When Jarmo Kekalainen rolled the dice at last year's trade deadline and acquired winger Marian Gaborik from the Rangers for Derick Brassard, Derek Dorsett and John Moore, a big selling point was the added season of contractual control the team would have on the sniper. Not only would Gaborik boost the club's chances of making the playoffs a season ago, he would be around to provide the team with a proven scorer for another full campaign. Depending on how the skilled Slovak performed, the Jackets could then decide whether to pursue keeping him beyond the 2013 - 2014 season. It was a sound idea but as we all know not even the best ideas always work out as planned.
Unfortunately, Gabby has had a hard time staying on the ice, injuring his knee early in the year then suffering a broken collar bone which forced the winger to miss the Winter Olympics and nearly three months of NHL action. Fortunately, the Jackets have played reasonably well with Gaborik out of the lineup and find themselves smack dab in the middle of a contentious battle for one of the East's final playoff spots. Ordinarily it might make sense for Columbus to simply welcome back one of the game's most talented offensive players, plug him into the lineup and hope he helps drive the team to what would be just the second playoff berth in the franchise's history but the business of hockey is never as easy as it appears. With the organizational arrow pointed firmly in an upwards trajectory, the coming of age of several roster players and more young talent in the pipeline, the Jackets won't take their chances on losing a potentially valuable asset at the end of the year for nothing. No, chances are they will look to move Gaborik in the coming days.
Craig Custance of ESPN listed his top 25 trade targets in
this article. Chiming in was Frank Provenzano, a former assistant GM in Dallas and Washington and now a contributor for ESPN. He offered up what he felt was a fair price for each player listed. Custance ranked Gaborik 9th on his list and Provenzano indicated that Columbus could fetch a first-round pick for the services of the three-time 40-goal scorer.
That sounds about right. I could see a contender in need of a goal scoring boost offering up a late first-round choice for a rental with the track record Gaborik brings. It's doubtful they could extract more however, given Gaborik's struggles to stay on the ice.
While it wouldn't hurt to continue to stockpile draft picks, it's also vitally important for the team to make the playoffs this year and reward their faithful fans for their support. Consequently, I would guess that the Jackets will also look at what's available to improve the on-ice product. Like any other team, Columbus has some holes they could address if the right opportunity arises.
Despite boasting a balanced scoring attack with seven different players tallying double-figure goal totals and six with at least 30 points on the campaign, the club could certainly use another guy who can put the puck in the net consistently. They have a guy in Gaborik who has proven adept at that when healthy but since they seem resigned to moving him due to his pending free agency, it stands to reason Columbus would prefer to acquire someone with term remaining.
Also, depending on the recovery of Fedor Tyutin from an ankle problem, the team could also look to add a proven top-four blue-liner for the stretch run.
A first-round choice acquired for Gaborik wouldn't fill either of those presumed needs but it can be a valuable asset used to get what they want.
Over the next few days we'll look at some of the names linked to the team and the likelihood of the Jackets landing one of them.
Columbus Blue Jackets Blogger • 
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