The Columbus Blue Jackets announced yesterday they signed Adam Fantilli to a new six-year deal at $13.75 million per season. Fantilli was a priority for GM Don Waddell, who always believed a deal would get done. With the Fantilli situation resolved and the Zach Werenski on the back burner for now, the focus shifts to forward Kirill Marchenko.
Marchenko is in the final year of his deal at $3.85 million a season. However, when this three-year deal expires, he will still be a restricted free agent and wants to be paid like one of the NHL’s top goal scorers. Salaries are going up, and with Fantilli resolved, the Blue Jackets know the number.
NHL Rumors: Kirill Marchenko and Columbus Blue Jackets Playing the Waiting Game
Everyone can point to his comments last week about wanting to play hockey and not wanting to talk about his future. We know his agent at the draft stated his client wasn’t going to re-sign in Columbus. So the Jackets are working the trade front. However, as Don Waddell has stated, he isn’t going to make a deal that doesn’t benefit the Blue Jackets.
Despite what is going on, Kirill Marchenko is working hard and giving his best effort, even with the boos from the fans on Thursday night. But as Elliotte Friedman noted on the last edition of the 32 Thoughts Podcast, if the Columbus Blue Jackets are cleaning up the culture, does the team see him as part of the solution or part of the problem?
“Now, Columbus has got another situation. We’ll see what they’re going to do here. It’s Marchenko. I’ll say this: like Rick Bowness is on them about culture, culture, culture, culture, and we talked about Marchenko in his video last weekend.
And I had someone in the league say to me that, and he said, ‘This is not Rick Bowness saying it. This is him saying it.’ He said it after everything that Rick Bowness said about the team, he wonders if, like in Columbus, they’re like, we can’t have this.
We are trying to change the way we go about things. We’re trying to change our attitude in the room. We have to cut bait as quickly as possible, and then I’ve got other people saying, ‘Okay, I understand you might be mad at him, but he showed up ready to play. He’s a 40-goal scorer, making $3.85 million. You’re starting the season with him.’
What would it take for the Columbus Blue Jackets to trade Kirill Marchenko?
Now, I think teams have been circling around him. Montreal. Everybody knows about the Islanders. I mentioned a couple pods ago. Toronto, I think, has really tried to keep their interest secret, but it’s it’s it’s kind of seeped out. I think Winnipeg at one point kind of looked into it. I heard Boston made an offer at one point. I had some people say Vegas. I had some other people saying they weren’t sure it was Vegas. I have to think Seattle is around this. They have they’ve really been looking at trying to grab a top-end player, and they could make this deal.”
As previously mentioned, it is similar to the Dylan Larkin situation in Detroit. If Columbus is doing this deal, it isn’t for futures; it is for players that can help them now, as it is a must for the Blue Jackets to make the playoffs.
“Number one, I don’t think Columbus is really that interested in futures, but I think to me the most fascinating thing that the Blue Jackets have to decide here is they just say, ‘Hey, this is a good player. We keep him. We start the year with him. We go.’ Or do they say, ‘We’re trying to change our room and our group? And if the player doesn’t want to be here, we move on.’ So we’ll see what Columbus does, but there’s no question there are teams circling around this guy, Friedman added.
NHL Rumors: Adam Fantilli, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Other Potential Moves
And the other thing we talked about was that now they know Fantilli’s number. Now they know their cap situation, and they know what they can do, and they know what they can’t do. So we’ll see. A lot of fascinating things could happen in this league over the next couple of weeks. This is obviously one of the biggest ones.”
It will be interesting to see what the Columbus Blue Jackets do. If it is about making the playoffs, will they keep him as they did with Artemi Panarin, Sergei Bobrovsky, and Matt Duchene back in 2019, or will they look for solutions in the trade market?
The only thing is the team trading for him will have to pay him, and he will be asking for more than $10 million a season.
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