As we slowly navigate through the dog days of summer, there's likely going to be an increase in trade rumors as we creep toward the start of the 2025-26 NHL season.

For the Columbus Blue Jackets, they could be one of the teams involved in a trade closer to the start of the season. They have two fairly big trade pieces that they could look to move as the new year approaches.

First up is the most obvious one: Yegor Chinakhov. After his agent took to social media to reveal that Chinakhov had requested a trade from the Blue Jackets, he also cited communication issues between the player and head coach Dean Evason. Right after that report came out, it became fairly clear that Chinakhov would be traded whenever the organization could find a deal that made them better.

For the Blue Jackets, they hold all the cards. They don't need to please Chinakhov or honor his request right away. However, no one wants to keep a player who doesn’t want to be in the organization, so it does appear they will continue listening to offers and see what kind of return is out there.

On the latest episode of 32 Thoughts the Podcast, Elliotte Friedman talked about the possibility of more trades happening later in the summer.

"It's summer. Like, you know, people are trying to relax a little bit. And I'm assuming that things are going to heat up later in the summer at some point in all these particular situations.”

If this is any indication that the NHL's top insider believes things will pick up as summer winds down, it could mean that this is when the Blue Jackets try to move Chinakhov.

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