The Columbus Dispatch (Aaron Portzline):

The Pittsburgh Penguins won’t be able to keep their Stanley Cup runner-up club together because of salary cap issues. It looks like the Blue Jackets are prepared to offer a helping hand.
The two clubs have had preliminary trade talks, the Dispatch has learned. The discussions have involved Pittsburgh trading the rights to one or two of their pending unrestricted free agents — players the Penguins have decided they can’t keep because of the salary cap — to the Blue Jackets for draft pick or player compensation.

It’s unclear who the players are, but Ryan Malone and Brooks Orpik seem like logical choices. Hey, why not Marian Hossa?

My guess is the Blue Jackets will be giving up draft picks.

I don’t think anything is imminent. Right now, Penguins GM Ray Shero has to be sweating it out deciding who he’s going to keep or let go. He’s got to be having 12 hour days. When he figures out how he’s going to build the roster, the trading could commence.

The conventional wisdom each summer is that talks won’t get serious until the draft gets underway on on June 20. But that’s not true anymore.

Here’s how the trade would likely work: the Blue Jackets and Penguins would agree to a trade, but it only goes down if the Blue Jackets can get the player signed.

So, Pittsburgh would grant the CBJ negotiating rights with the player. When the player is signed, the Blue Jackets would complete the trade by sending the pick or a player to Pittsburgh. If no contract is reached, nothing happens. We might not even know about it.

It’s starting to get interesting. Stay tuned.