from Aaron Portzline of The Athletic,

We asked them about their perception of Columbus as a city, why they think the Blue Jackets keep losing players, what it’s like to play for coach John Tortorella, what it’s like to negotiate with the Blue Jackets, and what they’d change if they were running the club.

We had several stipulations to these interviews:

• the players would be granted full anonymity so that they could speak freely
• the players must have played in Columbus during the Kekalainen/Tortorella era
• the players needed to have played in multiple other cities during established NHL careers
• the players must have left the organization on good terms, with no ax to grind and no agendas

Two players we asked to participate politely declined. Three others agreed to talk, with the promise that their comments would be only lightly edited to avoid revealing their identities....

What are your thoughts on how/why the Blue Jackets keep losing top players, either to free agency or forced trades?

Player 2: Young kids would rather get drafted somewhere else. Maybe this is overgeneralizing, but a lot of the younger guys want to go where they’re rock stars — Toronto, New York, Boston. They want to go hang out with hot chicks in Miami and Arizona and L.A. They want to try to wheel girls in Montreal. That’s what they want to do. So there has to be some other draw that Columbus has, right? There has to be something else. “We have a great team and a great culture and we’ll pay you.” Or, “We really value this (aspect) in you and we want you to stay and we’ll make sure you stay no matter what the cost.”

When we talked contract it was, “Where do you want to be?” And we said “X” amount, they immediately said, “Nope, no chance.” And we were like, “Well, that’s where we’re at and there are like six other teams willing to go there.” They expected me to give up a ton of money to play there, like they were the only team in the league.

more (paid) and a recommended read, the little blurb I posted doesn't due justice...