Dmitri Voronkov draws trade calls as Blue Jackets listen

Columbus isn't promising anything. It isn't hanging up the phone either, and LeBrun's wording is careful.

Pierre LeBrun

@PierreVLeBrun

Some teams calling with interest on winger Dmitri Voronkov. Not saying he will be traded for sure but CBJ listening.

"Not saying he will be traded for sure" is the hedge. "CBJ listening" is the news. Voronkov is 26, 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds, and he has been a steady scorer since he arrived in 2023-24: at least 17 goals in each of his 3 seasons, with a career-high 23 goals and 47 points in 73 games in 2024-25. Big wingers who score 20 don't usually end up as trade bait in October. This one has.

The reason is how this season has started. Voronkov has 2 assists in 6 games, and his ice time is down to a career-low 11:44 a night. That's a guy who has fallen down the depth chart, and a coach who is barely playing him. Earlier this week the Blue Jackets were already being described as open to moving him and looking around the league for an upgrade, so LeBrun's report means the market has started calling back.

His contract is part of the appeal. He's signed through next season at a $4.175 million cap hit and is due for restricted free agency in 2027, so a team that trades for him gets cost certainty plus his RFA rights. For Columbus, that means he's worth something real right now. If he keeps playing 11 minutes and putting up assists only, that value drops.

All of it sits on top of a team that's in rough shape. Columbus is 3-5-0 and last in the Eastern Conference, with 4 blowout losses in its first 8 games. Bowness ripped his team after a 7-3 loss to Florida, saying players who weren't bothered by a result like that didn't belong on the roster. Then, a day after Toronto ran them over, he banged his stick against the boards at practice. This summer the club also traded away captain Boone Jenner and Kirill Marchenko, so the roster was already in flux before the losing started.

The coaching questions are getting louder too. Pierre McGuire said the players will eventually stop listening to Bowness "if they haven't already," and Frank Seravalli and Elliotte Friedman have floated the idea of a coaching change within the next 20 games. When a team that's last in its conference has its GM listening on a 20-goal winger at the same time the coach's message is getting stale, something usually gives.

What to watch: whether Voronkov's minutes keep shrinking, whether he lands back on the healthy-scratch list, and whether Columbus wants an upgrade elsewhere in the lineup or wants to reset. Nobody is saying a deal is imminent. But this team is 3-5-0 with a coach under fire, and the phone calls are coming in, so this probably won't drag on all season.