Reflections on the Hartnell for Umberger Trade

Today it was announced the the Columbus Blue Jackets traded RJ Umberger and a fourth round pick to the Philadelphia Flyers for Scott Hartnell.  This to me is looking like a pure hockey trade, one team has a 32 year old guy who wants out, the other has a 32 year old guy who they want gone.  The money is about the same, the CBJ take on two extra years of term for a player who has tended to score the way we always thought RJ would score.  Ironically, both teams say they got faster.  Jarmo did indicate that he thought Hartnell 'thought' the game quickly, which sometimes seemed a frustrating aspect of RJ's game.  Hartnell seems a better fit for the brand of hockey the CBJ are playing now.

There is a part of me that wants to be cautious about this because of the Carter trade.  But this looks and feels a bit different.  So I think what you see is what you get, but the CBJ just got an edge to them like they have never had before.  And we certainly need someone who is really comfortable on the left wing.  It's the weirdest thing, in the MacLean era all we had was left wings.  Now we have centers and right wings.  Heck, we even switched Nash to right wing for goodness sake.  But especially when Gaborik was here, everything was on the right.  So this actually adds some balance to our top six.

Don't get me wrong, I've had a long time simmering dislike for Hartnell, that goes back to his days with the Predators.  But it never bloomed into an outright hatred, cause its hard to argue with results.  So now he's on our team.  I'll still be looking for the results, but Hartnell brings an edge that is going to look really good in a Blue Jackets uniform.  The other positive benefit is that the games with the Penguins just took on a new tone, which I gotta love.

So I view this as a good hockey trade, that helps both clubs, and both players.

GO JACKETS!!