Columbus Blue Jackets GM Candidates: Mathieu Darche

The Columbus Blue Jackets fired Jarmo Kekäläinen last week to many people's surprise, or not. Many thought a move like that was more of an off-season move, but here we are talking about his replacement. 

John Davidson is the acting GM for the Jackets, but it sounds like AGM's Josh Flynn and Basil McRae are working with Davidson in that role. 

With Davidson saying in his press conference that they would initially look outside of the organization, many names for GM immediately started popping up. 

On Wednesday in Elliotte Friedman's 32 Thoughts, he said the following, 

Sounds like Columbus has about eleventy-billion names on its initial list of managerial contenders. That’s never a bad idea. Cast a wide net and see where it takes you. As mentioned last weekend, I don’t believe it is essential to have previous GM experience. But I do think they will want someone who’s been around a little bit. 

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One of those names is Mathieu Darche. Darche has a history with Columbus as he was an original Blue Jacket. Darche played nine games in the CBJ's inaugural season and totaled 24 games in a Columbus jersey over three seasons. He also played for the AHL's Syracuse Crunch during those three seasons and had 149 points.

Darche has spent the past five seasons as the Director of Hockey Operations for the Tampa Bay Lightning. In 2022, he added Assistant General Manager to his job duties. So although he hasn't had GM experience, he's learning under Julien BriseBois. The Bolts have won multiple Stanley Cups under BriseBois and are consistently in the hunt every year. So the experience Darche is getting is extremely valuable. 

THN Pittsburgh wrote a piece on Darche in May of 2023 about their GM opening and what he could bring to the table. Check that out here. 

Darche seems to be well respected around the league and has worked for one of the most successful organizations in recent years. Could this be his time to shine? All jokes aside about how Tampa is viewed when it comes to the salary cap, they obviously know how to work the system, and Darche was right in the middle of that. 

Mathieu Darche Résumé

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Mathieu Darche doesn't have too many years of experience, but who he's worked for and who he's worked under is huge, and that can't be discounted. 

The Columbus Blue Jackets would benefit from that experience and should take a long, hard look at him to be their next General Manager. 

What's Next - The Jackets will play the Buffalo Sabres tonight at 7 p.m. at Nationwide Arena. 

More From THN Columbus

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