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Today’s wild rumor: John Ferguson Jr. as future Blue Jackets GM?

John Ferguson Jr.

If you haven’t noticed, things aren’t going so hot in Columbus. They’ve already fired Scott Arniel as their coach, they’ve got a host of injuries making life harder, and GM Scott Howson’s job could be in jeopardy come season’s end.

Ottawa Sun writer Bruce Garrioch says that the name that’s being floated around as a potential successor to Howson is John Ferguson Jr. If you’re unaware of who Ferguson is and what his track record was in Toronto, consider this Garrioch’s way of telling you that things can get worse.

Ferguson was the Leafs GM from 2003-2008, a tenure that saw the Leafs make the playoffs in his first year in charge and never again after that. Ferguson was famous (infamous?) for signing veteran players to hefty contracts with no-trade clauses and having a poor drafting history. He’s also the guy that traded Tuukka Rask for Andrew Raycroft. Yikes.

If Ferguson wound up in Columbus, the possibility of seeing things improve would not be very positive given his track record.

It’s just a rumor and Garrioch’s track record with rumors isn’t stellar, but if there are legs to this at all Jackets fans should be demanding better of everyone in charge of the franchise. With how poorly things went under Doug MacLean and now with Scott Howson, seeing Ferguson wind up in the same role would just be another shot in the gut to a fan base that doesn’t have much else left to give.