Kirill Marchenko just answered the Canadiens question everyone's been asking

Kirill Marchenko is telling Don Waddell he's staying locked in, even as the Columbus Blue Jackets winger keeps getting linked to the Montreal Canadiens.

Waddell was spotted in Montreal on Tuesday. No confirmed reason has surfaced for that trip, and there's no confirmation he sat down with Kent Hughes.

Wednesday told a different story.

Marchenko and Waddell had a lengthy conversation as Blue Jackets camp opened, and the winger's message was blunt: he's playing his butt off in Columbus this season.

That's a player addressing the moment. It's not a player closing the door on his future.

Because those are two different conversations, and only one of them just happened.

Marchenko put up 67 points last season, 27 goals and 40 assists over 76 games, with 6 power play goals and 7 game-winners. That's a top-six scorer at a $3,850,000 cap hit, the kind of contract that makes rival GMs pick up the phone.

Marchenko's recent form complicates the trade math

His last 10 games tell a quieter story: 2 goals, 6 assists, 8 points. Still solid. Just not the pace that forces a GM's hand overnight.

Columbus sits at 40-30-12 and has dropped two straight, including Sunday's 1-2 loss to Washington. The Blue Jackets have gone 2-7-1 over their last 10 games.

Montreal, meanwhile, finished 48-24-10 with 106 points, sixth overall in the league. The Canadiens have beaten Columbus twice in three meetings this season, including a 5-2 road win.

Here's my take. Montreal makes sense on paper. Marchenko fits the top six, he's young, he's affordable, and Kent Hughes has been aggressive before.

But wanting a player and building a package Waddell actually accepts are two very different jobs. Waddell has shown no urgency to move a 26-year-old scorer signed below market.

Marchenko's comments this week read like a player managing the noise, not addressing his long-term address. Watch what Waddell does next, not what get said in a hallway.

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