Columbus Blue Jackets' Best Trade Of The Past Year

The Columbus Blue Jackets haven't made a whole lot of trades in the past year, but most of the deals they have done is to continue to sell players. Having said that, this will then look at which got the best return from what was expected.

Oliver Bjorkstrand did not get the Blue Jackets the return they should have after having a great season while the team flipped Jonathan Quick for the bare minimum. The only large return Columbus got was by dealing their top two assets in one trade and only coming away with a first round pick, third round pick, and a cap dump of Quick. Seeing how the former Los Angeles Kings veteran should have cost a third round pick at least by himself to move, both Joonas Korpisalo, who was one of the hottest goalies in the NHL at the time of the trade, and Vladislav Gavrikov, who was rumored to be worth a first round pick and more, only got the Blue Jackets a combined first rounder which wasn't even guaranteed.

After breaking down what went wrong in terms of strong returns, here's the one that went right. The Blue Jackets got more injury news, which they have been used to this season. This time it was to Gustav Nyquist who suffered what appeared to be a near season-ending injury. There was a slight chance he played before the end of the season and a decent chance he will come back for the playoffs. Though he wasn't going to get a big return for an injured player without a guarantee he'd play again this season, the Blue Jackets still managed to bring in a fifth round pick for him.

Nyquist is a UFA at the end of the season and he was dealt to the Minnesota Wild who haven't made it out of the first round in the last six attempts. This means their asset would go to waste if Nyquist is behind schedule on his return and they don't make it out of the first round again. Because the Blue Jackets were against a wall, they did well in this deal as they made the best out of a bad situation and weren't bringing Nyquist back next season anyways.