SvoNotes is a weekly column by BlueJackets.com reporter Jeff Svoboda.
When Erik Gudbranson first arrived in Florida as a rookie with a lot of expectations, the defenseman stepped onto the ice most nights in the 2011-12 season paired with Ed Jovanovski.
That’s fairly typical in the NHL, putting the highly touted rookie – Gudbranson had just been chosen third overall in the 2010 draft – with the veteran, as Jovanovski was in year 16 of an 18-year career in which he went from Florida’s great young star to a veteran who knew the ropes.
Gudbranson learned the NHL from Jovanovski early in his career, and now, more than a decade later, Gudbranson is the grizzled veteran on the Blue Jackets.
Even if he doesn’t always want to admit it.
“It happens fast,” he said with a smile and a laugh earlier this season. “Somehow, I’m the oldest guy on the team. I didn’t think it was going to happen this soon, really.”
The white flecks in his beard make Gudbranson look like he’s reaching retirement age, but the reality is he turned just 32 on Sunday. Old is now a relative term in today’s younger-by-the-day NHL, and Gudbranson is the oldest player by more than a year in the CBJ dressing room.
And while Gudbranson may not quite believe it, he’s embraced it. His 13 years of experience have allowed him to see just about every circumstance that can happen at the NHL level, and on a young team that’s going through the process of learning how to win, Gudbranson has become a go-to voice in the CBJ locker room.
“That’s the beauty of playing in this league,” he said. “It’s been a pretty long career – not super long, but I’ve picked up little things here and there. If you notice something that is a trend, I have definitely (spoken up) and enjoy doing it.”
Gudbranson’s guidance has become even more important of late as the Blue Jackets leadership council has taken some hits. At the start of the season, Gudbranson was named an alternate captain for road games along with Sean Kuraly (home games) to help captain Boone Jenner and Zach Werenski, but of late, Jenner, Werenski and Kuraly all have been out because of injury.
Gudbranson has been around long enough to know that he’s not expected to change anything in his leadership style in such a situation, but it also feels like this is a natural time to be more of a pronounced voice in the locker room.
When he arrived in Columbus a year ago, Gudbranson was on the eighth team of his NHL career, and it took some time to figure out the lay of the land and the personalities in the team’s locker room. There was also a natural transition period on the ice that happens for any veteran who signs a long-term deal in free agency.
He earned more and more ice time as last season went on and skated in a career-best 21:18 per game, in part because of injuries, and this year his game has reached another level. Gudbranson is in the midst of a career offensive season – with a 3-10-13 line in 38 games, he’s already tied for the second most points in his NHL career – but he’s also been a strong player in the defensive zone and a much-needed physical deterrent when need be.
A perfect example of his brand of leadership came last month when the Blue Jackets were playing at Buffalo. Columbus won that game going away by a 9-4 score, but that didn’t stop Gudbranson from laying the body on the line late in the third period when the Sabres were on the power play. Multiple times, Tage Thompson loaded up his 100-mph slap shot from the left circle, just to see Gudbranson get in the way to block his shots.
As the veteran defenseman hobbled to the CBJ bus after the game, Pascal Vincent couldn’t help but rave about those actions at the postgame press conference. Speaking more recently, the head coach said he sees things coming together for Gudbranson to be a vocal piece of the room.
“If your game is not supporting your words or your actions, it's not as powerful,” Vincent said. “He's been good on the ice. He's been good during games. He's been good in the room. He's our oldest player. He's all in.
“He's a mature man, a very smart man and he takes his role seriously. He's a good leader in the room.”
Werenski agrees. The CBJ alternate captain is famously even-keeled, and his greatest strength is that his temperature rarely changes from one moment to the next. It’s a good contrast to someone like Gudbranson, whose style of leadership is much more on his sleeve.
“I think I’m not the most vocal leader in the room, so having a guy like him and Kurls, guys that speak up a lot and say the right things, it’s huge for this group,” Werenski said. “We’re obviously a young team. Guys like that are so important in building what we want to build here in terms of culture. Obviously sacrificing his body on the ice, big blocks, that mean, tough game down low, what he says in the room and the type of person he is, it’s good for this group.”
Gudbranson is in the second year of a four-year deal he signed in the summer of 2022, allowing him something he’s rarely had in his career – security. For someone who has bounced around the league at times, his ability to settle in has allowed him to feel more comfortable on and off the ice, and he’s filled a big need for the Blue Jackets.
“I feel better for sure,” Gudbranson said. “I feel like the way my career has gone, I had that, ‘What’s coming next?’ thought often, and that’s left my mind now, which is nice. My family is settled at home. That’s a huge one for me. Obviously knowing the organization and the people around, I definitely feel more comfortable this year.”
Learning from the Jets
Vincent’s trip to Winnipeg this past week was a homecoming, as he spent 10 years with the Jets organization.
In those five years with the club as an assistant and five more as the head coach of the organization’s AHL team, Vincent became close with many of the players and people who have helped build a squad that was atop the NHL in points percentage when the teams met Tuesday.
While Vincent is now in his third season with the Blue Jackets, his work in Winnipeg made him one of the people who helped turn the Jets into a juggernaut. There have been some key deals along the way, but like most successful NHL organizations, the backbone of the team is a homegrown core that has been together for a while and experienced the ups and downs of what it takes to build success.
Winnipeg has made five playoff appearances in the last six seasons and is clearly set for another. While the Jets haven’t gotten yet to the top of the mountain, it’s clear they’ve built a culture of expectations and winning.
Which, as you might expect, is what Vincent is trying to create in Columbus as well.
“I worked for that organization for 10 years, developing the young players and working with the leadership group, but their style of play is similar to what I'm looking to do here over time,” Vincent said in the wake of the Jets’ 5-0 blanking of the Jackets. “Part of that is the confidence that they play (with). I mean, they’re loose right now, but they’re playing a tight game. At the end of the game, their captain makes a play, and he’s not happy with it. The game is 5-0, and he goes back to the bench and he’s not happy. So they’re not taking anything for granted.
“That mind-set is what I’m hoping to achieve. Not that we don’t compete; don’t get me wrong. But it’s just, they’re at a different level. They've been working together for years now. They've been through playoffs rounds, some disappointment. Now they're at the stage where they're more mature.”
On Tuesday night, Winnipeg dressed eight forwards who are age 27 or above, as well as five defenseman and a starting goalie that fit that bill. It’s not so much a team of superstars – though such names as Kyle Connor, Mark Schiefele and Josh Morrissey are elite players – as a squad that is clearly on the same page and pulling for a common goal.
Overseeing a team like that has to be a coach’s dream, and it’s not something that can be forced. There’s some skin in the game that’s been built, as former CBJ coach John Tortorella used to say, and it’s not the kind of thing that can be manufactured; it builds through shared experiences, good and bad.
“There's nothing except for time that will get us to that level,” Vincent said. “And so it was a good game for us as far as evaluating our team and where we want to be, the style of play.”
So, can the Blue Jackets get there? There won’t be shortcuts along the way, but Vincent believes the foundation is being laid right now.
"I think so,” he said. “I believe so. Going back to my Winnipeg years, the first thing that I remember is the players were coachable. They want to get better, and we have that here. They’re coachable. They want to get better. They’re all in. We don’t play a perfect game, don’t get me wrong. But the intent is good.”
