Zach Werenski could be a Dallas Star right now, but instead he’s still a Columbus Blue Jacket.
The nixed deal that would have sent Werenski to Dallas for a package centered around Thomas Harley took the hockey world by storm last week, and while that trade appears to be dead for now, one insider is still keeping an eye on it eventually happening.
During a recent episode of the DFO Rundown, Jeff Marek insisted that he believes a potential Werenski-for-Harley-plus trade is still very much in the cards once the dust settles.
“And then we wait quietly for the rest of the summer and see if they can do the Werenski-Harley deal, which I still don’t think is dead. Yup. I think that, respectfully, those messages were there to calm down the marketplace. Because first of all it’s going to be really tough for Werenski to go back because in the back of every Columbus fan’s mind is, ‘We know what you’re thinking.’ It’s probably going to be tough to be a leader there. A lot of it made a lot of sense for both sides here,”
The 28-year-old Werenski, of course, has two years left on the six-year, $57.5 million contract extension he signed with the Blue Jackets in 2021, while Harley, 24, is about to begin the first year of the eight-year, $84.6 million contract extension he signed with the Stars in October next season.
Marek is absolutely right that the trade made a lot of sense for both sides, and if Columbus determines that Werenski truly won’t sign an extension beyond his current contract, it could be in the organization’s best interest to rip the Band-Aid off now.
That said, they already attempted to do just that and Werenski wouldn’t waive his no-movement clause, so the Norris Trophy winner will have to reconsider the possibility for this to come to fruition.
As Marek went on to say, perhaps Dallas acquiring his Team USA teammate and best friend, Dylan Larkin, would further persuade Werenski to change his mind.
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