Could the Edmonton Oilers be looking to trade David Perron to the Columbus Blue Jackets in exchange for center Artem Anisimov? That's the latest word from Aaron Ward of TSN.
For his part, Columbus general manager Jarmo Kekalainen told Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Post-Dispatch earlier today that, while he's having "regular talks" with other GMs, nothing is imminent.
But then later, Portzline tweeted that a deal between the two clubs is "well along in the process."
The Oilers are currently tied for the worst record in the NHL. They haven't yet beaten a team in their own conference and their season is slowly, but surely, slipping away.
They have numerous holes on the roster and almost no center depth behind Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, so their reported interest in Anisimov would make a lot of sense from that angle.
Perron is a well-known commodity for several members of the Columbus front office - team President John Davidson and general manager Jarmo Kekalainen were both in the St. Louis Blues organization when Perron played there.
According to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet Canada, Edmonton's senior vice president of hockey operations, Scott Howson, attended the Blue Jackets' 4-2 loss to Winnipeg on Tuesday. Not necessarily noteworthy in and of itself, but Howson also showed up at a game in Ottawa mere days before trading for Antoine Vermette several seasons ago.
Perron only has two goals in 22 games of action thus far this season, according to Hockey-Reference.com. He scored 28 goals for Edmonton last year after being acquired via trade from St. Louis.
