Zach Werenski Reportedly Blocks Trade to Dallas Stars, Thomas Harley to Have Gone to Columbus in Nixed Deal
Hoo boy
For the second time in a week, the Stars have seen a big trade fall apart because a top-tier player didn’t want to change teams. Last week, it was Jason Robertson. This time, it was Zach Werenski.
Per SportsNet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Stars had a massive trade with Columbus in place with Thomas Harley as the centerpiece of the deal for Werenski, the reigning Norris Trophy winner. The Stars apparently agreed to terms on Monday night, and they were not informed that a player veto was still a possibility.
But on Tuesday evening, the Stars were informed that Werenski had blocked the deal:
The Stars appear to be caught in the middle, unaware that their trade — which, sources say, was agreed to late Monday — could be vetoed. They were informed Tuesday night.
We’ll see how things evolve, but it’s taken a nasty turn.
For the record, the Stars knew Werenski had a full no-move clause, so I read this report as the Stars having an understanding with Columbus that Werenski was willing to go to Dallas. Obviously that did not turn out to be the case.
Speculation had been building about a Werenski-to-Dallas deal for a few days now, and for things to get as far as they did before the player nixed the trade has to be incredibly frustrating for both parties, and even more so for Dallas in particular, following the Jason Robertson trade that he scuttled before the draft by declining to extend with Seattle.
Robertson could still remain in Dallas as the sides continue to talk, but that situation doesn’t appear to be related to the potential Werenski trade. In Harley’s case, it sounds like he was pretty clearly the part of the Werenski deal that the Blue Jackets couldn’t refuse, only for the Columbus defenseman to quickly narrow down a formerly wider trade list to what sounds like a handful of options, including Tampa Bay and Toronto, and possibly nobody else.
Columbus is already reported to be pivoting to talk with Tampa Bay, as the Werenski situation has quickly deteriorated. As for Dallas, they now find themselves in the unenviable situation where two of their core players now know that Dallas attempted to trade them this month.
Obviously both deals are understandable, from a neutral perspective. The Robertson negotiations have not been easy ones, while a Norris Trophy-winning defenseman rightly forces a team in the middle of their Cup window to contemplate win-now sorts of moves, even for a recently extended player like Harley. But how the players involved will handle things from here remains to be seen.
So, where does Jim Nill go from here? Werenski doesn’t sound likely to change his mind about Dallas, and Harley isn’t a player you’d expect Dallas would want to move in almost any other situation. But to have a 24-year-old defenseman like Harley starting the first year of his long-term extension under the cloud of having been (nearly) traded is less than ideal, to put it mildly.
If you’re Dallas, you have to be pretty exasperated to have been on both sides of a situation where a player seemed likely to accept a big move, only to scuttle things at the last moment. General managers never want players’ names in potential trades to get out for this exact sort of reason. With Harley in particular, there could be real damage here—though Nill is probably one of the few GMs in the league truly capable of repairing fallout from a disaster like this, if that’s doable.
It’s also worth mentioning that Harley has always been a confident, calm player who rarely gets rattled about anything. If you had to bet on a young player who could shrug off something like this, Harley wouldn’t be a bad one to bet on. Still, it has to hurt to know that the team that just locked you up was willing to trade you only a few months later. Surely this is the sort of situation where the player at least has a conversation with his agent, just to talk things through.
(And yes, Harley and Robertson share the same agent: Andy Scott.)
Nill surely will continue to swing big when it comes to making moves, but does a second near-trade in the last few days cause the Stars to try a different approach altogether? Free agency doesn’t look likely to be a rich market for Dallas when it opens tomorrow, but with two huge moves falling apart right before the finish line, the frustration level has to mounting behind the scenes for Dallas, who are still in limbo with Robertson, and who also might have offer sheets to deal with for Mavrik Bourque and Robertson, depending on how the next few days go.
Jim Nill was already scheduled to speak to the media on Wednesday afternoon after free agency begins. Unfortunately, that conversation sounds likely to have a very different tone than the Stars were hoping it would yesterday.