Columbus Blue Jackets: Grading Jarmo Kekalainen’s Off-Season

With a little bit of tweaking to the roster, the Columbus Blue Jackets enter the new season with better health and some exciting new pieces. While the summer was mostly positive, there were serious mistakes made as well. Today we’re grading Jarmo Kekalainen’s off-season moves.

Jarmo gave himself quite a punch list for the summer, after the team finished 31st out of 32 teams in the NHL, with one of the worst seasons in franchise history (59 points). The Jackets were crushed by injuries, but that situation only exacerbated the team’s overall shortcomings. They needed better coaching. They needed better defensemen. And, they still lacked talent and depth at the center ice position.

We’re fortunate to have an active GM in Columbus, and Jarmo wasted no time in getting right to work. Just hours after dropping their final game of the regular season, the team relieved head coach Brad Larsen of his duties, after losing 102 of 164 regular season games with him behind the bench.

If you followed the team last season, this was absolutely a necessary move. While you can hardly blame the entire season on the coach – especially when the already thin roster was decimated with injuries – it was obvious that things weren’t going to work out. When one of your veteran players questions the team’s practice plan or its intensity, you have some serious underlying issues.

The team seemed to be dragging their feet during their head coaching search. Rumored coach after rumored coach were slowly picked up by other teams, one by one, until whispers turned into serious talk about the Jackets hiring Mike Babcock to replace Larsen. Those rumors eventually came true when, on July 1st, the Jackets formally introduced Mike as their new head coach. He seemed to be their guy all along, and the only hold up was in waiting for his contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs to expire.

The move shouldn’t have been a complete surprise. After all, it’s a fairly common practice for a team to go from one extreme (Brad Larsen, the nice guy coach) to the other (Mike Babcock, the tyrant coach). We all had our concerns, but in theory, it seemed like it might work. A young team with a ton of skill and upside playing for a head coach who could strategize with the best of them. But as we all know, it blew up in spectacular fashion, and Babs was gone before he could even have one single on-ice practice with the team.

Jarmo’s grade for the head coaching moves: F

There’s no room for debate here. While they landed on a solid guy that I believe can be a good coach here (Pascal Vincent), the road to this point might have been the all-time low point in the history of this organization. It was embarrassing for the team, the fans, and most importantly, anyone involved in CBJ management. It’s a really low “F” grade for me.

The most important area of improvement to the actual roster: acquiring legitimate NHL defensemen. The Blue Jackets found themselves shelled a lot last season because the defense corps on a lot of given nights, was made up of 1-2 guys best suited for third pairing minutes; and a handful of guys probably more suited for AHL minutes.

Jarmo was quick to act here as well. While the Stanley Cup Finals were still being played, he made two separate deals to acquire top-four defensemen, first acquiring Ivan Provorov from the Philadelphia Flyers; then Damon Severson from the New Jersey Devils just two days later.

To acquire Provorov, the Jackets sent a 2023 first round pick (#22 overall – Oliver Bonk) and a conditional second round pick to the Flyers; while the LA Kings got involved in the trade as well, retaining 30% of Provorov’s salary to help facilitate the deal and clear up some cap space of their own. This move helps the Jackets replace beloved defender Vladislav Gavrikov, who was sent to the Kings at the trade deadline for that very same first round pick.

Still not finished shoring up the back-end, Jarmo went out two days later and acquired Damon Severson from the New Jersey Devils in a rare sign-and-trade. By dealing a third round pick, he was able to keep Severson from hitting the open market – while also giving him an eighth year that no other team would have been able to offer. For the second year in a row, he boasted that they were able to acquire their most coveted free agent on the market (the other being Erik Gudbranson in 2022).

The two defensemen share one common theme that was probably held in very high regard by the Jackets: they have been able to stay remarkably healthy throughout their careers. Both guys are legitimate top-four defensemen in this league, and immediately give the Jackets a viable second defense pair, if that’s how they’re used.

Most importantly, these moves buy the Jackets some time to allow their prospects to develop. We were hitting a crossroads this summer, where the team needs to contend soon; or they’ll risk making the locals restless. But, the team also wasn’t ready, as constructed, to contend for a playoff spot. By picking up two very good NHL defensemen, Jarmo may have bought this team’s top prospects one more year to mature – which often makes all the difference.

Jarmo’s grade for acquiring Provorov and Severson: B

The only thing that keeps these moves from being an “A” for me is Severson’s contract. I do think that signing a guy like that to an 8-year deal at a cap hit north of $6m, is a risky move. Already with Erik Gudbranson, Andrew Peeke, Nick Blankenburg, and Adam Boqvist in the mix, what does that do to top prospects David Jiricek and Corson Ceulemans? Both guys play on the right side, and at some point, you need a spot for them.