If the goal for the Columbus Blue Jackets this season was to quiet the noise from the summer, it isn’t going well. 

Head coach Rick Bowness was none too pleased during training camp with the conditioning of a couple of players. Then, he went off on his team after it gave up a touchdown to the Florida Panthers last week. Kirill Marchenko’s return on Tuesday was supposed to bring out the best in the Blue Jackets, but a 6-2 defeat was all they could muster. Even with Saturday night’s desperately needed win over the Vegas Golden Knights, the Blue Jackets still sit last in the Eastern Conference, having accumulated just eight points in nine games. 

Columbus’s problems are deeper than the standings, though. Marchenko didn’t hide the fact that he wanted out, and for a moment, it felt like Zach Werenski had one foot out the door this summer, as well. General manager Don Waddell and Werenski smoothed things over, but it may only have been a temporary reprieve.

Trade chatter will soon heat up around Werenski again

The reigning Norris Trophy winner’s contract doesn’t expire until the summer of 2028. But as we know, teams like to have clarity on their best players’ intentions much earlier than that. That means the clock is ticking on Werenski, who is eligible to sign an extension next summer. We saw what the Vancouver Canucks did with Quinn Hughes and the Ottawa Senators with Brady Tkachuk, when it became clear both had no interest in re-signing. You could argue the Blue Jackets may even be in a more urgent state than the Canucks and Senators.

Werenski at least thought seriously enough about moving on in the summer that Waddell was exploring trade options, before the two ultimately released a statement that reaffirmed Werenski’s commitment to the team. While we don’t know the exact reason or motives a trade was explored, one could hazard a pretty good guess. The Blue Jackets have missed the playoffs for six straight seasons and Werenski — like Hughes, Tkachuk, Connor Hellebuyck and Dylan Larkin — got a taste of winning at the Olympics and wants more of it. 

Unless things improve quickly in Columbus, it wouldn’t be shocking if whispers about a Werenski trade came up once again. 

The Blue Jackets have made a couple of strong late-season pushes in the past two years, but a playoff appearance continues to elude them. Things look even less promising this year. Columbus isn’t in a great cap situation, and there aren’t enough difference-makers on the roster to help push the team to the next level. Adam Fantilli is a great young player, Jet Greaves has been very impressive and Waddell did a good job getting Matthew Knies back in the Marchenko deal, but it doesn’t seem to be enough, along with Werenski, to start filling the win column. 

Dmitri Voronkov once looked like he had a lot of promise, but he can’t seem to get out of the doghouse and earn a regular place in the lineup. Voronkov scored 40 goals over the past two season and at six-foot-five and 234 pounds, there should be a useful player in there for the Blue Jackets to utilize. Unfortunately, it feels like he could be another trade candidate.

All this isn’t necessarily to say that Werenski will suddenly demand to be traded, but the Blue Jackets are running out of time to show him that this team is on the cusp of being a true contender. Columbus is a great place to play, but it isn’t a destination for a lot of players. The Blue Jackets have to put a winning product on the ice to attract and retain players. If Werenski is looking at the current state of things in Columbus, he can’t be filled with optimism.

This is the Auston Matthews that Toronto Maple Leafs fans were hoping they’d see again. After a pair of seasons where he scored 33 and 27 goals under Craig Berube, there was renewed belief that a re-energized and hopefully healthier Matthews could start finding the back of the net more frequently. So far, he hasn’t disappointed. Matthews has tallied nine times in 13 games, putting him on a 58-goal pace for the season. The 29-year-old has hit the 60-goal mark twice in his career and fell just short of 70 a few years ago, so this isn’t an unsustainable pace for Matthews. Even if Matthews doesn’t return to his 60-goal form, 50 certainly does seem in reach. 

It’s not just the hot start that would make you believe Matthews can hit 50, but he’s passing the eye test, too. He’s moving better and exerting himself more physically than he has in the past couple of years, using his body down low to strip pucks and create havoc in the offensive zone. It’s also not just his goals that are trending back up. Matthews came into Saturday sitting in the top five in league scoring and is on pace for well over 100 points. 

The Leafs are also much better equipped to help Matthews drive offence again. Yes, Mitch Marner is gone, but players like Kirill Marchenko, Gavin McKenna and an emerging Easton Cowan are giving Toronto a more well-rounded group of high-end talent, alongside mainstays William Nylander and John Tavares. Add in a top-five power play and the fact that Matthews’ offensive zone starts are way up and his short-handed ice time is down, and it should lead you to believe that he can cement himself as an elite goal scorer again. 

Senators are in major trouble without Linus Ullmark

The injury bug has not been kind to the Ottawa Senators. They started the season without Artem Zub, then Jake Sanderson and William Eklund went down, and now, perhaps most devastating of all, Linus Ullmark has hit injured reserve. Ullmark was near the top of the league in most important statistical metrics for goaltenders, including save percentage, goals saved above expected and wins. He was also a major catalyst in Ottawa’s hot start and was giving the Sens a chance to win every night. In Ullmark’s absence, the Sens will be forced to lean on Samuel Ersson and Jonas Johansson, which is less than ideal. The duo has career save percentages of .883 and .888, respectively, so it’s fair to question whether Ullmark’s injury could completely derail Ottawa’s hot start. 

Make no mistake about it, Ullmark is a huge loss for the Senators, and you can see the impact immediately. Ottawa has conceded 10 goals in the past two contests without Ullmark. That said, the Sens are well-coached and should be able to survive for a while without their top netminder. They’ve done a great job of limiting shots on goal and currently they rank in the top 10 in the NHL in that category. Plus, Zub and Sanderson have returned, giving Ottawa some reinforcements to help withstand the loss of Ullmark. Travis Green is also smart enough to adjust the team’s style of play as needed to help better protect his two netminders. There’s no indication that this will sideline Ullmark long term, and the Sens have banked quite a few points here early on, so they should be okay for a handful of games or so until he gets back. 

Lightning should make major push for Dylan Larkin

It appears that Dylan Larkin is trying to accelerate his departure from the Detroit Red Wings. Larkin reportedly expanded his trade list to 10 teams this week, with the Utah Mammoth, Washington Capitals, Carolina Hurricanes, New Jersey Devils, Colorado Avalanche and, perhaps most interestingly, the Tampa Bay Lightning joining the group. The Lightning are notorious for going all in under Julien BriseBois, and why wouldn’t they? Tampa has been a perennial contender and looks to be that way once again with a strong start to the season. But a player like Larkin could really put the Lightning over the top and back on track to claim another Stanley Cup.

One thing that’s held the Lightning back in the past few post-seasons is a lack of centre depth. Brayden Point is a legit No. 1 centre, and Anthony Cirelli is a great player, but on a Cup contender, Cirelli is ideally a 3C. He’s a solid two-way forward, though he may not bring enough offence to hold down a spot in the top six. Larkin could easily take on that role and bump Cirelli down to the third unit, giving the Lightning more balance and making them much tougher to play against.

The challenge for Tampa is creating a bit of cap space and building a return that Detroit would be willing to take. The Red Wings have indicated they want an impact player in return, something that would be challenging for the Lightning to pull off given most of their key players have trade protection. Tampa would have to build a package around future assets, which could include Conor Geekie, other prospects and first-round picks in 2028 and 2029. The Lightning don’t own their 2027 first. We’ve seen BriseBois trade two first-rounders for Yanni Gourde in the past, so there’s no reason to believe he wouldn’t do it for Larkin, a much more impactful player. There’s a willingness from the Lightning to keep this competitive window open as long as they can, and adding Larkin would be a big step towards that. 

Kraken will get back to the playoffs

One of the bigger feel-good stories in this early season has been the Seattle Kraken. After striking out on major moves to land Artemi Panarin and Jason Robertson, it would be fair to say expectations were low for the Kraken this season. Instead, Seattle has won seven of its first 12 games, owns a plus-3 goal differential and sits third in the Pacific. Lacking the high-end talent many other teams possess around the league, the Kraken have been powered by a balanced attack. They have 15 players with at least five points, and Kaapo Kakko is scoring at close to a point-per-game rate. In a wide-open division, could Seattle parlay this hot start into its second playoff appearance in franchise history?

At some point, the Kraken’s lack of elite talent is going to catch up to them. It’s tough to get by with a balanced attack alone over a long 84-game season, as cold streaks are inevitable and Seattle won’t have the firepower to take over a game when other parts of the offence are lacking. 

There’s also the matter of Vince Dunn, who is in the final year of his deal and can become a free agent next summer. If he isn’t willing to re-sign, you’d think the Kraken would have little choice but to try to move Dunn to get some assets back and avoid losing him for nothing. Should that happen, it would really hurt a Kraken playoff push. Plus, the Anaheim Ducks do have the elite talent to get back into the playoff mix and overtake the Kraken at some point. 

Seattle deserves credit for punching above its weight, but it doesn’t seem sustainable.