Healthy Gaborik could be Jackets' only trade deadline addition

Several pertinent nuggets of information from The Columbus Dispatch Wednesday morning.

* GM Jarmo Kekalainen and Marian Gaborik’s agent, Ron Salcer, have not had any contract extension talks to this point. The sniper's five-year, $37.5 million contract wraps up after this season.

* Kekelainen, for good reason, is quite happy with his current group overall. It doesn't seem like he's pushing for any deadline deal.

“I don’t think we have to do anything,” Kekalainen said. “We have good chemistry. We have a lot of good qualities about us. I like the structure of our team, the roles that have evolved.

“If the right deal for the right player is there, we’ll look at it, of course. We’re preparing for every possible scenario, believe me. But we’re not going to make a deal to make it look like we’re doing something. I like this group.”

* He also knows what a healthy Gaborik means to the Blue Jackets.

“I still don’t think we’ve seen the Marian Gaborik who can score big goals, and what he can mean to our power play, how he can create so much space for other guys on the ice,” Kekalainen said. “If he can play at the top of his game and bring that every night, he could be exactly what this team needs the rest of the way.

“He hasn’t lost the ability to score goals. He has been hurt; it has been unfortunate. But he’s still the same guy who scored all those goals. He’s not old. He’s worked his (butt) off to get back into our lineup.”

Source: Aaron Portzline, Columbus Dispatch