Report: Ryan Johansen "Softly in Play" for Trades - The Hockey Writers -

The Columbus Blue Jackets may be more willing to move one of their top pieces that most realized.

On the latest installment of Insider Trading, Darren Dreger reports that Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen is taking calls and when Ryan Johansen is brought up, he’s not ruling anything out.

“That doesn’t mean that Jarmo Kekalainen… is calling teams and saying, ‘What are you going to give me?’,” Dreger said. “However, when teams call, he’s not dismissing the interest. He is saying, ‘What’s your offer?’ So what that tells you is there’s at least some interest in considering the trade of Ryan Johansen.”

Johansen has appeared to be at odds with new coach John Tortorella at times. Reports came out that Tortorella said that Johansen was out of shape, a report that Tortorella denied not long before Johansen confirmed it.

On Sunday Johansen played just 13:52 and was put on the fourth line in the middle of the game. That comes just four games after he played 14:20 in a game.

Any frustrations between Tortorella and Johansen wouldn’t be the first time the team was frustrated with Johansen. Kekalainen has clearly been frustrated before with Johansen and how contract negotiations went. Johansen missed almost all of training camp, holding out for a contract that Keklainen though was standard-setting in terms of a player coming their ELC deal.

The combination of hard feelings lingering there with Tortorella’s frustration with Johansen may be adding up to something in terms of this report.

Johansen has put up four goals and 12 assists through 20 games this season and current has a 1.6 P/60, the lowest he’s had over the last three seasons. His -0.41% score-adjusted CF%Rel ranks ninth among team forwards.