BLUE JACKETS TRADE SAVARD TO TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING
The anticipation of a trade involving Blue Jackets defenseman David Savard became reality Saturday.
Not long before the Blue Jackets hosted the Chicago Blackhawks at Nationwide Arena and two days before the NHL’s trade deadline arrives at 3 p.m. today, Savard was dealt to the rival Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for two draft picks — the Lightning’s first-round selection 2021 and its third-round pick in 2022.
The Blue Jackets also will eat half of Savard’s remaining contract for this season in the deal, which also included the Detroit Red Wings — who will pick up a portion of the remaining cap hit for the Lightning.
“David Savard is a consummate professional and his contributions to our organization over the past 10 years have been significant,” Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen said in the team’s release about the trade. “He has been an incredibly selfless player on the ice, a great teammate in the dressing room and a great representative of the Blue Jackets off the ice. We wish he, Valerie, and their family all the best moving forward.”
It’s an interesting plot twist for Savard, who helped the Blue Jackets pull off a historic upset sweep of the Lightning in the first round of the 2019 Stanley Cup playoffs. Savard scored in Game 1 of that series at Amalie Arena in Tampa, where he also scored March 30 in a 3-1 Blue Jackets victory to end a marathon goal drought at 107 games.
Savard hadn’t scored since his goal in the playoffs against the Lightning and hadn’t scored in a regular-season game since Mar. 30, 2019 in Nashville — exactly two years earlier. Now, he’ll be playing for the Lightning.
“It’s definitely weird the way it worked out, the last couple of years playing them in the playoffs and having played a few games this year against them,” Savard said on a video conference shortly after the trade was announced. “I’m just so excited to join that team that has such a good group of guys and they’re so talented. I’m excited to be on the other side. They have a team that can go on another run, and as a player, that’s what you dream of, to be a player and have that chance to win.”
The biggest catalysts for the trade were the Blue Jackets falling too far behind in the chase for a playoff spot, Savard’s status as a pending unrestricted free agent and the Lightning wanting to load up with an experienced, rugged defenseman heading into a bid to repeat as Stanley Cup champions.
Savard, 30, was considered one of the top blueliners available on the trade market, if not the top one, and Kekalainen couldn’t afford to pass up the opportunity to add a first-round pick.
The only pick the Blue Jackets are missing for the 2021 draft is their original second-round selection, which was sent to the Ottawa Senators at the deadline in 2019 along with their 2020 second-round pick and forward Anthony Duclair in exchange for forward Ryan Dzingel. Otherwise, Columbus already had a stockpile of seven picks among the other six rounds in the next draft, including their own first-round selection.
The pick they’re getting from Tampa Bay in the 2021 draft will likely wind up near the tail end of the first round, unless the Lightning bow out of the playoffs earlier than expected. That one, along with the third-round pick in 2022, should help Kekalainen make up for losing a first-round pick plus two prospects in 2019 at the deadline to add center Matt Duchene in a separate deal with Ottawa.