Blue Jackets Would Need A Haul to Trade Captain Boone Jenner

We are now less than a month away from the NHL’s March 8 trade deadline. That means people are looking anywhere for possibilities of who could be a trade target to help their team go from good to great ahead of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

One of the names that’s been out and swirling in trade rumors is the Columbus Blue Jackets’ captain, Boone Jenner. On paper, it makes a lot of sense. Jenner is a legitimate second-line center but would be a great third-line center on a Stanley Cup contender. His hard-nosed and never-say-die attitude makes him built for playoff hockey. He’s excellent in the faceoff dot – hovering at around 55 percent – and has boosted his scoring over the past three seasons – being on pace for 30+ goals each season. The best part is that an acquiring team would get all of that for the next three playoff runs at a bargain of a $3.75 million cap hit.

The thing about when something sounds too good to be true is that, generally, it is. It would take a seismic offer for general manager Jarmo Kekalainen to consider moving Jenner. Any team that would want to trade for Jenner probably doesn’t have the assets to make that happen because as valuable as he would be to a contender, he’s even more valuable to the Blue Jackets.

Jenner is Most Valuable to the Blue Jackets

When you think of the Blue Jackets’ identity, what comes to your mind? For me, it’s a blue-collar style of play. A group of hard workers, who grind out goals and wins any way they can. That’s been the identity of the team throughout their nearly quarter-century of existence, and it’s been cited as a standard they hope to continue with under this management group.

Jenner is the personification of that identity. He’s a workhorse who spends a lot of time on their top line but still has a bottom-six mentality. It’s because he spent the early years of his career as a bottom-six player in the Blue Jackets’ most successful era. Who better to continue to teach and lead the team into their next era of success?

I wrote about it at the time he was named captain, Jenner was the team’s only real option to take the mantle from Nick Foligno in 2021. Just because it’s taken a little longer for this new core to get back to the playoffs, doesn’t mean it’s quite time to push the eject button unless it’s for something that moves the needle. They still need him to push their young players, leading by example and teaching them how to be professionals in the world’s best hockey league. There’s not anyone else who could do that in the organization quite like him if he left.

It also doesn’t bode well for a trade when you consider what he means in the larger context of the organization. This season, he became the longest-tenured Blue Jacket, passing Rick Nash for most games played in franchise history. For the team, he’s a respected and vocal leader as one of those guys you love to have on your team, but hate to play against. For the fans, he’s a remnant of a bygone era and a reminder that success is attainable in Columbus.

A comparison that comes to mind is Shane Doan with the Phoenix/Arizona Coyotes organization. There were tons of times when the constantly rebuilding Coyotes could have made a move to deal their captain for a substantial return, but chose not to. He was always more valuable to their organization than he ever would have been to any other team, which is also similar to Patrik Elias with the New Jersey Devils. Jenner hasn’t been as offensively prolific as those guys, but he fits that bill of being most valuable to the Blue Jackets.

Jenner is the Columbus Blue Jackets

If you take emotion out of this and take a sky-high glance at the situation with Jenner, Columbus should try and trade him. He’s an aging player with a history of injuries, who probably won’t be as impactful as he is now when the team hopes to open their window of contention. He’s on an excellent contract with term and is tailor-made for playoff hockey.

However, we live in a world where emotion does exist. Ultimately Jenner wants to be in Columbus, and the team wants him to help in their rebuild. So unless a package is sent with a giant package, including a first-round pick, and/or Connor McDavid, it would be hard to see the team pulling the trigger on a trade to move their beloved captain.