The 26-year-old star center wore that uncertainty like an anchor, to the point where Duchene was accused of packing it in in the final months of Colorado's 48-point last-place season. The Matt Duchene Trade, One Year Later. "Last year when it happened, it was around the time I saw the writing on the wall in terms of the future of that franchise, in terms of the rest of my contract. More positive tests in the NFL. These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. Now what? He has previously played in the NHL for the Colorado Avalanche, Ottawa Senators and Columbus Blue Jackets.Duchene was selected third overall by the Avalanche in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft. "As far as the city and the fans, just wow, I did not expect that. Duchene, who will wear No. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. Battalion Breakdown is a closer look at the Blue Jackets' past season on a player-by-player basis. Trade Grades: Blue Jackets win Matt Duchene deal, conditionally, Fueled by Cody Bellinger, Dodgers-Padres brings down (empty) house, Dodgers' Roberts to mull Jansen's role as closer, Sources: Watt had heated exchange with O'Brien, Lakers switch to 'Black Mamba' unis for Game 5, Source: Saints not anticipating MNF move to Indy, Eagles' Slay: Felt like we shouldn't have played, Injured Clevinger taken off Padres' NLDS roster, MLB Wednesday Takeaways: Dodgers rob Padres; A's force Game 4; Rays, Braves one win from LCS, Ian Anderson's emergence makes Braves biggest threat to Dodgers, NFL quarter-season awards: Barnwell's picks for MVP, ROY, top coach, best catch, more, Berry's Love/Hate: How to make a lifetime fan the George Carlin way, 'It's a real problem': How the combat sports pipeline broke in 2020, How Florida's two Kyles -- Trask and Pitts -- became the SEC's biggest matchup problem, The Horns!? Another Big 12 team makes Bottom 10's latest list, 'Basketball on grass': The origin of Mike Leach's Air Raid offense, Nigeria is making a strong play to get the Miami Heat's Bam Adebayo on the roster, Can the NFL really get through the season? There's no such thing as a perfect human being, but for me Joe Sakic is pretty darn close. I was a maturity process for me, a learning process. In 2020-1, Duchene will earn a base salary of $8,000,000, while carrying a cap hit of $8,000,000. When you visit any web site, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. Copyright © 2020 Columbus Blue Jackets Hockey Club and the National Hockey League. But Duchene felt it was time to leave the team, before his contract was up in summer 2019 and before it entered yet another rebuilding phase -- so he had to ask the team's general manager Joe Sakic, his favorite player growing up, to move him. It's been almost a full year since Matt Duchene was traded to Ottawa in a blockbuster trade.