Kirill Marchenko opened his media session Friday by telling reporters he can only talk about hockey. The Blue Jackets winger was not joking.
Asked where he would like to play, the 26-year-old answered: on the ice. That was the whole answer.
He started by claiming he no longer knows how to speak English. Convenient, for a guy with no interest in discussing Columbus.
You don't need a translator for that one. A player who would rather be somewhere else, sitting across from the people paid to cover him, enjoying himself.
Here's what makes it loud. He put up 27 goals and 40 assists over 76 games last season.
And he did it on a $3,850,000 cap hit. Seven of those goals were game winners.
Add 17 power play assists and you have a top six winger who tilts the man advantage. Nobody gives that away for spare parts.
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Kirill Marchenko may have just talked his way out of Columbus
The Blue Jackets finished 40-30-12 for 92 points, 18th overall. They scored 253 goals and gave up 253.
The ending was uglier than the record. They went 2-7-1 over their last 10 and closed at home with a 1-2 loss to Washington.
Adam Fantilli is tied up in a contract dispute and is listed as questionable for the start of the season.
The young centre scored 24 goals last season and finished with a -13 rating. Two very different arguments live inside those numbers.
Elvis Merzlikins is dealing with a shoulder issue and is expected out until at least November 30. Isac Lundestrom has an estimated return of November 10.
That pushes Jet Greaves back toward the workload he carried last season, when he played 55 games with a .907 save percentage.
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Rick Bowness took the job on January 12 and now runs a camp with all of it in front of him. Some of it is not fixable with a whiteboard.
So what does Don Waddell actually do here? Hold Marchenko and hope the locker room absorbs the noise, or move him while the value is impossible to argue with.
The Montreal chatter is already circulating. The Canadiens finished with 106 points, and Columbus still took two of three from them last season, including a 5-2 win in Montreal in April.
Watching a player negotiate through a podium is like watching someone move out while still paying rent. Everyone can see the boxes by the door.
He is still listed on the Columbus roster today. Whether that holds through the week is the only question worth asking, and the answer stopped being his to give the moment he sat down Friday.
Should Don Waddell trade Kirill Marchenko before the season opener?
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