After exactly 11 years and two days, the page turned for the Blue Jackets on Thursday morning.
The team announced that the most successful general manager in team history, Jarmo Kekalainen, was relieved of his duties, ending an era of CBJ hockey. His tenure included such memorable accomplishments as five Stanley Cup Playoff appearances and the first two series wins in franchise history, but it ends amid what will be a fourth straight season without postseason hockey.
Not only was Kekalainen the longest-tenured general manager in CBJ history, he held his post third longest of the league’s GMs. That made it a difficult decision for team brass, including president of hockey operations John Davidson, but one the organization felt it had to make going into the trade deadline as well as another critical offseason.
“We just felt now is the time,” Davidson said at a news conference Thursday. “We have a lot ahead of us. We’ve had an up-and-down, at times turbulent season. I just think that going forward, now is the time to turn that page and go forward with all the decisions that we have to make that are ahead of us.
“We’ve also done some very good things this season. I’ve seen a lot of young players pop. We’re a tough out. There’s been too many outs, but we’ve improved in areas. But just, now is the time. This is the feeling and the decision that we made as a group.”
Davidson made it clear it was a difficult decision, and in many ways, rightfully so. The Blue Jackets have achieved the franchise’s most success under the league’s first European general manager, making playoff appearances 2014 and then 2017-20 as well as winning the organization’s first-ever postseason series with 2019’s epic upset of Tampa Bay in the first round.
The Blue Jackets also won a play-in series in 2020 vs. Toronto and pushed eventual Stanley Cup champions Pittsburgh (2017), Washington (2018) and Tampa Bay (2020) in the playoffs, but ultimately the most successful core in team history reached the end of its road and was disbanded by the summer of 2021.
Since then, the Blue Jackets have undertaken a rebuild that has featured five top-12 picks in the last three drafts, but success as of yet has been elusive while the youngsters adjust to the highest level.
Such 23-and-under players as Yegor Chinakhov, Kirill Marchenko, Dmitri Voronkov, Cole Sillinger, Kent Johnson, Adam Fantilli and David Jiricek have flashed their talent this season, but the team’s 16-26-10 record leaves the squad last in the Eastern Conference in points percentage and 29th among the 32 NHL teams.
The young talent – with more on the way, like standout junior defenseman Denton Mateychuk – is a blessing to build around, but the next step for the Jackets is to make sure the right mix is present to help the youngsters grow in a winning culture at the NHL level.
“The biggest plus for me for our team this season has been the young players,” Davidson said. “They’ve had ups and downs. They just do. It’s natural. Some of them aren’t strong enough physically yet, but they’re playing. Some aren’t used to the grind. They’ve never been in a grind where you are going to play an 82-game season.
“But I’ve seen good things. I’ve seen a lot of young players come in here that are doing a lot of good things. That gets me excited. That’s where we are right now, and when the new person comes in, he’s going to be given the ability to make decisions. That’s going to be his job. (Team president Mike Priest) and I will support this person as much as we possibly can, and we’ll work with them.”
Davidson and the team’s current hockey operations department will steer the ship right now, but the president of hockey operations said the team will consider options from outside the organization for the full-time job. Davidson said he and Priest will present a final decision on a new general manager candidate to ownership for approval when the time is right, but there is no timetable for a final decision to be made.
When it comes to interest in the job, Davidson said he’s already started to hear from people around the league who are excited about the core the Blue Jackets have created.
“I think we’ll get a lot of calls, I really do,” Davidson said. “In fact, I’ve already had a couple. It’s a good situation here with ownership, the city itself, with the amount of talent that we have already assembled. It’s not like starting from the bottom. So I think there will be a lot of interest.”
Kekalainen was named the third general manager in Blue Jackets history Feb. 13, 2013, and Columbus amassed a 410-362-97 record in 869 games under his watch. The team’s four best seasons by points percentage occurred in Kekalainen’s tenure, including the lone 50-win season during the 2016-17 campaign.
In all, per CapFriendly, Kekalainen made 79 trades, drafted 74 players and signed 251 contracts as GM of the team, including transactions that impact every player on the roster.
“Jarmo either drafted, traded or signed everyone in that (dressing) room,” captain Boone Jenner said. “We’re all in there. We take responsibility for (the move) too in where we are as a team, but obviously we want to thank him for the relationship and the work over the last 11 years. Since I’ve been here, it’s been with him. We’ve been through ups and downs with him. It’s a tough day.”
Davidson felt the same way. He hired Kekalainen in 2013 and has since spent nearly a decade working with him in Columbus. On a personal level, it was not easy to make the decision, but the team’s top hockey officer felt it had to be done.
“He’s an honest guy,” Davidson said. “He has a great family. You know, when you talk about trades with people, if you’re an honest guy and you have a wonderful family, that tells you something about the individual. I know for a lot of us, and rightly so, it’s about results. It’s a business. But there’s also human beings involved.
“I knew when we brought Jarmo in that some day this might happen. It happened. It’s not a lot of fun, but that’s hockey. It’s pro sports. On we go.”
