Columbus is listening on Voronkov, and his ice time said so first

Columbus taking calls on Dmitri Voronkov isn't a shock. His minutes told you weeks ago, and a 3-5 team that's last in the East doesn't keep a 26-year-old it won't play.

File under: Trade winds.

LeBrun put it out Thursday: some teams have called about Voronkov, and Columbus is listening. He was careful to say a deal isn't certain, so I'd grade it Reported: a named insider and a clear claim, but no team and no price. It's more than smoke, because nobody leaks interest in a guy the team plans to keep.

What the numbers say:

By our count, Voronkov has played 10.7, 12.8, 12.7, 12.7, 11.4 and 10.0 minutes in his six games, per NHL data. He sat as a healthy scratch on Oct. 17 and 18.

Then he came back against Toronto and got the lowest total of his season. That's a career-low 11:44 a night for a winger who scored 23 goals two seasons ago and 17 last year.

He has two assists and no goals. He's still on the second power-play unit at about a minute and a half a night, and that's part of a power play running at 8.7 percent by our count. That isn't entirely on him, but nobody gets more minutes for being part of the problem.

The read: when a coach scratches a 6-foot-5, 17-goal winger twice in eight games, the coach has already voted. Rick Bowness has made his frustration with this start public. Voronkov is the easiest message he can send without touching the core.

The contract is the other half. He carries a $4.175 million cap hit that runs out after this season, and he's headed for restricted free agency with arbitration rights.

An organization that thinks he's a third-liner doesn't want an arbitrator telling them he's a second-liner. Moving him now, while somebody still sees 2024-25 on his card, is the sensible sell.

Now the part Columbus won't love. This is the same front office that sent Kirill Marchenko to Toronto on Sept. 28. That deal moved Marchenko, Elvis Merzlikins and Miles Wood for Matthew Knies, Emil Andrae, Steven Lorentz and a conditional 2027 second-rounder. Toronto then signed Marchenko for six years at $75 million.

The early scoreboard is ugly for Columbus. Marchenko has 11 points in 11 games for the Leafs, per NHL data, and scored on the power play in his return to Nationwide Arena on Tuesday. Knies has four points in eight games and none in his last six, while playing 18.4 minutes a night.

It's a small sample, and Knies is a considerably better player than six games say. But the Leafs got the hot hand, and Columbus got the bill.

That's why the Voronkov calls matter so much: a team that just lost the first month of a big trade can't afford to sell a forward cheap and lose that one too. If Don Waddell moves him, he needs a real return: a younger forward on a cheaper deal or a pick that isn't conditional.

What else is wrong: the penalty kill is at 70.0 percent and the team is 1-4 in its last five, outscored by 10, by our count. Zach Werenski is playing 29.1 minutes a night and has six assists and no goals. A defenseman carrying everything and scoring nothing is a team problem, not a Werenski problem.

Where it goes: I'd treat Voronkov as gone by American Thanksgiving if the Jackets don't string wins together. The fit is any club with a hole on its third line and room for $4.2 million. That market exists every November, and Columbus just has to stop treating him like a scratch long enough for someone to make an offer.

The read: the minutes moved first, the rumor came second. Columbus is listening, and the scratch sheet says it was listening all along.