Five moments that stood out for the Columbus Blue Jackets this season
By Curtis Deem
Jarmo Kekalainen is removed as General Manager...
The writing was on the wall before the season even started.
The Blue Jackets spent money and assets last season like a team that wanted to make the playoffs. Jarmo Kekalainen came straight out and said as much.
They even went out and hired a coach with a historical resume. But it all blew up in their faces, just days before training camp; when that coach was forced to resign due to mistreatment of players he hadn't yet coached.
All of this meant that, if Kekalainen was to have a future as GM of this team - they needed to storm out of the gates and win hockey games.
That never happened. With the team sitting 16-26-10 (.307), the Jackets fired Kekalainen on February 15th. This ended an 11-year tenure for the league's only European GM.
Simply put, it just had to be done. The team was obviously fractured. They couldn't fire the new head coach at that point. And, you just can't trade the entire roster.
Kekalainen took the fall for this team's continued struggles. The general thought around the fanbase was that a move would wait until the offseason, but things were just too bad here.
By making the move in February, the Jackets opened up the process to a wide variety of candidates. Here we are more than two months later, and they still haven't even begun to dial in on their preferred candidate. At least, not in public.
I would expect this hiring to be made fairly soon, to give the incoming GM a chance to restructure this roster as they see fit. The NHL Draft is just over two months away, and they will want to have all of their scouting meetings before then as well.
For me, it was a sad end to the most memorable era in Blue Jackets hockey. Jarmo did a lot for this organization, and for hockey in Central Ohio. While his ability to construct a winning roster can certainly be questioned, we cannot question his commitment or effort towards building a winner here.
I'm thankful that we were allowed to have Jarmo as our GM, even if it was for a little bit too long.
We were given one final great moment this season, let's take a look.