Surprising change in goal sparks trade rumors around star goaltender.

When one of your star players is rumored to be leaving either via a trade through free agency at the end of the current season every little thing is going to heavily scrutinized and today is no exception.

As many of our readers will already know the Columbus Blue Jackets are currently in a very difficult situation when it comes to two of their top players, goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky and forward Artemi Panarin. Both men are set to be unrestricted free agents at the end of the season and there's been some indication that neither is likely to be signed by the Blue Jackets before that time has come and gone. Obviously this has led to rampant speculation that a trade is on the horizon and in the case of Bobrovsky his performance in goal has really accelerated that speculation.

Bobrovsky to put it mildly has been pretty bad to start the 2018 - 2019 NHL regular season with a 3.87 goals against average and a save percentage of just 0.872. When you consider the fact that the team may want to get a solid return for him in a trade deal that has been nothing short of disastrous, and on Saturday we saw perhaps the first consequence of that poor play. 

According to a breaking news report from Blue Jackets insider Aaron Portzline Blue Jackets backup goaltender Joonas Korpisalo was in the starter's net during the Blue Jackets morning skate, an indication that head coach John Tortorella may want to see what he's got from his backup. Korpisalo has appeared in 3 games for the Blue Jackets and has a 3.29 goals against average and a 0.898 save percentage over that stretch of time. The numbers aren't good by any stretch of the imagination but they are an improvement from the performance Bobrovsky has put up this season and the Blue Jackets have appeared to perform better in front of him as well.

Interestingly enough Bobrovsky has been linked to the St. Louis Blues in trade rumors this season due to the catastrophic performance of both their goaltenders, Chad Johnson and Jake Allen, and Korpisalo's presence in the starter net has reignited those rumors. The Jackets may feel the need to trade Bobrovsky before he further damages his trade value with his poor performances this season, and the start for Korpisalo may be an indication that they feel the need to see what he can do with more consistent starts before they pull the trigger.

Any notion that Bobrovsky may need rest do not seem to line up with reality, the Jackets last played on Thursday and won't have another game until Tuesday which would give the veteran netminder plenty of time to recover between each game. The way this was worded by Portzline also came off like Portzline himself hinting that there may be more than meets the eye here.

"Joonas Korpisalo is in the starter’s net, so …"

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