By Eric Smith
FOX Sports Ohio
Thursday, January 6th, 2010
Multiple moving parts started to shift more rapidly on Wednesday for the Columbus Blue Jackets. Everything from a player asking to be traded to a player being waived to another headed to the injured reserve list.
Mike Commodore has asked the Blue Jackets brain trust to try to trade him. As first reported by Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch, and later validated by Blue Jackets coach Scott Arniel, Commodore is unhappy with the lack of playing time as he has been scratched in seven of the last eight games. Arniel pulled no punches on his weekly radio show about his intention to put this situation to bed quickly.
"It's going to be resolved sooner rather than later," Arniel said Wednesday. "It's not going to drag on, I'll tell you that. It's going to have an ending to it. I'm not going to put a timetable on it but it will have an ending to it."
Another statement from the first-year coach made you think that this could be resolved as soon as Thursday.
"Scott (Howson) will continue to work the phones and we will just have to follow up on it tomorrow."
But wait, there's more.
Ethan Moreau looks to be headed back to the injured reserved list with a possible rib injury
"Ethan getting hurt, we'll probably put him on IR," Arniel revealed Wednesday.
And the Blue Jackets put forward Kyle Wilson on waivers in an effort to send him to Springfield. Even though they told the 26-year-old to find more permanent residence in Columbus as recently as the beginning of December.
"I'm not happy where we are with our lineup," Arniel bluntly stated. "It (sending Wilson to Springfield) opens up some avenues for us to make some other moves. We're kind of in the process of doing some other things. We'll just wait and see after tomorrow at noon. We do want to move forward and make some changes."
With Wilson being sent down to Springfield and Moreau going on the IR, this opens up two slots on the roster -- most notably with the forwards. Add in a disgruntled defenseman in Commodore that the Jackets intend to move quickly and a coach stating he's not happy with the lineup and you now have all the ingredients needed for a trade.
Where the trade will come from is anybody's guess right now. Some rumored places have been Pittsburgh, New York Islanders, New York Rangers, Vancouver Canucks, New Jersey and Calgary. With the amount of teams being rumored, you know that Howson is working the phones like a telemarketer in an effort to make a change. A lot of these questions could be answered as soon as Wednesday, but one thing is for certain -- changes are coming.
For constant updates on the Blue Jackets and the NHL, follow @EricSmith_FSO on Twitter.
