Blackhawks Seth Jones Frustrated With Losing: "I Really Didn't Want To Rebuild..."

Jones, one of the NHL's highest-paid players, just finished the second season in a lucrative long-term contract with Chicago. The Blackhawks blue line anchor wants to win sooner than later.

Blackhawks defenseman Seth Jones is one of the NHL's highest-paid players, but that's not enough to make him happy. 

Chicago's monster minutes eater and blue line anchor earned $12.5 million between a base salary and bonuses in 2023-24. According to Forbes, that put Jones in seventh place for compensation among NHLers.

The 29-year-old has security, too. The mobile 6-foot-4 D-man just completed the second season of an eight-year contract extension that pays an average annual salary (AAV) of $9.5 million.

Jones signed his current deal on July 23, 2021, just after then-Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman acquired him in a package from Columbus. But if Jones could ink the long-term pact all over again, he hinted he might have second thoughts.

He believed he was coming to a Chicago team that would rebuild on the fly under Bowman and at least – kind of, sort of – contend for the playoffs or better. But Bowman resigned on Oct. 26, 2021 in the wake of the Brad Aldrich sexual assault scandal.

Enter Kyle Davidson as interim, then full-fledged GM. The Blackhawks went into complete teardown mode, moving young players like Alex DeBrincat and Brandon Hagel for top draft assets and rebuilding from the ground up. Jonathan Toews stopped playing without officially retiring. Patrick Kane, set to become at UFA, was dealt to the New York Rangers.

That all began weeks after Jones started his first season in Chicago, 2021-22.

"I'll be honest, if you could see into the future three months, you know in the position I was in, I don't know if... " Jones said. "This is a great organization, obviously, but I really didn't want to rebuild, you know, when I left Columbus.

"I was coming to a team that had a lot of great young players, that we were building towards something I felt like," he added. "I think a lot of things happened away from hockey in the organization that they kind of had to re-route and take a different approach."

On the ice, Jones has embraced his role with Chicago, joining veteran Connor Murphy to anchor a defense corps loaded with several waves of talented kids. That's topped by Jones' frequent partner last season, Alex Vlasic, and smooth-skating 19-year-old Kevin Korchinski.

Jones was fourth in the league with 25:29 of ice time per game. He came on strong in the second half after returning from a shoulder injury, shot more and finished with eight goals and 23 assists in 67 games. He scored all of his goals and had 20 points in the last 37 contests of the season.

But Jones, the No. 4 overall draft pick in 2013, by Nashville, just wants to win. Now.

"I think when you're my age or Nick's (Foligno) age you want to win. And it's frustrating when you want that and you don't know what to do about it."

Jones had a message to management and teammates: Let's get moving.

"Obviously there's different expectations when it comes to management and when it comes to the players," he said. "We want to see results now. You know we're not as patient as they are. We don't play this game forever. You know they're in the game a lot longer than we are. 

"And so that it a tough thing to balance, and not getting frustrated with the mistakes that are going to be inevitable with a young team. That's another challenge me, personally, had to deal with.

Like Foligno, Jones wants changes on the Blackhawks to accelerate the rebuild.

"I would go tell management today, go sign a bunch of free agents," Jones added. "Or go do this or go do that. But it's not up to us, it's up to them."

Davidson has lot of cap space for now and plans on signing UFAs and/or making deals to bolster the roster. It's just too early to say who will be available, a good fit and want to come to Chicago. 

Jones, Foligno and other veterans think the Blackhawks need more than scoring and skill to support Connor Bedard and other kids. Chicago should seek out "identity pieces." Jones described them as players who work hard on a third or fourth line to help the team win and don't fret about ice time or their own points.

"Listen, I respect what Kyle, Norm (associate GM Mciver) and everyone's doing in the organization," Jones said. "I think it's going to be a successful organization again and get where we want to be again. 

"But yeah, it's definitely been a tough three years, as you probably know. You're watching it too, right?"