Eastern Conference team pulls out of Jakob Chychrun sweepstakes

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Joshua Deeds
October 31, 2022 (6:54 PM)

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The Arizona Coyotes are as expected, last in their division with a 2-5-1 record despite defeating the Toronto Maple Leafs and Columbus Blue Jackets.

What's even more troubling is no matter how much Jakob Chychrun wants to be moved, and yet Bill Armstrong is keeping the asking price high.

his recent injury isn't helping the cause either, as the defensemen is currently week to week, dealing with his wrist, and has had trouble with recovery.

This will likely affect his value long-term, as teams who trade for him want to see his impact on the ice.

This may explain why Columbus has pulled out of the Jakob Chychrun sweepstakes.

Chychrun is signed through the 2024-25 season at a reasonable $4.6M cap hit, meaning there is plenty of time to wait for the right offer. Sure, his value to an acquiring team would be highest the quicker they receive him, but there will still be interested parties down the road, even if it takes him another month to get back on the ice.

According to The Athletic's Aaron Portzline, Jakob Chychrun nixed the trade to Columbus(I can't imagine why!) and amongst other things, in Columbus Chychrun would end up being a 2nd pairing guy, as Zach Werenski is Columbus's top left-defenseman(debatable).

In any General Manager's right mind, Werenski is a liability and Chychrun is an upgrade, but that's a topic for another time.

It's quite possible the Blue Jackets were scared away by Arizona's asking price, which was, according to reports, a first-round draft pick in 2022 or 2023, a young and proven NHL player, and a top prospect.

So in the long run it sounds like, he wasn't a fit and the ask was too high, according to Portzline.

So we've done some reporting on this. It got really interesting at the draft last year, when, last summer, when it was said that the Blue Jackets had a deal in place for Chychrun to go to Columbus.

Now, the Blue Jackets say this is not true. There are people in the Chychrun camp who say it's true.

Given how they've had to deal with Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky, the deal soured immediately after Chychrun backed out, we haven't even covered what the Coyote would want in return either.

So, in the end, another deal during the draft fell through.