{"id":557684,"date":"2026-04-22T04:37:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T04:37:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/557684\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T04:37:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T04:37:28","slug":"3-early-blue-jackets-trade-candidates-after-missing-2026-stanley-cup-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/557684\/","title":{"rendered":"3 early Blue Jackets trade candidates after missing 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Columbus Blue Jackets<\/a> missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs despite a furious run in the second half. They fired Dean Evason in January, and Rick Bowness brought the Blue Jackets<\/a> to the doorstep of the postseason. But the end of the season did not go as well, as they lost nine of their last 11 games to miss the dance. Who should the Blue Jackets trade this offseason to change the culture?<\/p>\n

In his final post-game press conference of the season, Bowness declared that if he returned, he would change the Blue Jackets’ culture.<\/a> He felt that the team did not care enough about making the playoffs and losing that opportunity. Players slightly pushed back, but management clearly agreed. Bowness earned a one-year contract from GM Don Waddell shortly after those comments went viral.<\/p>\n

Who needs to leave to change that culture is impossible to say from outside the locker room. But trades are coming, so who should be on the market after a Columbus collapse?<\/p>\n

It’s time for Damon Severson to go\"ColumbusKyle Ross-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The Blue Jackets picked up defenseman Damon Severson from the New Jersey Devils<\/a> in a sign-and-trade before the 2023-24 season. In three years with the Jackets, he has played over 20 minutes a night for 208 games. His $6.25 million cap hit is not going to age well, however, as he will be 32 on opening night next year. Even though he still has no-trade protection, this is a time to trade Severson.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jackets could use a refresh on defense, especially after whiffing on the David Jiricek pick in the 2022 draft<\/a>. This free agency class is thin, so replacing Severson may be tough. But they have all of their own picks to wheel and deal and the draft. They should try to find the younger, cheaper version of Severson, even if they have to lose draft picks to do so. If the Nashville Predators are tearing it down, Nicolas Hague would be the right fit.<\/p>\n

There’s a new goalie for the Blue Jackets<\/p>\n

Throughout their run to playoff contention, the Blue Jackets leaned on goaltender Jet Greaves. He stole the starting role from Elvis Merzlikins, posting a 2.60 goals-against average in 53 starts. Greaves is a restricted free agent on July 1, meaning he needs a new contract. Merzlikins has one year left before unrestricted free agency at $5.4 million. It is time for the veteran to find a new landing spot<\/p>\n

Merzlikins lost his job with the Blue Jackets, but he will still be only 32 years old on opening night next year. With his contract expiring, he will theoretically be motivated to shine for a new time. The first goaltending domino to drop will likely be Sergei Bobrovsky, who is an unrestricted free agent. If he returns to the Florida Panthers, the Devils, or the Los Angeles Kings could be interested in Merzlikins.<\/p>\n

Plenty of cap dump options for Don Waddell<\/p>\n

This is where the definition of \u2018locker-room culture’ comes into play. The Blue Jackets may see some of these players as their leaders who cannot be traded. With Boone Jenner hitting free agency, his captaincy is likely over in Columbus. Trading one or multiple of these forwards would free up cap space for big future contracts coming down the pike.<\/p>\n

Miles Wood and Mathieu Oliver are both under contract for the rest of this decade with partial trade protection. Their combined $5.5 million to score a combined 23 goals is not a great use of cap space. Wood had a much worse season, hampered by an injury for a bit, but should be on the trade block. Columbus should only keep one of these players moving forward.<\/p>\n

Depth is important in the NHL, but shelling out multiple years with trade protection for those players is not wise. Waddell signed Oliver to that extension<\/a> and traded for Wood, so he is to blame in this situation. But the Blue Jackets have important contracts coming up, with Zach Werenski, Kirill Marchenko, and Greaves all needing new deals soon. They aren’t trading those players, so someone is going to have to leave.<\/p>\n

The Columbus Blue Jackets missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs despite a furious run in the second half. They fired Dean Evason in January, and Rick Bowness brought the Blue Jackets to the doorstep of the postseason. But the end of the season did not go as well, as they lost nine of their last 11 games to miss the dance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Columbus Blue Jackets missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs despite a furious run in the second half. They…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5108],"tags":[3644,5180,897,230,5179,5,1505,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-557684","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-columbus-blue-jackets","8":"tag-blue-jackets","9":"tag-bluejackets","10":"tag-columbus","11":"tag-columbus-blue-jackets","12":"tag-columbusbluejackets","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-mini-editorials","15":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116446511630705290","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}