Starting goaltender gets buried by his own general manager
Columbus Blue Jackets general manager Don Waddell revealed yesterday that he has no intention of trading Elvis Merzlikins, despite his trade request.
Merzlikins put the trade request in last season, but it came to no avail. Now, with Waddell taking over as general manager, he has a whole new challenge ahead of him. When talking about the goaltender, Waddell was quite frank, stating that no other team in the league would want him.
At the same time however, the new general manager also revealed that he has been a fan of Merzlikins for some time. He even tried to trade for him when he was general manager of the Carolina Hurricanes. Now, he is committed to building him back up to a solid NHL starting netminder.
It seems that Waddell simply does not want to give up an asset to move on from Elvis' contract. After all, it really is not that hard to move a player like Merzlikins as long as you are throwing in a sweetener. As such, his comments about no one wanting to trade for him is a bit disingenuous. However, if Merzlikins does have a bounce back season, perhaps he can actually get an asset in return later this year or possibly even next summer.
«My approach is, �Let's put all our time and effort into this.' At the end of the day, we can say we did everything possible to put this in the right position.»
Be sure to stay tuned to see what happens with the Blue Jackets netminder over the next 12 months.
Source: HockeyFeedGM Don Waddell brutally buries his own goaltender.
| POLL | ||
22 JUIN | 263 ANSWERS Starting goaltender gets buried by his own general manager Do you think the Columbus Blue Jackets will trade Elvis Merzlikins before the end of next season? | ||
| Yes | 170 | 64.6 % |
| No | 93 | 35.4 % |
| List of polls | ||
