{"id":611803,"date":"2026-07-01T10:00:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T10:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/611803\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T10:00:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T10:00:13","slug":"zach-weresnki-nixes-potential-deal-ahead-of-free-agent-frenzy-leafs-bolts-remain-among-preferred-destinations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/611803\/","title":{"rendered":"Zach Weresnki nixes potential deal ahead of Free Agent Frenzy; Leafs, Bolts remain among preferred destinations"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Zach Werenski<\/a> trade saga continues.<\/p>\n

TSN Hockey Insider Chris Johnston reports the star defenceman was presented with a trade offer away from the Columbus Blue Jackets<\/a>, but was unwilling to waive his no-move clause to facilitate the deal.<\/p>\n

TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger adds that the Dallas Stars<\/a> are believed to be the team involved in the nixed deal, with Werenski preferring a team in the east.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday\u2019s edition of Insider Trading<\/a>, Pierre LeBrun mentioned the Stars as a team with interest in the reigning Norris Trophy winner, speculating that Thomas Harley<\/a> could be going the other way in a potential deal.<\/p>\n

LeBrun also spoke about Werenski generating interest from the Tampa Bay Lightning<\/a> and the Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> on Insider Trading, and once again mentioned the two teams as destinations that he believes the blueliner would waive his no-move clause for on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

Werenski, 28, registered 22 goals and 81 points in 75 games with the Blue Jackets last season while averaging 26:37 of ice time.<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-2, left-shot blueliner is entering fifth season of a six-year, $57.5 million contract that carries an annual cap hit of $9.58 million. He is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2027-28 campaign.<\/p>\n

He has a full-no move clause in his deal running until the end of next season, before it converts into a modified 10-team no-trade list for the 2027-28 campaign.<\/p>\n

Drafted eighth overall by the Blue Jackets in 2015, Werenski has 135 goals and 465 points in 642 career games. <\/p>\n

His best offensive season came during the 2024-25 campaign after he registered 23 goals and 82 points in 81 games with a plus-12 rating and averaging 26:45 of ice time. <\/p>\n

The Grosse Pointe, Mich., native represented the United States at Milano Cortina 2026, helping his country to a gold-medal victory. He also represented his country at the 4 Nations Face-Off in 2025 in a second-place finish. <\/p>\n

Werenski represented the United States three times at the World Hockey Championship, helping his nation win gold in 2025 to end a 92-year drought. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Zach Werenski trade saga continues. TSN Hockey Insider Chris Johnston reports the star defenceman was presented with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5106],"tags":[4759,32986,33166,5,20,5172,4,33549,66,31,32467,5171,44758],"class_list":["post-611803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto-maple-leafs","tag-apple-news","tag-columbus-blue-jackets-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-29","tag-dallas-stars-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-25","tag-hockey","tag-maple-leafs","tag-mapleleafs","tag-nhl","tag-tampa-bay-lightning-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-14","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-maple-leafs","tag-toronto-maple-leafs-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-10","tag-torontomapleleafs","tag-zach-werenski-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8478460"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116844142526738910","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611803","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=611803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}