have to believe that if they were hoping for Dubois they weren't planning on moving very far down, perhaps #4, 5, or 6 at the very most but that might be pushing it.

[pub]