The Columbus Blue Jackets, who are staring down a potential last-place finish in the NHL’s Central Division, are shaping quite the audacious offseason plan, according to TSN insider Darren Dreger.

Thursday, during TSN’s Insider Trading, Dreger reported that Columbus general manager Jarmo Kekäläinen will be trying to acquire a top-line center this offseason to help get more out of his most recent big addition to the team, Patrik Laine.

“The belief is that Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen is going to try his level best to acquire a top-line center to help Laine in time for next year,” Dreger said.

The need to help Laine makes sense when you look at the young Finnish winger’s numbers this season. In his 43 games since the Pierre-Luc Dubois deal, Laine has just 18 points and is a minus-28. This comes a season after Laine had the best point-per-game output of his career, notching 63 points in 68 games for the Jets in 2019-20.

This report coindentally comes out two days after Pierre LeBrun noted that the Capitals may look to move on from Evgeny Kuznetsov this summer.

The fires have sure been stoked.