The Blue Jackets have by no means closed the door on making trades or signing free agents.

But general manager Jarmo Kekalainen signaled Sunday that he would have no problem carrying his current roster into the 2017-18 season.

That’s another way to say Kekalainen won’t gut his roster of young talent to land center Matthew Duchene via trade from the Colorado Avalanche, and he isn’t going to break the bank to land a big-name free agent.

“We have until the (trade) deadline next spring,” Kekalainen told The Dispatch. “We’re always trying to improve our team, but we’ve always said we’re not going to go crazy and mortgage the future to try and get a short-term fix.

“We feel like our window is just starting to crack open. We’re a young team. We don’t see any reason to try and go crazy. We don’t want to be kicking ourselves two or three years from now.”

It’s no secret that the Blue Jackets would like to add a top-six center, and Kekalainen has made it clear that he wanted to be aggressive this summer in adding talent that could give his club a better chance against their elite Metropolitan Division opponents, especially Pittsburgh and Washington.

But he won’t be reckless.

In addition to Columbus, Boston, Nashville and Pittsburgh reportedly had trade talks with Colorado for Duchene, a two-time All-Star and Olympic gold-medal winner with Team Canada.

Duchene has been on the block for many months now — the New York Islanders reportedly took a run last March — but Colorado GM Joe Sakic has held fast to his trade demands.

So far, Kekalainen has held fast, too.

“You can’t mortgage the future thinking this has to be the year,” Kekalainen said. “We’re not there right now.

“If there’s a deal there, we’ll make it. But it’s not as if our window is closing.”

Last week, the Blue Jackets boosted their offense by acquiring left wing Artemi Panarin in a trade with Chicago. Panarin, 25, was 11th in the NHL in scoring (31 goals, 74 points) last season.

The Blue Jackets’ top defensive pair is still green: Seth Jones is 22; Zach Werenski is 19. They both exceeded 40 points last season.

The current No. 1 center, Alexander Wennberg, is 22 years old. He had 46 assists and 59 points last season.

“Oliver Bjorkstrand (22), Josh Anderson (23) … all of these guys are young guys who aren’t even at their prime yet,” Kekalainen said. “Our biggest improvement is still going to come from within, with our young players.”

Reminder: The Blue Jackets were sixth in the league in scoring last season, scoring a franchise-record 247 goals.

The Blue Jackets lost center William Karlsson to Vegas in the expansion draft and fourth-line forwards Scott Hartnell (buyout, Nashville) and Sam Gagner (Vancouver) via free agency.

“No disrespect to any of those guys; they were good players for us last year,” Kekalainen said. “But we have some players who will be very hungry to take regular spots — Pierre-Luc Dubois, Sonny Milano, Markus Hannikainen … those guys should be very hungry to be part of our lineup.”

Kekalainen hasn’t given up on making big moves, he said. Free agency, trades — they are all still on the table.

He still is driven to make moves, but isn’t desperate.

“We have plenty of time in the fall and before the (trade) deadline to do something if we feel there’s something we absolutely need in our lineup,” he said.

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