These were not the real Columbus Blue Jackets. Certainly not the version Johnny Gaudreau signed to play with.
From pretty much the moment the 2022-23 season began, Columbus was falling off a cliff. Top sniper Patrik Laine suffered his first of multiple injuries during the season opener. The Blue Jackets limped home from their Global Series trip to Finland with a 3-9-0 record. One game after that, No. 1 defenseman Zach Werenski suffered a season-ending shoulder injury.
While the official counts vary, the Blue Jackets lost more than 550 man games to injury this season, the second-most in the NHL. One year after they were just a game under .500, they tumbled deep into the NHL’s basement and wound up securing the third overall pick in a loaded 2023 NHL Draft later this month.
The way GM Jarmo Kekalainen saw it, however, it would be virtually impossible not to improve from such a star-crossed season. And with the Metropolitan Division in a state of flux, as the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins’ playoff streaks came to an end, there was an opportunity to get aggressive. Especially when, unlike those of many divisional rivals, the Jackets’ farm system was pretty loaded.
So it made sense when the Jackets ponied up this year’s 22nd overall pick, which they acquired from the Los Angeles Kings at the Trade Deadline, as part of a three-team trade that brought Ivan Provorov to town earlier this week.
“He’s a true top-four defenseman,” Kekalainen told Daily Faceoff. “He hasn’t had his best years the last couple of years, but before that, he was always a stud on the blueline. A top-10 pick in that great (2015) draft. He’s just entering his prime. He’s a young defenseman. Defensemen usually take a long time before they can really mature and become a steady force on the blueline. And our left side now, with Zach Werenski and him, we’ve got two studs to eat up minutes and all special situations. And guys that are big and strong and hard to play against, because of their strength and mobility. (Provorov) fits perfectly into what we need to do.”
Kekalainen spoke those words Thursday afternoon during a conversation in which he also said his team was “not done by any means” making changes. He’s a man of his word: less than 24 hours later, boom, another bombshell, this time adding to the right side of his blueline, landing Damon Severson from the New Jersey Devils as part of a sign-and-trade after the Devils locked him up for eight years at a $6.25M AAV. They suddenly have a long-term top four to build around in Werenski, Severson, Provorov and one of Adam Boqvist or world-class prospect David Jiricek, who is expected to push for full-time NHL duty next season after getting a brief taste in 2022-23.
And that still might not be the end of Kekalainen’s cowboy tactics this offseason. When assessing what else his team needs, he singled out another part of the lineup.
“Center ice is obviously (a need), but that’s always the hardest position to fill,” he said. “I think we’ll get a real good one at No. 3. And we might have to wait until he makes the team and makes an impact on our team. But we’re patient and know our window to really compete is just opening up here in the next couple of years. We want to build with patience toward that and not rush to get immediate help and squeeze ourselves when our window is really getting open for us to get back to where we can not only make the playoffs but compete for the Stanley Cup.”
So for anyone wondering if Matvei Michkov could end up a Blue Jacket: it sure doesn’t sound like it based on the fact Kekalainen is openly expressing a desire to land a true center. That means it’ll likely be Leo Carlsson or Will Smith’s name called at No. 3 – unless Adam Fantilli somehow slips that far. That said: even though Kekalainen is preaching patience, he went out and got Gaudreau and now Provorov and Severson in consecutive offseasons. Are we sure Kekalainen isn’t willing to make another aggressive move? He managed to bring in Gaudreau, Provorov and Severson without dipping into his prospect pool; the likes of Jiricek, Cole Sillinger, Kent Johnson and Denton Mateychuk all remain in the system. Would Kekalainen thus be willing to entertain trading the No. 3 overall pick later this month?
“We’re pretty much locked. Somebody would have to really blow us away with an offer we can’t refuse before we moved that pick,” he said. “It would have to be a young player that we know is going to be with us for eight years at least and through our window when we get to that spot where we can compete for the Stanley Cup. We’re not trading it for a player that can help us for the next three or four years or something like that, who is aging and getting past his prime by the time we’re ready to compete. I don’t see that happening. I guess you never say never.
“But we’re not desperate to compete next year or be a Stanley Cup contending team next year. We know we have some work to do, and we’re going to do it in the right order and make sure we build the right way so that when our window opens we can load up when needed if we get toward the deadline like we did in 2019.”
Even if the Jackets hold onto their pick, they might be bringing in a player who can make an immediate impact or, at worst, be a major contributor by 2024-25, as long as it’s not Michkov, who is signed through 2025-26 in the KHL.
Questions will abound about how much the Blue Jackets have improved from a team culture standpoint; Provorov brings a certain degree of baggage from the league-wide chain reaction that occurred this season after he refused to wear a Pride jersey during warmups as a Flyer. When I asked how he weighed that into the decision to acquire him, Kekalainen didn’t want to add anything he didn’t already say earlier this week when he championed freedom of choice. The rumored impending hire of Mike Babcock as coach isn’t something Kekalainen can discuss yet given Babcock remains under contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs through June 30, but it will bring more questions due to allegations of him psychologically abusing players in the past.
It thus remains to be seen how well all the new pieces and personalities will actually gel in Columbus. But at least on paper, this team is undeniably improved. It’s time we stopped sleeping on the Blue Jackets.
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