Rumor: Former first round pick Sonny Milano is on the trading block.

It sounds like a young National Hockey League talent may have finally burnt all of his bridges. 

The Columbus Blue Jackets had, by all accounts, a relatively rough offseason. The organization went all in for a Stanley Cup run in the 2019i playoffs, making some major additions to their roster and pulling off a shocking upset in the process by sweeping the Tampa Bay Lightning. That would not last for long however as the Blue Jackets lost significant star power this summer losing forwards Matt Duchene, Artemi Panarin and Ryan Dzingel all in the span of a few short days, and losing goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky in the process.

Now you would think that the loss of so many quality forwards would open a ton of opportunities for some of the young prospects in the Blue Jackets organization, and in fact it has. However one of the players that was expected to take hold of those new opportunities has failed to deliver yet again in his career and now it sounds like the Blue Jackets may finally be ready to simply move on and spare themselves the headaches. I am of course referring to troubled former Blue Jackets first round draft pick Sonny Milano.

Milano of course was infamously arrested in New York over the summer after allegedly assaulting a man after a dispute over a bar tab, although the young forward has pled not guilty to the charges stemming from that incident. This combined with the disappointments he has produced on the ice season after season since being drafted 16th overall at the 2015 NHL Entry Draft appears to have finally been the straw that broke the camel's back, and this froma team desperately trying to replace the talent that was lost at forward this summer.

Columbus Blue Jackets insider Aaron Portzline had this to say about Milano's current status within the organization:

It’s coming to a head with Milano, the first-round pick (No. 16 overall in 2014) who has been jumped on the depth chart by Texier and Bemstrom. One would expect a player with Milano’s skill (and history of scoring in the NHL) to get claimed on waivers. The Blue Jackets would prefer trading him to losing him on waivers, obviously, but the market for Milano has been cold. … Gerbe and Scott were put on waivers Sunday. If they clear at noon Monday, they’ll be sent to Cleveland.

It sounds like the Jackets want Milano out, and that a trade would be the prefered solution here. Don't be surprised if Milano gets dealt in the coming days, but don't be surprised either when the Jackets get very little in return for a disappointing player who has plenty of major red flags attached to him.