Seth Jones 'extremely excited' to join Panthers, will be eased into team's defensive systems
Panthers defenseman Seth Jones takes part in his first morning skate since being acquired by Florida from Chicago. (Florida Panthers)Seth Jones looked right at home as he took the ice for the first time wearing a Florida Panthers sweater on Monday morning in Fort Lauderdale.
The veteran blueliner made no secret about his desire to leave Chicago and join a playoff team.
Jones, the former 4th Overall Pick and four-time All-Star, signed a massive 8-year, $76 million contract with the Blackhawks back in the summer of 2021.
At the time, Chicago was trying to re-tool in hopes of keeping their run of success going.
That 2021 roster featured names like Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Alex DeBrincat, Brandon Hagel, Dylan Strome and Marc-Andre Fleury in goal, so Jones certainly couldn’t be blamed for putting all his eggs in Chicago’s basket.
Alas, the Blackhawks ultimately blew things up and shifted to rebuilding the franchise from the ground floor.
That didn’t sync up well with Jones and his long-term deal.
Fast forward to now, nearly four years later, and it looks like Jones will finally get what he was looking for when he initially signed his contract: an extended run with a team legitimately competing for the Stanley Cup.
“I wanted to play for a contender and Florida was at the top of my list when it came to that,” Jones said Monday.
Generally, moves made at or around the NHL Trade Deadline tend to be short-term deals featuring players on expiring contracts.
They are the easiest to move with the least amount of baggage for teams looking to take a swing ahead of the playoffs.
Jones deal is not one of those.
He still has three years remaining, after this season, on a contract that carries a $9.5 million AAV (average annual value), though Chicago took some of that sting away by retaining about $2.5 million of that per season in the trade.
This move wasn’t made to only improve Florida’s short-term outlook. Jones is here for the long haul, and that’s what all parties involved are quite happy with.
“I’m extremely excited, it puts a smile on your face,” Jones said. “You watch it on TV when you're not in the playoffs, and you just wish that you were there playing. I got a taste with Bill (Zito) in Columbus, we had a couple good years there. But I think just getting that feeling again of playing meaningful hockey, meaningful games in March, April, May, and hopefully June again for us. I think there's just a heightened pressure, a heightened sense of preparing for those games, but it's great. You want to be there, you want to be on the biggest stage playing and you want to make a difference.”
In terms of fit, Jones and the Panthers appear likely to go tougher as well as peas and carrots.
He’s a big, ranging defenseman that can move the puck better than most and has above average skills in terms of stickwork and hockey IQ.
Through 42 games with a stinky Chicago team so far this season, Jones has racked up 7 goals and 27 points on 81 shots on goal.
“The offensive part is there, but he wasn’t brought in for that,” said Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice. “The idea was that he could play our game and he could excel at our game. He's a big man that covers an awful lot of ice. He's got lots of experience, he's got hands that can make a play, but we're not going to ask him to make a play 60 feet away, just some short area plays. We just think he's a really good fit.”
As Maurice eluded, Jones is going to be eased into the mix with Florida.
The systems that Florida employes, in terms of their style of playing, are completely different than what Jones was asked to do in Chicago.
It’s going to take a little time, but Maurice and his staff have a plan for how they want to implement Jones into the team and utilize his skills on the ice during the adjustment period.
“We don't need him to play 25 minutes tonight, so he's going to play just the top four minutes, that'll be probably two or three minutes off what he's been playing" Maurice said. "We'll also just start, with all these systems and things, he'll just learn that over time. He'll see video every day, he'll sit with his partner and they'll just go through it. It’s not this guy's first year in the league, he's not playing a different sport, so he's going to pick this up fairly quickly. All we'll ask him to do then is focus on one kind of area of his game, and that would be gap control. That's the biggest thing. It's not necessarily systematic, you can gap better when you understand where everybody else is supposed to be. He’ll definitely gap better when you trust that they're going to be there, but we'll just ask him to focus on that and closing the gap as quick as he can using his feet and his stick and his range to kill plays.”
During Florida’s morning skate on Thursday, Jones lined up on the right side of a pairing with Niko Mikkola and took reps running the point on the Cats’ second power play unit.
He will also likely see some time on Florida’s penalty kill.
Jones has got 21 regular season games to get himself acclimated to Florida’s style and systems before the real fun arrives, and you can bet that it’s going to go by extremely quick.
The Stanley Cup Playoffs begin in about six weeks.
“I'm super excited to be here, super pumped,” said Jones. “I can’t wait to play tonight.”
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