habs need scoring but... hes too old and inconsistant.

He's 25...

For OP, I really don't know. I know what I think of him, his scoring ability, and his improvement as a 200 ft player over the last 3 years and his advanced stats show that improvement on every source I can find. What I think of him though clearly does not line up with the hockey community in general and beyond that I have no idea what GMs around the league think of him. HIs shot is still clearly respected around the league as he's routinely rated as one of the most threatening shots to face by goaltenders. I would hope he could get the Jackets a good young wing prospect and a 1st, but who knows what he would actually return in a trade.

I think the problem is the teams who have a first late enough to give don't have the cap space to take the full contract, and those that have the cap space have a first that's way too high to surrender for a guy with that much risk attached to his contract with his injury history.

Kind of in a bit of a pickle on that.

I agree with this…I’d imagine there would be more of a market for him in off-season. It will be hard to get a lot of retention with the term, but teams will have space over summer.

In-season…maybe 1st or decent prospect with cap coming back.

Off-season…little more without taking a bad contract.

Full agree, and I think all signs point to either a hockey trade for another struggling player/prospect, or CBJ just hang onto him until a trade makes more sense. If we keep him around until he's set to be a UFA, he could get a huge return half-retained if he returns to form even a little. Or, by then, Columbus is competing and you'd look to extend him anyway.

Any trade right now is Jarmo trying to make anything happen to save face, which is not a position you win a lot of trades from.