Elliotte Friedman in 30 Thoughts had some interesting Blue Jacket nuggets. We will start with the second of his two thoughts on the Jackets.

3. There were some Scott Hartnell rumblings around the trade deadline, but nothing came to fruition. The ask was high. There is something going on now, though. According to sources, Hartnell, who has a no-move clause, has agreed to waive it for several teams. Kekalainen and agent Matt Oates would not comment, but word is it’s a decent-sized list.

Hartnell is 34, and I think potential trade partners are a little concerned about that third year remaining on his contract. If it was one or two, I’m not sure there’d be much worry. But, it’s clear he’s willing to move on, which will have him motivated to make an impact.

This is quite the development. We knew the team was shopping Hartnell, the team was rumoured to be very close to getting a deal done at the trade deadline with Nashville. Asking Hartnell to waive his no move clause again shows the team is looking to move the veteran winger.

From a performance standpoint Hartnell does not need to be traded. He's been very good in his two seasons but at 34 he's going to start declining soon. He had a solid 49 points in 79 games this season, but that was big drop from the 60 in 77 he put up a season prior. With the salary cap the way it is this is the reality we face. Hartnell has three years remaining at $4.75M which isn’t a terrible deal but not a great one for a declining asset. The Jackets who are up against the cap could use some salary relief to give them some flexibility in the offseason. They also have a good in house replace for Hartnell in Oliver Bjorkstrand.

As for teams interested in Hartnell, Nashville seems like the most logical fit. They were the rumored team around the deadline and Jarmo and David Poile have worked together recently on the Ryan Johansen-Seth Jones swap. Nashville has plenty of cap space and has all seven of their picks.

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There are plenty of rumours of the Jackets trading the third pick. At this point I think it’s all just smoke with the media grasping for stories. Freidman had a very interesting question though in his second thought.

2. After the NHL Scouting Combine, the Columbus Blue Jackets invited several prospects to Ohio for more in-depth interviews. Among them: Jake Bean, Logan Brown, Clayton Keller, Jesse Puljujarvi and Matthew Tkachuk.

The Blue Jackets are picking third. Puljujarvi is right there. Tkachuk is close. Brown (who also visited the St. Louis Blues) is in the next wave. Bean and Keller are going high, although where depends on who you are talking to.

No doubt the Blue Jackets are covering all their bases, but you can’t help but wonder what all of this means. At the very least, GM Jarmo Kekalainen is making it interesting.

What does all this mean? To me it looks like the Jackets brought two players with the potential to pick at three (Puljujarvi & Tkachuk), two centres potentially worth trading down for (Brown & Keller) and Jake Bean, among others.

Bean is a 6’0, 173lbs, defencemen who put up 64 points in 68 games with the Calgary Hitmen in the WHL. He's a really good skater with a real nice shot. He is projected as a mid-first round pick, among the second tier of defencemen with Charlie McAvoy and Dante Fabbro. The Jackets should in no way consider him at three and it would be quite a drop to trade down for him. Perhaps he is a player they move up for? We saw this last season with Gabriel Carlsson. If the front office likes a player they are not afraid to move up and go get him. The Jackets do have picks 34 and 65 so there is potential to move up.

The Jackets are going to be a very busy team leading up to the draft. Teams will be calling on the third pick and team is likely shopping Hartnell. This time of year its hard to know what stories are true but the Jackets have a lot of balls up in the air. It’s going to be a very exciting week and half as the draft gets closer and closer.

You can follow me on Twitter @PaulBerthelot

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