Traik-eotomy

Blue Jackets in a bit of a pickle with Panarin, but trading him for a pile of prospects and draft picks might be the way to go ... Tampa Bay’s reward if it finishes tops in the league? A possible series with Pittsburgh ... These winners are losers

From here, it sure looks as if Artemi Panarin’s situation with the Blue Jackets is unfolding like the one that sent Rick Nash out of Columbus seven years ago.

The only difference is that Panarin hasn’t yet asked for a trade. That’s the tricky part in all this.

While his agent, Dan Milstein, has told the Blue Jackets that Panarin won’t make a decision on his future until after the season, it appears that he intends to walk as a free agent.

So what do the Blue Jackets do now?

Unlike with Nash, who wanted out of Columbus in 2012 because he hadn’t won a playoff game in nine years there and couldn’t stomach another rebuild, Panarin is on a team that went to the post-season last year and as of Wednesday morning had the third-best record in the wide-open Metropolitan Division.

With 55 points in 47 games, Panarin is a key part to Columbus’ success.

Keep him around and the team might have a chance at a long playoff run. Then again, the Blue Jackets have never advanced past the first round. And with a potential match-up against Washington or Pittsburgh looming, the odds aren’t great of that changing with or without him.

What would be worse: losing him for nothing after another first-round exit or trading him for a pile of prospects and draft picks even if it means missing the playoffs?

If I were the GM, I’d lean towards the latter.

Even in a trade market that is crowded with top-flight wingers, such as Wayne Simmonds, Mark Stone and Micheal Ferland, the While the Blue Jackets have been told Artemi Panarin won’t make a decision on his future until after the season ends, it appears the gifted forward wants out of Columbus. 27-year-old Panarin is the big fish. We’re talking about a player who won the Calder Trophy as a rookie and ranks seventh amongst scorers with 288 points in 290 games since breaking into the league in 2015-16.

If Jake Muzzin was worth a first-round pick and two B-level prospects, then Panarin should easily fetch twice that much.

New York is where Panarin wants to end up, so I’d start there. Seven years ago, the Rangers gave up Artem Anisimov, Brandon Dubinsky, Tim Erixon and a first-round pick for Nash. But while the Rangers will also take a shot at landing Panarin, the more obvious landing spot could be with the Islanders.

Maybe the Islanders, who are still leading the Metro, would be willing to part ways with 21-year-old Anthony Beauvillier, as well as a firstround pick and a prospect, such as Oliver Wahlstrom (11th overall) or Noah Dobson (12th overall).

That type of move would ensure the Islanders don’t fade out of the contention in the second half. At the same time, getting a roster player in Beauvillier (12 goals) might even result in Columbus sticking around for its obligatory first-round exit.

TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT

In any other year, an end-of-January game between the Lightning and the Penguins would be a potential conference final. But with Pittsburgh clinging to the final wild-card spot in the East, it’s suddenly a first-round match-up. For Tampa Bay, how’s that a reward for winning the Presidents’ Trophy … James Neal, who scored twice in October, has just one goal in each of the last three