NHL Trade Rumors: Has Jeff Carter's Time as a Blue Jacket Come to an End?

Before last year's NHL Entry Draft, the Columbus Blue Jackets pulled off one of the most aggressive moves in franchise history.

The team traded their first round pick, as well as winger Jakub Voracek and another pick to the Philadelphia Flyers for All-Star center Jeff Carter.

Carter, who had recently signed an 11-year contract extension with the Flyers was surprised by the move and it took him almost a week to react to it. Carter was upset about the move as he hoped that he would finish his career with the same team that drafted him as a youngster.

When he finally did speak, the 26-year-old stated that he was excited to come to Columbus for a fresh start and hoped that he was one of the missing pieces to turning this franchise around.

However, his first season as a Blue Jacket has not gone according to plan, as he has yet to score his first goal and missed some time with a fracture in his foot.

The Jackets, who hoped that this would be the year they became legitimate playoff contenders, have started the season at the bottom of the league with the worst records in franchise history.

The start has been so bad that rumors have emerged that Carter wishes to end his time in Columbus already and has requested a trade.

Jackets' general manager Scott Howson was quick to deny the trade request when he was contacted by the Columbus Dispatch,

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"There has been no trade request," Howson said. "Look, nobody's happy right now. Jeff's not happy. Rick (Nash) isn't happy. We've won three games. Nobody's happy. We see Jeff as part of the solution here. We want to get him integrated into the lineup and into the team. He's missed 10 games, and he's only now getting back into the lineup and playing. We gave up two very big assets for him."

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Carter's agent Rick Curran would also deny that his client had requested a trade.

The rumor seems to be a little premature as Carter has only played eight games with his new team and has yet to get settled in.

Now that he is healthy, fans everywhere will finally get to see what happens when a top-line center is paired with Rick Nash.

This is not the first time, nor will it be the last, that a somewhat far-fetched rumor has emerged. Every NHL season brings with it crazy rumors and most of them are rarely true.

However, RDS, the French-language sister channel of TSN, is an accredited channel in the hockey community and would not publish a rumor if there was not some sort of confirmation behind it.

For the sake of the Blue Jackets, one would hope that this talk is just that.

If it is true however, the Jackets' bad start could become one of the most historic downward spirals in recent history.