Report: Very important condition in the Matt Duchene trade has been triggered.

The Columbus Blue Jackets picked up a hugely important win on Friday night but it was important to more than just the Blue Jackets and their fan base. In fact no team, not even the Blue Jackets themselves, may have been happier about that result than the highly dysfunctional Ottawa Senators organization.

As most of our readers will know, the Ottawa Senators made a historic blunder when they failed to lottery protect the picks that they had offered up to the Colorado Avalanche when they acquired star forward Matt Duchene from that organization, a move that resulted in them being forced to give up their first round pick in the 2019 National Hockey League Entry Draft to the Avalanche organization. The Senators of course would go on to have a catastrophically bad season both on and off the ice this season and this has now resulted in the Avalanche, who have made the playoffs, receiving a lottery pick in the upcoming draft. This of course could be the first overall pick in the draft, optics that would make the Ottawa Senators the laughing stock of the National Hockey League should that scenario come to pass. 

Thankfully however the Senators were able to acquire a first round pick of their own in a trade with the Columbus Blue Jackets for that very same player, although there is no question that the pick from the Blue Jackets would be an inferior one. What you might now know however is just how close the Ottawa Senators came  to not even getting that pick, because once again the conditions applied to their trade appeared to heavily favor the other team in the deal.

You see the Blue Jackets, in spite of the fact that no one would have expected them to miss the playoffs after their moves ahead of the trade deadline, did protect the picks that they gave up in this deal. According to a report from Cap Friendly now that the Blue Jackets have officially locked themselves into the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs their 2019 first round draft pick has now officially been transferred to the Ottawa Senators. Now the odds of the Senators losing the pick, even if the Blue Jackets had missed the playoffs, would have been unlikely but it did remain a possibility until the Blue Jackets clinched late last night. 

It has to feel like a huge relief for the Senators fan base and perhaps even more so for their management team who could have been staring at another humiliating disaster had the Blue Jackets failed to make the playoffs and gotten extremely lucky in the lottery. Now the Senators are guranteed the Blue Jackets pick in 2019, and may get their first round pick in 2020 as well should Duchene sign a contract extension with that franchise. 

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