Did you mean to put Zucc on the 4th line? Makes no sense for a player like him to get only eight minutes a night. As much as I do think Ohgren eventually ends up in the middle six, he might be one of those prospects that would be fine at least next season to get bottom six minutes when he’s in the league and then send him to Iowa as necessary.

I actually like the idea on the Gus trade a lot (NJ maybe adds a 5th round kicker, too) and then flipping that with Rossi for two guys who could be big pieces. Bravo

Jackets pass on that. Jiricek is too valuable to us to trade away for anything other than a young 1RD.

That's getting into "don't be absurd" territory for the Jackets. Marchenko's been amazing and we'd much rather keep him, and Jiricek is can't-afford-to-lose. Rossi would be a nice add, but, well, we've got a lot of good young centers as is; he'd be better than several of them, but it's not worth giving up those guys to get him. Meanwhile, Lambos plays on the wrong side and the pick is not helpful.

Most of Zucc’s points come on the power play. He’d get top pp minutes, but substantially less even strength time. I believe Russo said that Zucc had 7 points for the entire year when Kaprizov was not on the ice with him. You could flip him and Johansson if necessary.

The pick is the most valuable piece coming from Minnesota. Curious how a top 10 pick is not helpful. Are expectations that CBJ will make the playoffs next year?

I’m curious on Jiricek. He seems to be unhappy with how things are going. I totally understand not wanting to trade him, but I think there is some level of discontent. We might have to swing back around if he ever wants out.

Because we're largely finished with the "acquire lots of prospects" phase and are now into the "actually develop the kids you have" phase. Same reason we're not trading Jenner anytime soon.


The news of Jiricek's discontent has been grossly exaggerated to say the least. It's no more than literally any other prospect in any other market who was hoping not to go to the AHL. It's been blown out of proportion into something supposedly more than that entirely on the basis of "but something something Columbus".

Expectations are to be competitive in 2-3 years. Jiricek was understandably frustrated, he dominated the AHL last year (and a lot of this year when he was down there), but was healthy scratched or demoted/promoted quickly for a stretch. He was frustrated about not playing, and it was aimed nearly entirely at the GM who no longer has a job with the team. He was an NHL regular at the end of the season.

The issue is, if we trade Jiricek, we don't have a suitable replacement or prospect of his caliber on the right side, and there aren't any available in this draft aside from maybe Levshunov, who's gone in the top-4. So no, a top-10 pick doesn't do a lot of good if it's at the expense of Jiricek.

Marchenko and Rossi are about the same age and produce about equally, so I'd call them equal value. We're set on the left side with Werenski here and Mateychuk on the way. We don't have anyone on the right aside from Severson and Gudbranson, so that coupled with no desire to move Marchenko makes this a quick no from Columbus.

Total value is pretty close in all likelihood, but it doesn't at all fit Columbus' needs.