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Columbus Karma - Feb. 27, 2023 – Vol. 76, Issue 10 - Ken Campbell
It's safe to say the Columbus Blue Jackets did not land the most coveted free agent on the market last summer just to have him grab the keys, jump behind the wheel and steer the bus directly to the Tankville Turnpike. But as the all-star break came and went, that’s where they found themselves, in first place in the Greatest-Connor-To-Come-Along-Since-McDavid Lottery Sweepstakes. Unlike other teams that will remain nameless, (cough, Chicago…cough, Arizona), the Jackets didn’t draw it up this way. Despite signing Johnny Gaudreau to a seven-year deal, they’re just really, really bad, and they’ve had a ton of terrible luck when it comes to injuries.
But you know what they say, when life hands you a Zach Werenski torn labrum, you use it to take an Andrew Peeke at the future, or something like that. And when you’re armed with the knowledge that you’re almost certain to add another elite player to what is looking like a very promising group of prospects, well, at least that makes losing players – and games – a little bit easier. And sometimes on a magical Saturday night, just to prove that life isn’t horrible, you get the game-winner against one of the league’s best teams in the third period when a shot from a 19-year-old Cole Sillinger deflects off the stick of a 20-year-old Kent Johnson.
“I’ve never seen 320 man-games lost to injury in my life, so that has got a bit to do with it,” said Columbus GM Jarmo Kekalainen. “We’ve done the research, and we found that if you go over 300 man-games lost to injury, you basically have no chance of making the playoffs. It obviously depends on who is injured, but when it’s your top defenseman (Werenski) and your leading scorer from last season (Jakub Voracek) being out for the whole year, that doesn’t help us.”
The Montreal Canadiens would like a word. The Canadiens set a record for man-games lost to injury last season, going over the 700 mark, and they finished in the same place the Blue Jackets found themselves in two-thirds of the way through the season. And like the Habs, the Blue Jackets and their fans could really use the NHL draft lottery doing them a solid and giving them the No. 1 pick. Not only do they deserve it because they are not trying to lose, this is a franchise that could use a little bit of good karma.
The most recent and only time the Blue Jackets chose first overall in the NHL draft, they selected Rick Nash in 2002 – and that seemed to work out all right. Coincidentally, Nash is now the Blue Jackets’ director of player development, meaning he’s responsible for taking the raw materials that Kekalainen and his staff have compiled and turning them into NHL players. And if the Blue Jackets were able to get Connor Bedard, it would be a franchise-altering development, one that would take care of many of their offensive concerns for years. And that would dovetail nicely with the group of defense-heavy prospects the Blue Jackets have amassed.
To be clear, the same way the Blue Jackets didn’t set out to tank the season, Kekalainen and amateur scouting director Ville Siren did not intend it to be this way. When David Jiricek was still on the board in the 2022 draft and it was Columbus’ turn with the sixth overall pick – the gift that keeps giving from the Seth Jones trade in 2021 – they couldn’t resist. Nor should they have, judging by the fact that Jiricek is putting up a monster rookie season in the AHL and was named the best defenseman and an all-star at the 2023 World Junior Championship. Then when their own 12th pick came along and Denton Mateychuk was available, they took another blueliner. Jiricek and Mateychuk are now the Jackets’ top two prospects and are joined by fellow defensemen Stanislav Svozil and Corson Ceulemans in the top four. They took the latter with their third 2021 first-rounder – after Johnson and Sillinger. All told, five of the Blue Jackets’ top 10 prospects patrol the blueline.
“We feel pretty good about some of the guys that we’ve drafted in the last couple of years,” Kekalainen said. “The whole goal is not that they just become NHL players but impact players. Going back to my days with Marshall Johnston (in Ottawa), who is as good a player evaluator as I have ever seen, he always said, ‘You have to take the best player available because, at the end of the day, especially if the difference is big, you’re going to regret it if you go any other way.”
So that’s how the Blue Jackets became the first team in modern NHL draft history to take two defensemen within the first 12 picks. But that’s only part of the story. With Werenski and Jake Bean contributing to Columbus having 360 man-games lost to injury by mid-February, the easiest thing to do would’ve been to put the emotional and aggressive Jiricek into the lineup as a full-time NHLer. No disparaging the Jackets’ defense corps, but there’s little doubt he would’ve been able to play had the team decided to baptize him with flames. But Kekalainen and his staff made the deliberate decision to keep Jiricek in the AHL, where he’s easily leading all rookie defensemen in points per game and learning to tame the beast within, which, by the way, is a great problem to have with a young player. He’s also learning to better read plays in the defensive zone and kill penalties.
To have thrown Jiricek into the NHL as a teenager would have exposed him to a team that loses a lot and put him in a situation he likely wouldn’t have been ready to handle. That might be all right for a forward, but it can do irreparable harm to a defenseman. Kekalainen goes back to the 2008 draft, when he was the assistant GM of the St. Louis Blues and they took Alex Pietrangelo fourth overall. Instead of elevating him to the NHL immediately, they sent him back to junior for two more seasons. The Buffalo Sabres brought Tyler Myers, who they chose at No. 12, to the NHL after just one season, and Myers went on to win the 2010 Calder Trophy. “We were getting criticized a lot for taking Pietrangelo instead of Myers, but now it looks pretty good,” Kekalainen said. “It’s important that you always have your projection and you stick to that. You have to stick to who has the biggest upside and potential to make that impact, and then you just have to wait for it. It might take more than one or two years in some cases.”
THE WHOLE GOAL IS NOT THAT THEY JUST BECOME NHL PLAYERS BUT IMPACT PLAYERS – COLUMBUS GM JARMO KEKALAINEN
Chinakhov's Agent Reiterates Wish For A Trade
Yegor Chinakhov's agent, Shumi Babaev, reiterated Yegor Chinakhov's position in an <a href="https://bookmaker-ratings.ru/news/agent-chinahova-budem-nadeyat-sya-chto-egor-nachnet-sezon-v-drugoj-komande-nhl/">interview with RB Sport today</a>.
Rounding out the top five behind the quartet of D-men is 22-year-old Dmitri Voronkov, who is putting up good numbers in the KHL and has already represented Russia in both the Olympics and the World Championship. Voronkov’s contract with Ak Bars Kazan expires after this season, but if it were only so easy to get Russian prospects to North America these days. But the Blue Jackets are envisioning the 6-foot-4 center who can put up points joining Johnson and Sillinger to form a potent 1-2-3 down the middle. “We’re not sure when he’s going to come, but we’re hoping at some point he gets out of there and comes here because he’s a force in the KHL,” said Kekalainen of Voronkov. “He’s big, and he plays a very aggressive style, plays the game the North American way. He’s a guy who could surprise a lot of people.”
And the Blue Jackets could use more of that, you know, the way Kirill Marchenko is surprising the heck out of people this season at the age of 22. A second-round pick in 2018, Marchenko is another Russian player who took a few years to find his way to North America, but he’s been worth the wait. He won’t win the Calder this season, but the sniper had a good bead on the Cy Young, with 14 goals and one assist through his first 34 NHL games. As much as teams need to hit on their high picks, the real success comes with the later picks, something they’re hoping will pan out for Svozil, who captained Czechia’s WJC team and was second in the WHL in points per game among defensemen. And it would be easy and convenient to attribute his 50 assists (in 41 games) to feeding Bedard in Regina, a notion that isn’t disputed by Kekalainen, who said, “Ask Connor Bedard whether Svozil is a good passer. He is as good a prospect as we have in our system as far as upside goes.”
Great idea. So, Connor Bedard, is Svozil a good passer? “He’s like a quarterback,” Bedard said. “For me, to be able to play with a guy like that, it makes it a lot easier. The passes he makes, you’re thinking, ‘There’s no way he’s passing, he’s going to shoot,’ and then he switches up at the last second. It doesn’t look like he’s looking, but he finds the open spot. His hockey IQ is pretty incredible.”
ASK CONNOR BEDARD WHETHER SVOZIL IS A GOOD PASSER. HE IS AS GOOD A PROSPECT AS WE HAVE IN OUR SYSTEM AS FAR AS UPSIDE GOES – JARMO KEKALAINEN
86 Days Until Opening Night At Nationwide Arena: Kirill Marchenko
With 86 days to go until opening night at Nationwide Arena, there's only one person to talk about - Kirill Marchenko.
When asked whether, given the standings, he and Svozil ever talk about what the future might hold, Bedard laughed. “I don’t really look at the standings too much,” he said, “but he’ll bug me about it here and there.”
And while getting Bedard would be the ultimate boost, the Blue Jackets might also get a lift from the bottom five on their prospect list, which includes some intriguing players in Luca Del Bel Belluz (great name), Jordan Dumais and James Malatesta. All were better than point-per-game players in major junior, with Dumais the only player not named Bedard to score 100 points in the CHL this season through mid-February. Dumais and Malatesta, both QMJHLers, are on the small side at 5-foot-9, but there is definitely a place for players of that stature who can produce offense and handle themselves. “He’s a driven guy,” said Kekalainen of Malatesta. “He has the body to play in the NHL and the physical aspects of the game to play in the NHL right now. He’d probably be one of the strongest guys on our team.”
The Jackets got Jiricek, Mateychuk, Del Bel Belluz and Dumais with their first four picks in 2022, and they’re hoping they hit on each one of them. If they do, getting four full-time NHLers out of the same draft would be a huge haul. Jiricek and Mateychuk both look like locks, but Columbus is looking for big contributions from the likes of Dumais, too. “He’s going to have to get stronger and quicker, but to have that kind of instinct to play the game is pretty remarkable,” Kekalainen said. “We saw it right away in the fall at the (NHL prospect tournament) in Traverse City. You know, the big thing I’ve noticed is that the guys who are really driven to get to the next level, you can kind of see that as soon as two months after you draft them. You can see this young man is really driven.”
Like the 31 other teams in the NHL, Columbus hopes the day comes when it suffers the first-world problem of having too many prospects for too few spots on the roster. And like every other team, they know they have to play the long game. That’s a tough sell to a fan base that has endured too many lean seasons, but all of this could be accelerated to breakneck speed with the addition of a generational player in Bedard. Even generational players cannot singlehandedly deliver a franchise to the promised land, but they can certainly be at the front of the bus.
Where Could Chinakhov Land If Traded?
Yesterday, the Columbus Blue Jackets fan base was shocked by the news that Yegor Chinakhov is looking for a new place to play. His agent took to social media to explain the situation and the differences between him and the coaching staff. Now it has everyone thinking, where could he end up if traded. So, let's take a look at a few trade destinations that could make sense for Chinakhov.
Does Columbus Have A Communication Issue Between Coaches And Players?
Former Blue Jacket defenseman Jordan Harris gave an <a href="https://www.bostonherald.com/2025/07/17/jordan-harris-relishing-chance-to-catch-on-with-bruins/amp/">interview recently with the Boston Herald</a>, and he said something about the Blue Jacket coaches that could be a cause for concern.
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The Hockey News has released its archive to all THN subscribers: 78 years of history, stories, and features.
What Is Yegor Chinakhov's Trade Value?
With the news today that Yegor Chinakhov has requested a trade away from the Columbus Blue Jackets, many are left to wonder what his worth is.
Yegor Chinakhov Requests Trade?
Per Shumi Babaev on X, his client, Yegor Chinakhov has reauested a trade out of Columbus.
From The Archive: Columbus For The Cup!
The Hockey News has released its archive to all THN subscribers: 76 years of history, stories, and features.