KJ IS NOT BEING TRADED

Reason one: Teams mid rebuild do not trade recent top 5 picks. Especially not after their second season. He had a sophomore slump. It happens fairly often actually. One season removed from hitting 40 points as a rookie.

Reason two: he is out 6-9 months with an injury. No team trades injured players especially for the assets it would take to acquire said player. (Both Columbus and acquiring team)

Reason three: He likes it here. Even with all the crap about a bad season and being sent to Cleveland, he never wavered and likes the Michigan coalition in place here.

Reason four: you can’t offersheet him. Unlike the threat of a pld offersheet, the kk offersheet and aho offersheet, ( I believe there were some stories on newhook and dach before they were traded but I may be wrong). Other teams can’t use that as a leverage in a potential negotiation.
For example: I could see a world where a Montreal tries to get him for a second round pick via offersheet but they cannot use that as a leverage point in a trade negotiation.

Reason Five: we need young playmakers with top line potential. He is exactly what we need!

Lines are what I think we should do the last few games.

KJ will be totally fine long term

Completely agree. He had a bad year where he wasn’t ready (see sillinger last season) and will return next season ready with a better understanding of how the nhl works.