The Dallas Stars' blockbuster trade that fell apart may not be dead after all

Back in the summer, a deal that would have sent the Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman to the Dallas Stars looked like a done thing until it wasn't.

Werenski used his trade protection to kill it, and the fallout turned into one of the loudest storylines of the offseason.

Thomas Harley was reportedly the centerpiece heading to Columbus, with Mavrik Bourque as a secondary piece, though Bourque has since been dealt to Nashville anyway.

Jeff Marek touched on this on the On The Sheet podcast, and his read is worth paying attention to.

Asked directly whether the trade was dead, he said he did not think it was.

That is a notable thing to hear months after a blocked deal usually gets buried for good.

The bigger detail here is motive.

By most accounts, Werenski's issue was never really about joining the Stars. It was about leaving Columbus.

Once the trade got presented and blocked, things calmed down, and there was no real sign he wanted out anymore, at least not right away.

None of that means this is dead forever, though.

Werenski still has to figure out what he wants long term, and if he ever tells the Blue Jackets he sees his future elsewhere, Dallas is exactly the kind of team that would jump at the chance to make another run at him.

It is the destination that seemed to make the most sense to him in the first place.

So nothing is imminent.

But nothing is closed either.

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