Two years ago, Columbus Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen made the bold decision to not only hold onto impending unrestricted free agents (UFA) Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky at the trade deadline, but double down and bring in additional UFAs Matt Duchene, Ryan Dzingel and Adam McQuaid.

The Blue Jackets had an opportunity to give a long-suffering fan base a thrill, which they did with a first-round upset of the Tampa Bay Lightning, and Kekelainen tried to make the most of it even if it meant watching all of the free agents depart in the summer.

Kekalainen understood that there is a time and a place to go for it.

He showed in the run-up to this season's deadline that he also knows when to sell. A playoff run is not in the cards for this year’s Blue Jackets squad. There is work to be done this summer and questions to be answered on restricted free agent Patrick Laine, head coach John Tortorella and more.

So on Monday, Kekalainen dealt three veteran players – team captain Nick Foligno, stalwart defenseman David Savard and checking forward Riley Nash – for a haul of draft picks.

Columbus will now have three picks in the first round of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft – their own and those previously belonging to the Toronto Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning.

The top end of the 2021 draft is not expected to be particularly strong, and the Toronto and Tampa picks will be later in the first round, but Columbus should still be able to find some useful players with those picks.

They also picked up third- and fourth- round selections in the 2022 draft.

There is every reason to believe that Foligno will return to Columbus as a free agent over the summer, making his trade a true rental deal in every sense.

In all, that makes it a pretty successful job of asset management by the Columbus GM. He knew this wasn’t their year and he did what he could to add assets to help build the team back up and open another competitive window in the future.

Now he can turn his attention to the Laine contract negotiations, which are sure to be challenging, and a decision on Tortorella, who does not have a contract in place for next season.

--- Scott Harrington for Ohio Hockey Digest