{"id":946410,"date":"2026-10-26T02:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T02:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/946410\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T02:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T02:24:09","slug":"sunday-overreactions-can-blue-jackets-convince-werenski-to-stay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/946410\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday Overreactions:\u00a0Can Blue Jackets\u00a0convince\u00a0Werenski\u00a0to stay?"},"content":{"rendered":"

If the goal\u00a0for\u00a0the Columbus Blue Jackets<\/a> this season was to quiet the noise from the summer, it isn\u2019t going well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Head coach Rick Bowness\u00a0was none too\u00a0pleased during training camp with the conditioning of a couple of players. Then,\u00a0he went off on his team after it gave up a touchdown to the Florida Panthers last week.\u00a0Kirill Marchenko\u2019s return on Tuesday was supposed to bring out the best\u00a0in the Blue Jackets, but a 6-2 defeat\u00a0was all they could muster.\u00a0Even with Saturday night\u2019s desperately needed\u00a0win over the Vegas Golden Knights, the Blue Jackets\u00a0still\u00a0sit last in the Eastern Conference, having accumulated just\u00a0eight\u00a0points in\u00a0nine\u00a0games.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Columbus’s problems are deeper\u00a0than the standings, though. Marchenko didn\u2019t hide the fact that he wanted out, and\u00a0for a moment, it felt like Zach Werenski<\/a> had one foot\u00a0out the door\u00a0this summer, as well.\u00a0General manager Don Waddell and Werenski\u00a0smoothed things over, but it may only have been a temporary\u00a0reprieve.<\/p>\n

Trade chatter will soon heat up around Werenski again<\/p>\n

The reigning\u00a0Norris Trophy winner\u2019s contract doesn\u2019t expire until the summer of 2028. But as we know, teams like\u00a0to have clarity on their best players’ intentions much earlier\u00a0than that.\u00a0That means the clock is ticking on Werenski, who\u00a0is eligible to sign\u00a0an extension\u00a0next summer.\u00a0We\u00a0saw what the Vancouver Canucks did with Quinn Hughes and the Ottawa Senators<\/a>\u00a0with Brady Tkachuk, when it became clear both had no interest in re-signing.\u00a0You could argue the Blue Jackets may even be in a more urgent state than the Canucks and Senators.<\/p>\n

Werenski at least thought seriously enough about moving on\u00a0in the summer that Waddell was exploring trade options, before the two\u00a0ultimately\u00a0released a statement\u00a0that reaffirmed Werenski\u2019s commitment to the team.\u00a0While we don\u2019t know the exact reason or motives\u00a0a trade was explored, one could hazard a pretty good guess.\u00a0The Blue Jackets\u00a0have missed the playoffs for six straight seasons and Werenski \u2014 like Hughes, Tkachuk, Connor Hellebuyck and Dylan Larkin<\/a> \u2014 got a taste of winning at the Olympics and wants more of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unless things improve quickly in Columbus, it wouldn\u2019t be shocking if whispers about a Werenski trade came up once again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Blue Jackets have made a couple of strong late-season pushes in the past two years, but a playoff appearance continues to\u00a0elude them.\u00a0Things look even less promising\u00a0this year. Columbus isn\u2019t in a great cap situation, and there aren\u2019t enough difference-makers on the roster\u00a0to help push the team to the next level.\u00a0Adam 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\u00a0it doesn\u2019t seem to be enough,\u00a0along with Werenski, to start filling the win column.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dmitri Voronkov once looked like he had a lot of promise, but he can\u2019t seem to get out of the doghouse\u00a0and earn\u00a0a regular place in the lineup.\u00a0Voronkov scored 40 goals over the past two season and at six-foot-five and 234 pounds, there should be a useful player in there\u00a0for the Blue Jackets to utilize. Unfortunately, it feels like he could be another trade candidate<\/a>.<\/p>\n

All this isn\u2019t\u00a0necessarily\u00a0to say that Werenski\u00a0will suddenly demand to be traded,\u00a0but the Blue Jackets are running out of time to show him\u00a0that this team is on the cusp of being a true contender.\u00a0Columbus is a great place to play, but it isn\u2019t a destination for a lot of players.\u00a0The Blue Jackets have to put a winning product on the ice to attract and retain players.\u00a0If Werenski is looking at the current state of things in Columbus, he can\u2019t be filled with optimism.<\/p>\n

This is the Auston Matthews that Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> fans were hoping they\u2019d see again.\u00a0After a pair of seasons\u00a0where he scored 33 and 27 goals under Craig Berube, there was renewed\u00a0belief that a re-energized and hopefully healthier Matthews could start finding the back of the net more frequently. So far,\u00a0he hasn\u2019t disappointed. Matthews has tallied\u00a0nine\u00a0times\u00a0in 13 games, putting\u00a0him on a\u00a058-goal pace for the season.\u00a0The 29-year-old\u00a0has hit the 60-goal mark twice in his career and fell just short of\u00a070 a few years ago, so\u00a0this isn\u2019t an unsustainable pace for Matthews. Even if Matthews doesn\u2019t\u00a0return to his 60-goal form, 50 certainly does seem\u00a0in reach.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just the hot start that would make you believe Matthews can hit 50, but he\u2019s passing the eye test, too. He\u2019s moving better and exerting himself more physically than he has in the past couple of years, using his body down low to strip\u00a0pucks and create havoc in the offensive zone. It\u2019s also not just his goals that\u00a0are trending\u00a0back up.\u00a0Matthews\u00a0came into Saturday sitting\u00a0in the top five in\u00a0league scoring and\u00a0is\u00a0on pace for well over 100 points.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Leafs are also\u00a0much\u00a0better equipped to\u00a0help Matthews drive offence again. Yes, Mitch Marner\u00a0is gone, but players like Kirill Marchenko, Gavin McKenna and an emerging Easton Cowan\u00a0are 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\u00a0Matthews\u2019 offensive\u00a0zone starts\u00a0are way up\u00a0and his\u00a0short-handed ice time\u00a0is\u00a0down, and it should lead you to believe\u00a0that he can cement himself as an elite goal scorer again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Senators are in major trouble without\u00a0Linus\u00a0Ullmark<\/p>\n

The injury bug has not been kind\u00a0to 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<\/a> has hit injured reserve.\u00a0Ullmark was near the top\u00a0of 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\u2019s hot start\u00a0and was giving the Sens a chance to win every night.\u00a0In\u00a0Ullmark\u2019s absence, the Sens will be forced to lean on Samuel Ersson and Jonas Johansson, which is less than ideal.\u00a0The duo\u00a0has career save percentages of .883 and .888, respectively, so it\u2019s fair to question whether Ullmark\u2019s injury could completely derail Ottawa\u2019s hot start.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Make no mistake about it,\u00a0Ullmark is\u00a0a huge loss for the Senators,\u00a0and you can see\u00a0the impact immediately.\u00a0Ottawa has conceded 10 goals in the past two contests without Ullmark.\u00a0That said,\u00a0the Sens are well-coached and should be able to survive for a while without their top netminder.\u00a0They\u2019ve done a great\u00a0job\u00a0of limiting\u00a0shots 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.\u00a0Travis Green is\u00a0also smart enough to adjust the team\u2019s style of play as needed to help better protect his two netminders. There\u2019s no indication that this will sideline Ullmark long term,\u00a0and the Sens have banked quite a few points here early on, so they should be okay\u00a0for a handful of games or so until\u00a0he\u00a0gets back.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lightning should make major push for\u00a0Dylan\u00a0Larkin<\/p>\n

It appears that Dylan Larkin is trying to\u00a0accelerate his departure from the Detroit Red Wings<\/a>. Larkin reportedly expanded his trade list\u00a0to 10 teams this week, with the Utah Mammoth, Washington Capitals, Carolina Hurricanes, New Jersey Devils, Colorado Avalanche\u00a0and, perhaps most interestingly, the Tampa Bay Lightning<\/a> joining the group.\u00a0The Lightning are notorious for going all in under Julien BriseBois,\u00a0and why wouldn\u2019t they? Tampa has been a perennial contender and looks to be that way once again\u00a0with a strong start to the season. But a player like Larkin could really put the Lightning over the top\u00a0and back on track to claim another Stanley Cup.<\/p>\n

One thing\u00a0that\u2019s 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\u00a0is a great player, but on a Cup contender, Cirelli is ideally a 3C. He\u2019s a solid two-way\u00a0forward, though he may not bring enough\u00a0offence\u00a0to 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\u00a0making them much tougher to play against.<\/p>\n

The challenge for Tampa is\u00a0creating a bit of cap space and\u00a0building a return that Detroit would be willing to take. The Red Wings have indicated\u00a0they want an impact player in return, something that would be challenging\u00a0for the Lightning to pull off given most of their key players have trade protection.\u00a0Tampa would have to build a package around future assets, which could include\u00a0Conor Geekie, other prospects\u00a0and first-round picks in 2028 and 2029.\u00a0The Lightning don\u2019t own their 2027 first.\u00a0We\u2019ve seen BriseBois trade two first-rounders for Yanni Gourde in the past, so there\u2019s no reason to believe\u00a0he wouldn\u2019t do it for Larkin, a much more impactful player. There\u2019s a willingness from the Lightning\u00a0to keep this competitive window open as long as they can, and adding Larkin would be a big step towards that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kraken will get back to the playoffs<\/p>\n

One of the bigger feel-good stories in this early season\u00a0has been the Seattle Kraken<\/a>. After striking out\u00a0on major\u00a0moves\u00a0to land Artemi Panarin and Jason Robertson, it would be fair to say expectations were low for the Kraken this season. Instead, Seattle\u00a0has won seven\u00a0of its first 12 games, owns a plus-3\u00a0goal differential and sits third in the Pacific.\u00a0Lacking 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,\u00a0and Kaapo Kakko\u00a0is\u00a0scoring at close to a point-per-game rate. In a wide-open division, could Seattle\u00a0parlay this hot start into its second playoff appearance in franchise history?<\/p>\n

At some point, the Kraken\u2019s lack of elite talent is going to catch up to them. It\u2019s tough\u00a0to get by with a balanced attack alone over a long 84-game season, as cold streaks are inevitable and Seattle won\u2019t have the firepower to take over a game\u00a0when other parts of the offence are lacking.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s 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\u2019t willing to re-sign, you\u2019d think the Kraken would have little choice but to try to move\u00a0Dunn\u00a0to get some assets back and avoid losing him for nothing.\u00a0Should that happen, it would really hurt a Kraken playoff push. Plus, the Anaheim\u00a0Ducks\u00a0do have the elite talent\u00a0to get back into the playoff mix\u00a0and overtake the Kraken at some point.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Seattle deserves credit for punching above its weight,\u00a0but it doesn’t seem sustainable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If the goal\u00a0for\u00a0the Columbus Blue Jackets this season was to quiet the noise from the summer, it isn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":946411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-946410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=946410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/946411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=946410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=946410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=946410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}