NHL Trade Rumors: Blue Jackets Unlikely to Find Serious Buyers for Jeff Carter

The Columbus Blue Jackets won't find many serious buyers for center Jeff Carter with his contract still having 10 more years on it with a salary cap hit of $5.3 million.

Columbus has only itself to blame for this mess, but to their credit, it seems like it's trying to move on from its mistake in trading for him by looking to deal him before the Feb. 27 trade deadline.

Per The Columbus Dispatch:

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He was traded from a perennial playoff contender to an organization that has never won a playoff game. This season has done nothing to instill confidence that the Blue Jackets are headed on the right path.

So the marriage is soon to end if the Blue Jackets can trade him. Oddly, though, it’s the Blue Jackets who seem most intent on the separation.

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The Blue Jackets look like they are determined to get rid of Carter, but is there going to be a general manager that is willing to take on a contract for an inconsistent player that won't expire until 2022?

That's right, 2022.

The fact that Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren was able to get Blue Jackets general manager Scott Howson to take Carter from him was a miracle. 

No GM will want to burden his team financially by taking on Carter's contract, especially when there were reports about him partying too much while in Philadelphia and if that's what prompted the Flyers to trade Carter and teammate Mike Richards following the 2010-11 season.

In the salary cap era of the NHL, large contracts have become a huge pain to GMs looking to improve their club but have players who aren't tradable because they have huge cap hits for many more seasons.

The only hope for these GMs is if the new collective bargaining agreement in the summer has an amnesty clause like the new CBA that the NBA and its players had this season. Then, teams could cut players and relieve themselves of cap-burdening deals.

The Blue Jackets could find some suitors for Carter if they lower the asking price, but when you consider that Columbus gave up a first-round pick and Jakub Voracek to acquire Carter from Philly, asking for anything less than that would be counterproductive.

What the Blue Jackets really need is a franchise goaltender, and their lack of success at that position has hurt the team throughout their brief history as an NHL club.

However, unless a team like Boston, St. Louis or Los Angeles—who all have talented backup goaltenders—are willing to acquire Carter, I cannot see the Blue Jackets trading him before the deadline.

The Blue Jackets' nightmare scenario with Jeff Carter is just further proof that massively long contracts are never a good idea, no matter who the player involved is.

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Nicholas Goss is a Boston Bruins featured columnist for Bleacher Report and was the organization's on-site reporter for the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals in Boston.