The Columbus Blue Jackets have put together some strong play of late, a fairly major departure from how out of sorts they've looked for most of the 2015-16 NHL season. Unfortunately, much like last year's late season push, it's too little too late and is probably more a of a smokescreen than anything - most teams will play well when the pressure of making the postseason is all but gone. For what it's worth, Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen seems well aware that the recent uptick in play means little to nothing. Kekalainen is a seller ahead of next week's NHL trade deadline and has plenty of wares to hawk. One such asset, forward Scott Hartnell, is apparently drawing interest from his former team, a group that could sorely use an injection of talent up front: the Nashville Predators.
The Predators, per Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Post-Dispatch, are a team that keeps "popping up" in talks around the league regarding a potential landing spot for Hartnell. They're scouting the Blue Jackets "intensely," per Portzline, and could certainly find a place for a guy of Hartnell's scoring and agitating ability somewhere in their punchless forward corps. But a deal won't be easy.
Hartnell is set to turn 34 in the spring and his cap hit, $4.75 million for the next three seasons, is prohibitive for just about any potential suitor, let alone one that's soon going to have to hand over a major contract extension to center Ryan Johansen, acquired earlier this season from the Blue Jackets in exchange for Seth Jones.
But Hartnell's scoring ability - 47 goals over the last two seasons - and his gritty, agitating style could perfectly complement a not-exactly-imposing Preds forward group. It would take some maneuvering and, likely, the Jackets eating some of Hartnell's salary to get it done, but with the Predators thinking Cup this season, and unlikely to be able to afford the likes of Loui Eriksson or Eric Staal, bringing Hartnell home could be a nice consolation prize.
