Trade Deadline Primer: Columbus Blue Jackets

With the 4 Nations Face-Off break approaching, the trade deadline looms large and is about a month away. Where does each team stand, and what moves should they be looking to make? We continue our look around the league with the Columbus Blue Jackets.

The Blue Jackets’ performance in 2024-25 has exceeded all expectations. Training camp began weeks after star winger Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew died after being struck by an accused drunk driver. Captain Boone Jenner has been unavailable for the entire regular season after sustaining a shoulder injury during a preseason practice, and core pieces Yegor Chinakhov, Erik Gudbranson, Kirill Marchenko, and Sean Monahan have all missed significant time. Nonetheless, they enter the 4 Nations break one point back of the Red Wings for the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference, enough for general manager Don Waddell to anoint himself as a buyer entering the final few weeks before the deadline.

Record

26-22-8, 4th in the Metropolitan Division

Deadline Status

Conservative Buyer

Deadline Cap Space

$85,690,994 on deadline day, 0/3 retention slots used, 46/50 contracts used, per PuckPedia.

Upcoming Draft Picks

2025: CBJ 1st, MIN 1st*, CBJ 3rd, STL 4th, CBJ 4th, CBJ 6th, VGK 7th
2026: CBJ 1st, COL 3rd, CBJ 3rd, TOR 4th, NYR 4th, CBJ 4th, CBJ 5th, PIT 6th, CBJ 6th, CBJ 7th

*2025 MIN 1st is top-five protected.

Trade Chips

Early in the season, it seemed like a foregone conclusion the Blue Jackets would at least shop pending UFA defenseman Ivan Provorov around before the deadline. But with the blue-liner interested in an extension and Columbus looking to add, not subtract, to their roster, it will take a gargantuan offer to convince the Jackets to move on at this stage.

While Columbus may have declared itself a buyer, don’t expect them to deal any of its genuinely high-value prospects or young players. Most of them are already in the NHL, and outside of Hart and Norris Trophy candidate Zach Werenski, they’re the ones driving the bus in the absence of names like Gudbranson, Monahan and Jenner. 

Even among their young talent still developing in the AHL, they’re unlikely to dip into names like Gavin Brindley and Corson Ceulemans for a rental. Those names will only be in play if the Blue Jackets make a run for a young center with term. They’ve been connected to the Sabres’ Dylan Cozens and the Canucks’ Elias Pettersson to varying degrees, but they haven’t been mentioned as finalists for the former in recent reports, and the latter is almost certainly sticking around in Vancouver after teammate J.T. Miller was traded to the Rangers.

That leaves their arsenal of draft picks, particularly in the deeper 2026 class, as their primary fodder for acquiring lower-cost rental pickups to boost the team heading into the stretch run. They’re without any second-rounders in the next two years – 2025’s was traded to acquire Provorov, and 2026’s was given to the Canadiens to offload Patrik Laine. But plenty of mid-round picks remain available, and their currently well-stocked prospect pool, plus clear emergence from their rebuild, could entice them to leverage one of the two first-rounders they currently own for June’s draft.

The Blue Jackets have already shown an unwillingness to part ways with any of their lower-level pending UFAs. With essentially unlimited cap space, there won’t be a need to leverage any of them for financial flexibility, either.

Team Needs

1) Top-Nine Forward: Columbus’ biggest addition will be Jenner, who’s been skating for weeks and is expected to make his season debut sometime before the deadline. That, plus Monahan’s eventual return, doesn’t make a center a pressing need if they also continue to run Adam Fantilli and Sean Kuraly down the middle. One of those four could easily shift to wing like Kent Johnson and Cole Sillinger already have, but either way, they need another option to avoid overtaxing call-ups like Luca Del Bel Belluz and short-term veteran pickups like James van Riemsdyk as they enter every-point-matters territory. Center or wing may not matter to them much longer, but they’ll still be in the mix for names like Brock Nelson and Brandon Tanev and could even make a run for higher-impact names with a bit of term left like Rickard Rakell if the price is right.

2) Goaltending Depth: The Jackets’ possession numbers have faltered amid a four-game losing streak, but that’s to be expected with injuries piling up. Otherwise, Columbus’ skater core has played extremely solid two-way hockey this season. The limiting factor on their record has been goaltending. While Elvis Merzļikins has at least rebounded to a respectable .895 SV% and 2.99 GAA on the season, backup Daniil Tarasov’s play remains a concern. The 25-year-old Russian has been wildly inconsistent in limited action this season, conceding six goals above expected (MoneyPuck) in just 14 appearances while posting a .876 SV% and 3.69 GAA. Picking up a name that could challenge Merzļikins for the starting role may be too optimistic, given the lack of names on the goalie market, but there should be at least a marginal upgrade over Tarasov out there that’s worth pursuing. Among veteran pending UFAs, James Reimer and Vítek Vaněček could be available as limited upside but low-risk pickups.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.