Send Cooley to college or juniors, give him a little more time to dominate and avoid chaos of bad team, interesting new to them building, and be bad for bedard. Same as geekie ship him back to Winnipeg for a ice run at dub championship

I’d be very hesitant to trade a 2023 1st from a team that isn’t a clear cup contender, not sure Chychrun is worth it as he doesn’t make Columbus a cup contender.

Chychrun would be very nice to have, but not that nice.

Chychrun to Columbus is probably not a consideration for Columbus anymore. Their legitimate NHL depth now consists of Werenski, Gavrikov, Boqvist, Bean, Peeke, Blankenburg, Jiricek, Mateychuk, Ceulemans and Svozil. Plus they've got their fringe guys in Christiansen, Knazko, Holm, Berni, Hreschuk, Makarov and Richard. If they were going to go after Chychrun it would have been with the intent of keeping him beyond the next 3 years and they really shouldn't need another top 4 defenseman over that timeline anymore. I would bet they go after a cheaper UFA veteran for the next 2-3 years as a stopgap until Jiricek, Mateychuk, Ceulemans or Svozil are ready to get into the lineup.

Yes they have a good depth in defense but they were really fighting for that Top 2 Defenseman in Ryan McDonagh and they couldn’t get him so I would think they would bite on Chychrun because he could most definitely be top 2 in Columbus

"Really fighting" is kind of a misnomer. Kekalainen came out and described that rumor as "100% inaccurate". And even if it was accurate, we were in that scenario getting him for free.

I do think he'd still be a useful pickup, but I strongly suspect the Coyotes would get a better price for him elsewhere. It was easier to consider him as a target when we had spare high value picks in a less hyped draft; now that that draft has completed, the motivation to consider other picks just isn't there.

Again, the idea behind acquiring a defenseman like Chychrun would have been for the long term. The long term now has Jiricek and Mateychuk in the picture so sacrificing a huge amount for Chychrun no longer makes sense. They're likely still after a dman, but the profile of that dman and price they are going to be willing to trade away are both significantly reduced.