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Columbus Likely To Trade Seth Jones Before Draft

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Late last night, it was reported that Columbus Blue Jackets star defenseman Seth Jones will not sign an extension with Columbus and plans to test the 2022 free-agent market. That’s a huge blow to a team that has lost a large chunk of their core players in the last few years. While general manager Jarmo Kekalainen has said in the past that the team intends to go into the season with Jones whether or not he signs a contract extension, that looks to have already changed.

The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline (subscription required) writes that much has changed around the philosophy now that John Davidson has rejoined the organization as President of Hockey Operations. In fact, while Davidson did not confirm the rumors that Elliotte Friedman passed along Saturday Night on Hockey Night in Canada, he made it clear that if Jones does not sign an extension, they will not hold onto the blueliner like the team did when they held onto Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky when both indicated they intended to test free agency at the end of the year in 2019. Both players instead opted to leave the team at the end of the season.

“The No. 1 thing we’d like to do is keep Seth,” Davidson told The Athletic on Sunday. “He has every right in the world to leave if he wants to not extend the contract, but we’ll do what’s best for our team. We just want players who want to be here. This is a different scenario (than in 2019). We were in a position (then) where we thought we had a chance to make a pretty good run at (the Stanley Cup). Beating Tampa Bay (in the first round) was great. Losing to Boston in six … it was a good series, and they lost in seven in the Final.”

With Columbus in a much different position than when they were a solid playoff contender, the team likely has no choice but to consider getting as much as they can for Jones. Portzline said that sources have told him that the team will likely begin shopping the defenseman immediately with the hope of trading him before the draft this summer.

“Whatever happens is going to be what’s the absolute best for the Blue Jackets franchise, period,” Davidson said. “That’s just how it works. Doesn’t matter if it’s Seth Jones or Joe Smith, the player has the right through the (collective bargaining agreement) to do what they feel is necessary for them and their careers. We want players who want to be in Columbus, who want to be Blue Jackets, and we’re going to continue to create that culture.”

Latest On Seth Jones

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The Columbus Blue Jackets have been unable to retain their stars in recent years, with names like Artemi Panarin, Sergei Bobrovsky, and Matt Duchene all leaving in free agency. The next big name on that list is Seth Jones, who will enter the final season of his six-year, $32.4MM contract in 2021-22 with unrestricted free agency right around the corner. Though the Blue Jackets would obviously love to sign the Norris contender to a long-term contract to keep him in Columbus, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reported on Hockey Night In Canada that the 26-year-old will not sign an extension with the team at this point.

We can tell you that sometime in the last week or so, Seth Jones informed the Columbus Blue Jackets that he will not be re-signing. I’m saying ’for now’ at this point because I don’t like to deal in absolutes. But it does appear as if he is prepared to test free agency and we’ll see how Columbus decides to handle this over the next little while.

If Jones has told the team he intends to go to the open market, it means the Blue Jackets will be forced to at least test the market to see what kind of return would be available with one year remaining on his deal. The team is coming off a brutal season that saw them fall to the very bottom of the Central Division standings at 18-26-12, parted ways with their head coach, and traded away their captain Nick Foligno.

Moving Jones would be a huge transaction, but it wouldn’t be the first time the star defender was traded. He arrived in Columbus in a blockbuster five years ago, swapped for up-and-coming center Ryan Johansen. Since then he has turned into one of the very best all-around defensemen in the league, able to contribute offensively while also matching the other team’s best on any given night.

Of course, the Blue Jackets could decide to( and have suggested in the past that they will) keep him and use the next 12 months to attempt to change his mind. Jones’ next contract will likely make him one of the highest-paid defenders in the entire league and as long as the Blue Jackets are willing to pay market value, any growth this summer and next season should be seen as positives.

The Jones situation in Columbus will be one of the most interesting to keep an eye on through the summer and up to the 2022 trade deadline.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Latest On Columbus Coaching Search

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The Columbus Blue Jackets are another team looking for a new head coach after agreeing to part ways with John Tortorella when his contract expired this season. Recently reports emerged that former Arizona Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet would interview with the Blue Jackets, but he’s not the only one. Aaron Portzline of The Athletic reports that Gerard Gallant has already had his interview, while David Quinn and Brad Larsen have also interviewed or have one scheduled. General manager Jarmo Kekalainen also told the Hockey Wanderlust podcast that he would consider Finnish national coach Jukka Jalonen.

Jalonen has never worked in the NHL, but certainly has a resume to consider. The 58-year-old has won the Liiga championship in Finland, secured Olympic, World Championship, and World Junior medals, and has been a successful head coach in the KHL as well. There have only ever been two European-born and trained head coaches in the NHL, which perhaps makes the likelihood of Jalonen taking the job in Columbus low, but he’s an interesting name nonetheless. An interview for Jalonen has not been confirmed.

Of course, there are plenty of experienced NHL coaches on the list Portzline reports. Gallant and Tocchet, in particular, seem to be targets of several organizations, but Larsen also has the advantage of being part of the organization already. The 43-year-old has been an assistant with Columbus since the 2014-15 season and has experience as a head coach in the minor leagues.

After a brutal season that saw the Blue Jackets drop to last place in the Central Division, whoever takes over will have his hands full. Columbus has some strong building blocks but needs a lot of refinement on the fringes of the roster in order to really compete for the Stanley Cup.

Offseason Checklist: Columbus Blue Jackets

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The offseason has arrived with roughly half of the league finished up after missing the playoffs.  It’s time to examine what those teams need to accomplish over the coming months.  Next up is a look at Columbus.

After eliminating Toronto in the Qualifying Round last season, there was supposed to be a bit of momentum for the Blue Jackets heading into 2020-21.  However, that was quickly derailed by a trade request from Pierre-Luc Dubois and Gustav Nyqvist being ruled out for the season before it even began.  Things basically only went downhill from there and instead of being in the mix for a playoff spot, they will be picking much higher in the draft than they wanted to.  Now two years removed from their all-in push, GM Jarmo Kekalainen and the recently re-hired John Davidson have a lot of work to do this offseason to retain and supplement their new core.

Find A New Coach

Let’s get the easy one out of the way.  Columbus has a vacancy behind the bench following the recent parting of ways between them and John Tortorella whose contract was not renewed.  (On top of that, Brad Shaw, one of their assistant coaches, won’t be back either.)

As coaching cycles tend to alternate between tougher coaches and ones viewed as more of ‘players’ coaches’, it would seem that Kekalainen would be seeking someone in the latter category.  The GM has already expressed an openness to hiring a first-time NHL head coach or someone who has held that title before so they’ll be casting a wide net.

One element Kekalainen will likely try to focus on is finding a coach who is going to play a more up-tempo system.  Columbus struggled mightily in the offensive zone this season and while part of that is simply a lack of offensive firepower, some of the better forwards they had are coming off of tough seasons.  Finding someone who can get more out of those players would certainly help their cause.

Extensions For Defensemen

While Columbus has seen their forward core get progressively weaker the past couple of years, that hasn’t been the case on the back end as their two stalwarts – Seth Jones and Zach Werenski – remain with the team.  Both of them are signed for next season already but that’s it.  As a result, they’ll be eligible to sign contract extensions once the 2021-22 calendar officially begins in July and Kekalainen will undoubtedly be looking to get new deals done with both of them.

Jones needs to be the priority of the two given his expiration status as he will be eligible for unrestricted free agency at the end of next season.  His offensive numbers have dipped the last couple of years but he still managed to put up five goals and 23 assists in 56 games while averaging more than 25 minutes a night for the third straight year.  He’s a legitimate top-pairing defenseman and will be in line for a significant raise on his current $5.4MM AAV.  At 26, he’s in the prime of his career and should be able to command a max-term contract of eight years.  He won’t come close to the highest-paid blueliners in the league but something in the $8MM range would appear to be doable.

As for Werenski, he will be a restricted free agent with another year of team control but that will already carry a premium price as his qualifying offer jumps to $7MM despite a $5MM AAV.  It’s not that the price tag is daunting at that level but if you’re Werenski, it wouldn’t be worth accepting less than that on an extension knowing that much is already locked in for 2022-23.  He is the better offensive player than Jones but isn’t as good in his own end and doesn’t play quite as much.  However, he’s also in the prime of his career and is a viable top pairing player so he should be able to command a similar price tag as Jones.

While deals in that range would represent a substantial increase in cost, it’s one that they’d be wise to pay.  That’s a strong defensive core to build around and they don’t even have $21MM in salary commitments for 2022-23; they have one of the cleanest cap situations in the league for that year.  They can afford to do it.

New Deal For Laine

The trade of Dubois to Winnipeg brought back two forwards.  One wound up finishing tied for second in team scoring while the other struggled offensively.  Patrik Laine was supposed to become the go-to scorer for the Blue Jackets but instead, it was Jack Roslovic who thrived while Laine struggled considerably.  He had just 10 goals in 45 games with his new team and while those numbers are certainly lower due to the pandemic-shortened season, it’s still worth noting that it was only an 18-goal pace over a full 82-game campaign.  For someone that had at least 30 in each of his first three NHL seasons and played at a similar pace when COVID-19 put an early end to the 2019-20 campaign, that’s a substantial drop.

From Laine’s perspective, it was also an untimely one as the 23-year-old will be a restricted free agent this summer.  This was supposed to be the year that helped him earn a long-term, lucrative contract.  But after a year like this, there will definitely be questions about how much a deal that buys out several UFA years should cost.

At a minimum, we can comfortably say it will cost at least $7.5MM.  With his bridge deal being backloaded, that’s the minimum required qualifying offer and while Laine didn’t have a season worthy of that level of production, there’s no way they’re non-tendering him.  Has he done enough to earn more than that though?  Is he willing to sign a long-term deal for that amount, even in this flat-cap market?  Is he willing to sign a long-term deal in Columbus?  (His comments at the end of the season seemed to suggest he would.)  Is Kekalainen willing to do that type of contract or would he prefer a one-year pact to see how he fits in with a new coach and a new system?

There are undoubtedly plenty of questions, certainly more than either side would have hoped for when the trade was made.  With Laine having arbitration eligibility this summer, they will have to be answered somewhere around the middle of August at the latest.

Add Impact Center

If this sounds like a familiar headline when it comes to Columbus, it’s because it is.  Unfortunately for the Blue Jackets, it’s an even bigger issue now.

Kekalainen tried to address the issue last summer when he brought in Max Domi from Montreal.  While he was coming off of a down season, he was only a year removed from a 72-point season so there was optimism that he’d be able to bounce back.  A one-two punch of Dubois and Domi wouldn’t challenge for the best in the league but there seemed to be some legitimate offensive upside there.  Except that didn’t happen.  Dubois wanted out and was eventually obliged while Domi struggled even more than a year ago, putting up the lowest per-game numbers of his career while collecting just 24 points in 54 games.  To make matters worse, he spent time on the wing as well.

Now, their one-two punch is Roslovic, a player who had mostly been a winger in the NHL before getting to Columbus and Domi.  Boone Jenner is a capable third liner while Alexandre Texier has top-six upside but hasn’t put it all together.  There’s a case to be made here that they could use two impact centers but in a free agent market where there aren’t many available, that would be tough to do.  It may have to come from a trade but another notable addition down the middle is certainly required.

Pick A Goalie

The good news is that the Blue Jackets have a good goalie tandem in Joonas Korpisalo and Elvis Merzlikins.  It’s a homegrown duo and they combine for a $6.8MM cap hit which is the league median.  They don’t even have to worry about losing one to Seattle in expansion as Merzlikins is exempt having just come off his second NHL season.

The bad news is that both goalies are set to become unrestricted free agents next summer.  Speculatively, it stands to reason that neither of them will be content with being in a platoon beyond that as both have aspirations of being a starting goalie.  Both of them have shown flashes of that already.  At some point over the next year or so, they need to pick who they want to keep.

Having said that, the in-season trade market for rental goalies has been minimal for years now.  That probably isn’t going to change next year.  Accordingly, Kekalainen’s best chance at extracting reasonable value for one of them on the trade front would be over the next couple of months before money starts to be spent in free agency.  To that end, in his end-of-season media availability with reporters including Jeff Svoboda of the Blue Jackets’ team site, Merzlikins indicated that he’s expecting an uncertain summer with it seeming unlikely that both goalies will be content with the current situation.

As a result, that pick of who is going to be their goalie of the future may have to come sooner than later and could be dependent simply on if one is willing to sign now versus preferring to wait things out.  It’s certainly shaping up to be a very busy offseason for Columbus.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.  Cap information courtesy of CapFriendly.

John Davidson Returns To Columbus Blue Jackets

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The news broke late last night, but the move is now official. John Davidson is returning to the Columbus Blue Jackets as president of hockey operations and alternate governor on a five-year contract. The team has also signed general manager Jarmo Kekalainen to a contract extension through the 2024-25 season. Aaron Portzline of The Athletic reports that Davidson had three years remaining on his contract with the New York Rangers, who fired him earlier this year, while Kekalainen was signed through 2022-23 before the extension.

Club president Mike Priest released a statement:

John Davidson and Jarmo Kekalainen worked tirelessly and effectively together to transform our hockey club from a team with one Stanley Cup Playoffs appearance in 12 seasons to one that reached the postseason five times in seven years from 2013-20. This is an important time for our organization and having stability and proven leadership at the top of our hockey operations department is critical for us to do what we want to do, which is bring a Stanley Cup championship to Columbus. Signing Jarmo to an extension and then bringing J.D. back gives us the right people to address the opportunities and challenges before us and we couldn’t be more excited.

Almost exactly two years ago, Davidson resigned his post with the Blue Jackets to chase his dream job with the Rangers. At the time, he explained that a chance to return to New York, where he had spent so much of his playing and broadcasting career was one he “simply could not pass up.” After two relatively successful seasons helping to rebuild the team, he was fired along with general manager Jeff Gorton and head coach David Quinn. At the time of the dismissal, many in the hockey world expressed the notion that Davidson would not go unemployed for long.

So, just two weeks later, Davidson is in charge of an NHL franchise again, returning to Columbus where he spent seven years between 2012-2019. The Blue Jackets are in a period of transition after parting ways with John Tortorella and finishing in last place. Davidson and Kekalainen have a lot of work to do to right the ship, including a few difficult decisions on roster construction. Seth Jones, the team’s best player, is scheduled for unrestricted free agency after next season and will need a huge contract to stick around. Max Domi, Elvis Merzlikins, Joonas Korpisalo, Boone Jenner, and others are also ticketed for UFA status next summer, meaning the next 12 months could see a drastic reshaping of the Blue Jackets roster.

Mikhail Grigorenko Linked To KHL

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Mikhail Grigorenko’s second act in North America may wind up being shorter than his first.  According to a report from Sport-Express, the 27-year-old is expected to return to CSKA Moscow of the KHL with the team buying out Ivan Telegin’s contract to create cap space, a move that was made official earlier today.  Grigorenko spent the three seasons before this one with CSKA before deciding to give the NHL another try after things didn’t go well with Buffalo and Colorado in his first opportunity.  However, he didn’t do any better this time around, notching just four goals and eight assists in 32 games with the Blue Jackets this season while clearing waivers back in mid-March.  At this point of his career, a third tour of duty in the NHL would seem unlikely.

  • Sticking with the Blue Jackets, Daniel Zaar has left Rogle, the SHL team announced. However, it’s not to return to North America.  Instead, the 27-year-old told SportExpressen’s Johan Svensson and Linus Vedmar that he is off to the KHL to play with Torpedo.  Zaar was a 2012 sixth-round pick (152nd overall) and actually received an entry-level contract but opted to head back overseas when it expired back in 2017.  Columbus qualified him to retain his NHL rights but they will lose those in July when the calendar flips to begin the 2021-22 season.

Snapshots: Blues, Varlamov, Hurricanes, Tortorella

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The St. Louis Blues added their third player on the COVID-19 protocol list Saturday when leading scorer David Perron found himself on the list, but so far there are no concerns about cancelling practice or postponing games, according to Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic (subscription required).

“There is always concern when Players or Club staff test positive for COVID-19,” Daly wrote in an email. “The level of concern is always a function of the precise circumstances involved. “At the current time, there is no consideration being given to postponing games.”

The Blues held an optional skate Saturday with many veterans taking a maintenance day off, but flew to Denver after the practice to get ready for their playoff game Monday.

  • Newsday’s Andrew Gross reports that New York Islanders goaltender Semyon Varlamov will practice again on Monday before a decision is made regarding his status for Game 2. Varlamov missed Game 1 due to a lower-body injury, although head coach Barry Trotz said he was taken out of the lineup due to precautionary reasons. The coach said he had to make a decision Saturday night and chose to take Varlamov totally out of the lineup. Cory Schneider served as the backup to Ilya Sorokin, who led New York to a overtime victory Sunday.
  • Raleigh News & Observer’s Chip Alexander reports that several injured players were back on the ice Sunday for practice, including Jaccob Slavin, Brett Pesce and Cedric Paquette. Slavin was considered day-to-day with a lower-body injury and sat out the regular season finale. Pesce also sat out the regular season finale with an undisclosed injury. Paquette, on the other hand, had missed the last six games of the season with an undisclosed injury. Carolina faces off against Nashville on Monday.
  • The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline (subscription required) writes that former Columbus Blue Jackets head coach John Tortorella, who split with the Blue Jackets more than a week ago, tried to step down from his head coaching position last season. One main reason the veteran coach decided to come back for one final season as coach was due to the urging of Nick Foligno. The captain sat down with the coach and convinced him to give the veteran core one more chance.

Kekalainen: Blue Jackets Won't Risk Losing Jones For Nothing In Free Agency

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The 2019 offseason was a tough one for Columbus who saw several of their top veterans head elsewhere in Artemi Panarin, Matt Duchene, and Sergei Bobrovsky (among others as well).  Defenseman Seth Jones is a year away from being able to do the same but GM Jarmo Kekalainen told Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch that they won’t be allowing Jones to walk away for nothing, citing that he doesn’t see the team being in the same situation next season as they were back in 2019 when they pushed their chips to the table and had a star player who many expected to go to New York as Panarin eventually did.  For now, the focus will remain on working on a long-term extension for the 26-year-old who averaged more than 25 minutes a game for the third straight season.

Elsewhere in the Central:

  • Earlier this month, Red Wings winger Mathias Brome told Svenskafans’ Andreas Lundskog that he was open to returning overseas but wasn’t going to limit himself to going back to his native Sweden. It appears he’s zeroing in on the Swiss NLA as Aftonbladet’s Tomas Ros and Hans Abrahamsson report that Brome is expected to join Davos.  It was a disappointing first season in North America for the 26-year-old who managed just a goal and an assist in 26 games with Detroit this season despite logging a respectable 13:39 per night.  Brome is set to become a restricted free agent this summer but as he’s a year away from UFA eligibility based on his age, there’s a good chance he’ll be non-tendered if a deal overseas is finalized.
  • Despite missing two of the last three games due to an upper-body injury, Florida center Sam Bennett is available for the series opener against Tampa Bay, notes Jameson Olive of the Panthers’ team site. The 24-year-old made an immediate impact after being acquired from Calgary at the trade deadline, picking up six goals and nine assists in just ten games, beating his output with the Flames despite playing in 28 games more with Calgary.  Meanwhile, Olive also relayed (Twitter link) that winger Patric Hornqvist is ready to return after missing the final seven games of the regular season with an upper-body injury of his own.

Brad Shaw Not Returning To Columbus Blue Jackets

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It’s not just John Tortorella leaving the Columbus Blue Jackets coaching staff. The team announced today that assistant Brad Shaw will not return in 2021-22. No other coaching decisions have been made.

Shaw, 57, has been coaching professionally since his retirement from the NHL in 1999. He served as the head coach of the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks of the AHL for three seasons before joining the New York Islanders in 2005, where he quickly took over from the fired Steve Stirling. While he wasn’t given the permanent job with the Islanders following that season, he became a staple at the NHL level, serving as an assistant/associate coach with the St. Louis Blues for nearly a decade. Shaw joined the Blue Jackets’ staff in 2016 in Tortorella’s first full season and will leave the organization at the same time.

With his departure, it adds another potential head coaching name to the market this summer. In 2019, after the Blue Jackets swept the powerhouse Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round of the playoffs, Shaw told Don Brennan of the Ottawa Sun that he would like to be a head coach at the NHL again, but wasn’t focused on it. His name has been brought up over the last few seasons as a potential candidate, but it is unclear if he will be pursuing the current vacancies around the league.

For Columbus, there are still assistants leftover from the Tortorella group, but perhaps their fate won’t be decided until a new head coach is brought in.

Calvin Thurkauf Signs Multi-Year Deal In Switzerland

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If it was unclear about where Calvin Thurkauf stood in terms of his future with the Columbus Blue Jackets, it isn’t anymore. After spending the 2020-21 season on loan with his hometown club EV Zug, Thurkauf has opted to stay in his native Switzerland for the long haul. Fellow National League club HC Lugano has announced a three-year deal with the young forward, ensuring that he won’t be returning to Columbus any time soon, if at all.

Thurkauf, 23, was initially expected to return to the NHL once the season began earlier this season. The restricted free agent had signed with Zug in August, but upon agreeing to a new deal with the Blue Jackets in October, that became a loan with a recall option for Columbus. When they never exercised that option, many were skeptical about the young power forward’s place in the organization. There is no way of knowing whether the Blue Jackets were the ones who told Thurkauf to stay put or if he asked to be left in Switzerland, nor is it clear if Columbus was aware that Thurkauf had long-term interests in the National League or if this deal came as a surprise. What is clear is that the player-club relationship is on a multi-year pause, if not canceled for good. Thurkauf will be a restricted free agent again this summer and the Blue Jackets could opt to make him a qualifying offer in order to retain his rights. It could be that by the time the 2024 off-season rolls around, the then-27-year-old could have taken major steps in his development and become a player that Columbus would want to bring back. However, the team may also decide that Thurkauf is simply not focused on an NHL career and could cut ties this summer by declining to extend a QO.

There has to be some consideration that money was involved in Thurkauf’s decision as well. While financial terms were not disclosed, Lugano’s offer was enough to convince Thurkauf to leave Zug – his hometown team, his developmental program, and the recently-crowned National League champions. Perhaps it was also more enticing than a minimum NHL contract. Thurkauf also projects to join fellow former NHLers Mark Arcobello and Mikkel Boedker as the core of Lugano, whereas he would again be battling for a roster spot in Columbus. After three years in the pros, Thurkauf finally earned his NHL debut last season, but was held scoreless in a sheltered role in just three games. While the talented forward showed promise in the WHL and AHL, the club or the player – or both – may have doubted his NHL chops at this point his career, leading to the move overseas. Only time will tell whether the relationship, however fragmented, continues between the two side and if Thurkauf’s decision eventually leads to him becoming a more polished and well-rounded pro, capable of tackling a second chance in the NHL.

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