More trades to go down at the NHL draft than in a typical year!

We’re not the ones saying it: one of the National Hockey League’s general managers, Columbus Blue Jackets’ GM Jarmo Kekalainen revealed to team insider Aaron Portzline of The Athletic that he expects a lot of trades to take place at this year’s draft. 

Kekalainen said he expects more trades to go down after the draft than in a typical year, and we get that he is probably hoping to be in the middle of it. 

We get why Kekalainen is hoping to see a lot of movement this offseason and close to the draft. It has recently been reported that the Blue Jackets are listening to offers on both Joonas Korpisalo and Elvis Merzlikins. The trade value for both goalies should be pretty high considering how they played this season and their affordable contracts. Columbus allowed the third-fewest goals in the league this season and both netminders took turns carrying the workload, getting lots of attention from rival teams across the league. According to TSN’s Pierre LeBrun, the price to acquire one of the netminders appears to be a top-six center that would play behind pending restricted free agent Pierre-Luc Dubois. 

There are so many trade rumours out there ever since the season ended and we have to assume that a lot of that chatter will take place. 

Or else it will be a boring offseason… 

Here are some trades that have already taken place ahead of the NHL Draft: 

• Senators acquire Josh Brown from Florida
• Blackhawks and Golden Knights trade forwards
• Marc Staal is now a Red Wing
• Patric Hornqvist moves from Pittsburgh to Florida
• Wild send Eric Staal to the Sabres in return for Marcus Johansson
• Canadiens land Joel Edmundson from Carolina
• Penguins send Nick Bjugstad to Minnesota
• Jake Allen gets traded to Montreal
• Kasperi Kapanen traded to Pittsburgh in major trade