The Columbus Blue Jackets dropped the trade deadline's biggest bomb on Thursday when they sent Nathan Horton to the Toronto Maple Leafs for David Clarkson. It will be a tough act to follow, but general manager Jarmo Kekalainen is in a good spot. He doesn't need to make any more deals -- but if a GM phones him with a strong-enough offer, he'll most definitely listen.
Status: SELLER.
Available: The Blue Jackets aren't a team to call if you're looking for a rental. Mark Letestu is one of the few pending unrestricted free agents on the roster, and they would move him for the right price. But the Blue Jackets also like him and aren't going to trade him just to trade him. It's the players with term who are most intriguing for general managers looking to do a traditional hockey trade.
An NHL source confirmed that the Blue Jackets have requested and received James Wisniewski's no-trade list. Colleague Pierre LeBrun first reported there is interest in Cam Atkinson, and the team also is getting calls on Artem Anisimov.
As we saw with the Horton trade, Kekalainen is willing to be creative but he's also not looking to move these players just for futures. "If we were to part with big parts of our team, if we were trading some of the people you mentioned for draft picks or prospects, it would be like going through a rebuild," Kekalainen told ESPN.com. "We're not trying to do that."
Instead, the Blue Jackets' ideal return would be young players who may not help a contending team at this moment, but would push for time in Columbus next season. It complicates things, but as the Horton deal showed, where there's a will, there's a way.
Finances: The Blue Jackets have $5.4 million in salary-cap space, which means they theoretically could acquire $25 million in actual salary on Monday. That's not happening, but there's flexibility in case Columbus needs it.
Scouting the GM: Kekalainen's two-year anniversary as general manager of the Blue Jackets was this month, and he already has established himself as a fearless front-office leader. He traded for Marian Gaborik and later dealt him to the Kings. He made the fantastic Scott Hartnell trade with the Philadelphia Flyers when it looked like R.J. Umberger was unmovable. And he orchestrated the Horton-for-Clarkson swap, getting a player who can help the team instead of paying an injured player.
The Blue Jackets kicked around the idea of a similar deal for Mike Richards, although that never got past the conceptual phase. That's the kind of creative thinking that makes Kekalainen a general manager to watch as the deadline closes in.
