(CP) - Doug MacLean isn't done just yet.

In the aftermath of the blockbuster acquisition of centre Sergei Fedorov, the Columbus Blue Jackets GM is working the phones in an attempt to unload veteran centre Todd Marchant.

"We're trying to trade him," MacLean said Wednesday from Columbus. "I've been working with his agent (Lewis Gross) since last night trying to make a deal to move him. The two of us have worked the phone lines, we've talked to a few teams about him."

MacLean put Marchant on 24-hour waivers Wednesday, meaning teams have until noon ET Thursday to pick him up, as well as his contract. In the meantime, MacLean continues to work on a deal.

"There's good interest in him, but the question is, what's the cost and how much room do teams have," MacLean said.

The 32-year-old Marchant has a no-trade clause in his contract and had yet to waive it. Reached at his home in Columbus, he said won't waive it unless the situation is right.

"Absolutely," Marchant told The Canadian Press. "But we really haven't thought about that too much because now we're in a waiver situation. I know a trade is a little more difficult because of my contract and what's left on it. We're willing to evaluate each situation and make the best decision.

"We're in a holding pattern right now to find out where it is we'll end up."

He's earning $2.47 million this season and has three more years on his deal after that paying him $2.47 million in 2006-07, $2.47 million in 2007-08 and $2.66 million in 2008-09.

The new CBA prohibits trades that involve one team picking up part of a salary.

Should Marchant clear waivers and be assigned to the AHL, he would be more enticing as a waiver pickup upon re-entry if the Jackets recall him. According to the CBA, teams plucking him from recall waivers would only be on the hook for half his salary with Columbus paying the other half, which would also count against its salary cap.

"But if a team wants him," Gross said Wednesday, "I think they should step up and take him now instead taking the chance of losing him on recall waivers."

MacLean needs financial relief after acquiring Fedorov on Tuesday. That deal left his cap number just over $37 million US, less than two million under the maximum of $39 million.

"At first I was kind of surprised," Marchant said of being put on the block. "I did figure in some way that when they acquired Fedorov that obviously there's issues there with (MacLean's) budget and where he wants that at.

"I don't know why he chose me, maybe it's because he can move me easier than other people. All I was told is that he needed to move salary and he's moving me."

The fast-skating, checking centre has three goals and six assists in 18 games this season, his second with the Jackets after leaving Edmonton and signing a free-agent contract in Columbus in the summer of 2003.

"The people here are tremendous, the fans are fantastic, it's not going to be easy to leave," Marchant said. "But my family and I understand and know that it's always a possibility something like this can happen."

Marchant and wife Caroline have three children, aged 7, 5 and 4.

"With my wife and kids, it's a little more difficult, but we're going to make the best of the situation," said Marchant, the voice of his kids easily heard in the background. "Hopefully where I do go it's a good situation for us."

MacLean pulled off the first big trade of the NHL season the previous day when he acquired the 35-year-old Fedorov from Anaheim in exchange for forward Tyler Wright and defenceman Francois Beauchemin.

The Jackets GM said the city was buzzing after the deal.

"People seem pretty excited," MacLean said during his team's pre-game skate Wednesday.

Fedorov, who turns 36 in December, is making $6.08 million this season and is in the third year of a $40-million, five-year deal. He'll earn $6.08 million next season and again in 2007-08.