The next Columbus Blue Jackets GM will have quite the young talent to work with

Steven Ellis
Steven Ellis
The next Columbus Blue Jackets GM will have quite the young talent to work with
Credit: Russell LaBounty-USA TODAY Sports

The Columbus Blue Jackets have an incredible fanbase – one of the most passionate in the NHL. They deserve so much better than what they’ve been served.

Jarmo Kekalainen was let go as GM Thursday after an 11-year run with the club. In that time, the Blue Jackets won their first-ever playoff series, recorded a 50-win season for the first time ever and drafted some of the team’s most notable talent, such as Zach Werenski, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Kent Johnson and Adam Fantilli. He also turned Brandon Saad into Artemi Panarin, Ryan Johansen into Seth Jones, Dubois into Patrik Laine and signed Johnny Gaudreau to a long-term contract just weeks after he finished fourth in the Hart Trophy voting in 2022.

But the constant missteps made the move necessary to let him go. The Mike Babcock hiring and subsequent firing. The team’s inability to do anything in the postseason. The prolonged rebuild. Kekalainen had some shining moments with the Blue Jackets, especially finding value by trading veterans for prospects and other assets. But the Finnish GM’s best-before date passed a long time ago, and something had to give.

NHL GMs rarely get to go out on their own terms, anyway.

Sacking a GM just weeks before the NHL Trade Deadline is a bold move. John Davidson will hold the fort in the interim, but he’s not an innocent party after serving as the team’s president of hockey operations 10 of the past 12 seasons. He signed off on the mistakes, too.

It’s not clear when the Blue Jackets will announce a permanent replacement. But when they do, they’ll have quite the cupboard to work with.

Seven teams have changed GMs over the past year: Philadelphia, Calgary, Toronto, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Ottawa, and now Columbus. Daniel Briere joined Philly with a talented prospect pool, but the Leafs, Penguins and Senators were in the bottom 10, with the Flames sitting 17th in the preseason Daily Faceoff pipeline rankings.

Columbus? Fourth. And they’re on track for another top-five pick in 2024 to boot.

Fantilli is a future NHL star, kicking off his pro career in style as one of the league’s top rookies this season before his recent leg injury. Dmitry Voronkov has been great in his first season in North America, establishing himself as a big piece of the team’s core a year after fellow countryman Kirill Marchenko made his mark with the club. Kent Johnson has looked much better after getting sent down to Cleveland early in the season, and Yegor Chinakhov has started to figure things out after some difficult stretches the past few years.

Add in Gaudreau, Laine and Boone Jenner, and you’ve got a solid young forward core with a good veteran presence to build around. Just wait until Gavin Brindley turns pro in a year or two, too.

On the point, David Jiricek has played some NHL games, but was questionably sent down recently, much to his dismay. Given the team’s disastrous own-zone play, there’s no reason why they can’t just let Jiricek run wild.

Jiricek is one of the best blueline prospects in the game, but Denton Matyechuk is coming. He’s been incredible with Moose Jaw in the WHL, starting the season off with a 23-game point streak before joining Canada at the World Juniors. Add in Stanislav Svozil, Corson Ceulemans and Andrew Strathmann, among others, and we’re talking about one of the deepest bluelines of any pipeline.

They even have a few interesting pieces in net, with Daniil Tarasov leading a group that includes KHL standout Sergei Ivanov and Cleveland Monsters starter Jet Greaves. None of them are top goaltending prospects, but Tarasov’s been with the big club all season long and Greaves looked good in spot NHL duty this year.

There’s still room to grow – scoring depth is still an issue, and there’s no clear No. 1 goaltender in waiting. But there are enough building blocks for fans of this franchise to be excited about. A new GM coming in doesn’t have to blow things up and start from scratch; the hard part has already been done for them.

The next few weeks will be interesting for Columbus, to say the least. Elvis Merzlikins, Alexandre Texier, Jack Roslovic, Adam Boqvist, and Andrew Peeke are among the players potentially on the trade block. The team should be able to accumulate a few notable draft picks, which would be especially valuable given they traded away their second-round pick in the three-team deal involving Ivan Provorov.

With $21.475 million in projected cap space next year, the Blue Jackets will be busy this summer. Texier, Johnson, Marchenko and Chinakhov are among the RFAs needing new deals, and if Roslovic isn’t moved before the deadline, they can let him go freely in free agency. Gaudreau, Jenner, Werenski and Damon Severson all have term on their deals, which helps.

Blue Jackets fans, just compare to this to any major construction project. It’s a work in progress with numerous, expensive delays. But the final product should be worth it, and the right person in charge can make it happen. We don’t know who that it is yet, but whoever it is will be taking over a team with a bright future if they manage it correctly.

But that’s easier said than done, right? Just ask Jarmo.

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