Confirmed with Link: CBJ Fire Scott Howson, name Jarmo Kekalainen replacement

[Zarathustra]

What if Galchenyuk's knee was slower to fully heal than expected, or if Murray's shoulder wasn't injured, or if Yakupov decided he'd rather finish the year in the KHL? All of these were plausible outcomes.

What if Murray's shoulder doesn't fully heal? Remember what Brassard looked like before his shoulder injury?


You can pull these "what ifs" with any draft pick. IMO, Galchenyuk was the BPA, and a huge need seeing as our forward cupboards are essentially bare, and we have a good top-four, Moore developing nicely, Johnson, Wiz and Tyutin locked up for awhile, and Cody, and Savard in the pipeline, and now Erixon. Will Johan pan out? If he doesn't we don't have any center prospects of his ilk to back him up. I'd argue we don't have any prospects of Galchenyuk's or Yakupov's ilk at all. Though Yakupov is pretty much immaterial since we didn't have that choice anyway.

With so many defensive prospects, and so little up front, it still baffles me why we would waste the highest pick since Rick Nash on another defensemen. Isn't Murray being hyped up to the extent that Moore was?

It seemed Howson made the move because he was afraid of the Russians, even though Galchenyuk was born in Milwaukee.

 

[CapnCornelius]

Hello Capn! Well well, now this is interesting turn of events for Columbus

Congratulations for you guys if it happens, I was actually pretty surprised at the time he took the GM job in Finland, leaving the Blues organization. I remember the Blues GM saying that Kekalainen will definitely be a GM for a NHL team soon, seems that he was pretty spot on with that prediction.

I know that it's again another guy without previous NHL GM experience, but he has great connections and he was really important piece for the Blues, especially with draft and prospects.

You guys really deserve to start winning sooner than later, hope this brings new boost for the organization!

I think there is sometimes a tendency to try too hard to get the opposite of the most recent guy. That was what happened when we replaced Doug. The owners went for the anti-Doug and probably swung too far to the other end of the pendulum. I'm glad to see JD avoid that pitfall. While Jarmo doesn't have GM experience in the NHL, he's now succeeded in 3 hockey organizations and he works well with the Jacket's president of hockey ops.

And if it gets you back here more, that's an added benefit, Handyy.

 

[The Sweetness]

BJN, I strongly disagree with you. Nash was a major part of the problem here. What does he have this year? Three goals? He would actually be fourth in goals scored on this team! I would take Dubinsky, Anisimov, Erixson and a first round pick over Rick Nash any day of the week. I think the Nash trade will be reviewed in retrospect as one of Howson's best moves.

Nash has been the Rangers best forward this year and in most games I've seen has been the best player on the ice (I'm a rangers fan). He's been a bit snake bit but he still has early a point per game even with a low shooting percentage that will go up. I hope the move works out for both teams, given you are rebuilding but I it doesn't seem fair to blame Nash for not being able to drag poor teams to the playoffs when you consider how many excellent players there are in the league.

 

[Needles]

1995-1999 IFK Helsinki, General Manager
1999-2002 Ottawa Senators, Director of Player Personnel
2002-2005 St Louis Blues, Director of Amateur Scouting
2005-2010 St Louis Blues, Assistant GM & Director of Amateur Scouting
2010-2013 Jokerit Helsinki, President & General Manager
2013-2XXX Columbus Blue Jackets, General Manager?

Fun facts:

- Bachelor of Science in Management, Clarkson University
- Runs marathons in his spare time. Ran the Boston marathon under three hours.
- Finished 3rd in the annual Finnish Bruce Willis look-a-like competition.

Edit.

Bob McKenzie ‏@TSNBobMcKenzie
CBJ and FIN club Jokerit schedule simultaneous 9:30 am ET news conferences, expected to name Jokerit GM Jarmo Kekalainen as new CBJ GM.

 

[GhostofBoomer]

1995-1995 IFK Helsinki, General Manager
1999-2002 Ottawa Senators, Director of Player Personnel (Hossa, Havlat, Emery)
2002-2005 St Louis Blues, Director of Amateur Scouting
2005-2010 St Louis Blues, Assistant GM & Director of Amateur Scouting
2010-2013 Jokerit Helsinki, President & General Manager
2013-2XXX Columbus Blue Jackets, General Manager?

Fun facts:

- Bachelor of Science in Management, Clarkson University
- Runs marathons in his spare time. Ran the Boston marathon under three hours.
- Finished 3rd in the annual Finnish Bruce Willis look-a-like competition.

I was just about to post that. That is one impressive feat.

 

[ginner classic]

• Get 2 extra first round picks
• Hire JD
• Fire Howson
• Hire Jarmo

Overall, a pretty amazing 9 months.

Very happy for the long suffering CBJ fans. You'll be glad you hung in there. Good times are coming.


Just need to send us some of those picks for Lou and I'll be even more happy for you.

 

[hossua34]

A bold step for a franchise that never seems to take them. I like it, because at this point we've tried almost everything else.

 

[CBJx614]

What if Murray's shoulder doesn't fully heal? Remember what Brassard looked like before his shoulder injury?


You can pull these "what ifs" with any draft pick. IMO, Galchenyuk was the BPA, and a huge need seeing as our forward cupboards are essentially bare, and we have a good top-four, Moore developing nicely, Johnson, Wiz and Tyutin locked up for awhile, and Cody, and Savard in the pipeline, and now Erixon. Will Johan pan out? If he doesn't we don't have any center prospects of his ilk to back him up. I'd argue we don't have any prospects of Galchenyuk's or Yakupov's ilk at all. Though Yakupov is pretty much immaterial since we didn't have that choice anyway.

With so many defensive prospects, and so little up front, it still baffles me why we would waste the highest pick since Rick Nash on another defensemen. Isn't Murray being hyped up to the extent that Moore was?

It seemed Howson made the move because he was afraid of the Russians, even though Galchenyuk was born in Milwaukee.

Moore is pretty good, he's probably my favorite defenseman, besides Murray. His vision, skating and passing are supposed to separate him from the rest. I really wanted Galchenyuk... But honestly I'm really happy with Murray, it gives us room to work and not rush anything on the defensive side. Look what happened already wiz, Nikitin, Moore all went out and we had to call up 3 dmen and we found out savard definitely was not ready.

And for the shoulder injury JD touched on that saying Al McGinnis had a shoulder injury early in his career too along with a few other guys.

 

[BlueDream]

You guys will like Jarmo. As a Blues fan I'm happy Jarmo is getting his chance because I think he'll make a good GM, but ****, I hate that he's going to be working for a team in our division. The Central is already tough enough and now he's going to turn Columbus around. That sucks for us, but congrats to you guys.

He's VERY good at drafting so you are lucky you have accumulated those firsts. The first rounders he has netted us over the past several years include: Oshie, Berglund, Perron, Cole, Pietrangelo, Tarasenko, Schwartz.

His scouting is top notch. Sometimes he goes off the board with a darkhorse pick and everyone calls it a reach and it ends up being a very good player (i.e. Oshie in 2005, Perron in 2007, Schwartz in 2010). He's pretty successful. Very very smart hockey mind.

Like I said I am pissed about this but it's going to be good for you guys.

 

[Cyclones Rock]

Or Zoltan Hetenyi, who came over this year into the Nashville organization (and got buried into the ECHL due to the lockout).

Hetenyi is only on an AHL deal. He is not Nashville property. He is the property of the Milwaukee Admirals of the AHL. The lockout didn't impact his assignment. He was third on the Milwaukee depth chart behind two Nashville 2nd round picks-Jeremy Smith (2007) and Magnus Hellberg (2011). Both have played in Cincinnati and are very competent goaltenders. Hetenyi definitely fits in the "project" category. An interesting one at that. He's undrafted and almost 24 years old and had only a small number of games (7) with Jokerit (Finland) while playing the bulk of his professional career in Austria.

After a brutal start in Cincinnati, he has come on very well. He's caught in a 3 goalie situation with the Cyclones, but has played very well given that his most recent starts have come very sporadically.

On a more Jacket related note, this likely new GM's familiarity with the players across the pond could well result in some very interesting later round picks. Another Henrik Zetterberg would be just fine, thank you very much, in this year's 7th round.

 

[erderuft]

Blues fan here, just checking in to congratulate you guys on hiring Jarmo as your new GM. Great hockey mind and all around good guy. If we didn't already have a good GM in Doug Armstrong, I'd really want Jarmo on my team. Fantastic drafter, great scout.

This is a great video about the 2007 draft. It follows the Blues (and specifically Jarmo) the days leading up to the draft. It'll give you a great feel for how Jarmo works.

http://video.blues.nhl.com/videocenter/console?catid=0&id=4611&cmpid=embed-share-video

Congrats. Jarmo'll make you guys even better.

 

[InjuredChoker]

Yup looks like Kekäläinen takes the job. I'm excited about that, I'm sure he's followed NHL during his tenure in Jokerit where he made some nice moves, too. He has to pick it up fast, draft comes soon.

Expect Finnish bandwagoners to follow in suit .

 

[Zarathustra]

Moore is pretty good, he's probably my favorite defenseman, besides Murray. His vision, skating and passing are supposed to separate him from the rest. I really wanted Galchenyuk... But honestly I'm really happy with Murray, it gives us room to work and not rush anything on the defensive side. Look what happened already wiz, Nikitin, Moore all went out and we had to call up 3 dmen and we found out savard definitely was not ready.

And for the shoulder injury JD touched on that saying Al McGinnis had a shoulder injury early in his career too along with a few other guys.

And despite the injuries, our defense is still working out fairly well without Murray. Pick any 3 guys in our top six outside of Dorsett, and our offense gets worse than it already is. Yet with the forwards healthy, we still have the worst offensive output in the NHL. Galchenyuk has been getting 10 minutes a night and would be tied for second on our team in scoring. Plus it would give us a backup if Johansen fails to live up to expectations, and it would give us Johan, Galchenyuk, and our next high pick as two, (or probably 3) high-potential forwards. If we end up with a first overall and Jones is picked I'll throw something at something else.

Murray is a great piece to have, but was definitely not what we needed at the time. Quite frankly, I'm surprised the Oilers didn't pick him.

 

[Handyy]

I think there is sometimes a tendency to try too hard to get the opposite of the most recent guy. That was what happened when we replaced Doug. The owners went for the anti-Doug and probably swung too far to the other end of the pendulum. I'm glad to see JD avoid that pitfall. While Jarmo doesn't have GM experience in the NHL, he's now succeeded in 3 hockey organizations and he works well with the Jacket's president of hockey ops.

And if it gets you back here more, that's an added benefit, Handyy.

Yeah I agree on this, I think it extended to the amount of leash Howson had too, many organizations would have fired him much sooner.

I'll see if I can get my interest about writing back Maybe I even have a chance to get back to Columbus next year, planning to come for Mustang's 50th Anniversary party to US and I have enough AA miles for an extra flight there... Let's see!

 

[Miggus]

Yup looks like Kekäläinen takes the job. I'm excited about that, I'm sure he's followed NHL during his tenure in Jokerit where he made some nice moves, too. He has to pick it up fast, draft comes soon.

Expect Finnish bandwagoners to follow in suit .

Finland mentioned. Torilla tavataan

Being a GM has been Jarmo's dream and goal for quite some time now so I'm happy he gets his chance and even happier it will be in Columbus.

This also hurts Jokerit in the long run which is also a good thing

 

[Finnpin]

This also hurts Jokerit in the long run which is also a good thing

I hate you already!

Congrats to Jarmo and will follow Columbus closer in the future for sure.

 

[ThisIsMyAlibi]

and that protest still accomplished little beyond embarrassing this fanbase.

You've done nothing but defend the policies of an incompetent organization. The protest demanded excellence. Who is the embarrassment?

 

[toewsintangibles]

Steve Moses will be at your camp next season, I can guarantee that

Possibly playing in Columbus AHL affiliate

 

[Henkka]

Congratulations Jackets fans. You deserve this great move after all those crappy years.

I think we will be separated in different conferences and divisions in the future, so our Red Wings organization is lucky. We don't have to compete against another Jarmo's powerhouse in the future.

 

[Columbus Mike]

BJN, I strongly disagree with you. Nash was a major part of the problem here. What does he have this year? Three goals? He would actually be fourth in goals scored on this team! I would take Dubinsky, Anisimov, Erixson and a first round pick over Rick Nash any day of the week. I think the Nash trade will be reviewed in retrospect as one of Howson's best moves.

Agreed. This is a big part of the culture that needs to be changed.

I just checked to make sure that it wasn't April 1.

That would have been the cruelest April Fool's joke ever if someone invented a Finnish scout and carried the charade on for more than a decade just to punk Blue Jackets fans!

Would a fictional internet GM be an improvement?

1995-1999 IFK Helsinki, General Manager
1999-2002 Ottawa Senators, Director of Player Personnel
2002-2005 St Louis Blues, Director of Amateur Scouting
2005-2010 St Louis Blues, Assistant GM & Director of Amateur Scouting
2010-2013 Jokerit Helsinki, President & General Manager
2013-2XXX Columbus Blue Jackets, General Manager?

Fun facts:

- Bachelor of Science in Management, Clarkson University
- Runs marathons in his spare time. Ran the Boston marathon under three hours.
- Finished 3rd in the annual Finnish Bruce Willis look-a-like competition.

Edit.

I like him already

 

[InjuredChoker]

This also hurts Jokerit in the long run which is also a good thing

Arguable at best .

 

[FiveHole23]

I will tell you what I like most about this. Right to the point. Hiring Arneil took like 5 months and a denial. Rick Nash took forever. However long to get interm tag on Richards.

JD is like "that's my man, lets get him".

It is like XGMDM but with purpose instead of just hype.

 

[Alklha]

Another Blues fan He'll do a great job for you guys, we were all sad to see him go a couple of years ago, but he wasn't going to become GM here in the short term and that has always been his goal.

A run down of how he drafted in St. Louis...

2003 was his first draft, and the first round selection (Shawn Belle @ 30) was a bust. We got Backes at 62 and Stempniak at 148. We also selected Konstantin Barulin at 84, who is the Russian international goalie, but he has never come over despite clearly being good enough.

2004: First round selection was again a bust, Marek Schwarz at 17, although he was expected to go around 6 or 7 in the draft but fell. We did pick up Nikita Nikitin and Roman Polák at 136 and 180 though.

2005: Oshie was a bit of a reach at 24. Bishop at 85 and Reaves at 156 also worked out.

2006: EJ was the safe pick for the first overall. Berglund at 25 was a very good late first pick.

2007: Lars Eller (11th), Ian Cole (18th) and David Perron (26th) all in the first round. Maybe nothing outstanding, but very solid. Aaron Palushaj, Cade Fairchild and maybe Anthony Peluso might still have outside chances of becoming role players in the NHL though.

2008: Pietrangelo with the fourth pick, again the early second round picks haven't worked out (Jake Allen still might come round). Jori Lehterä was taken 65th overall and is currently a PPG centre in the KHL and is interested in coming to the NHL.

2009: His weakest draft, with only 6 picks. We took Rundblad in the first round, to flip him the following year. He looks like the only NHL'er though.

2010: Last draft... Schwartz at 14, Tarasenko at 16 and Jani Hakanpää at 104 looks a very promising pick.

2011/12: Teemu Eronen (192 in 2011) and Petteri Lindbohm (176 in 2012) were also taken on the recommendation of Jarmo Kekäläinen. Both look promising defensemen.

Basically, this guy can spot players. Every draft, except 2009, has produced at least 2 NHL standard players. Managing to get guys like Oshie, Berglund and Perron with late firsts should be an exciting prospect for you guys with 3 firsts in a draft this deep.

 

[FinRuutu]

Gratz CBJ fans, you got a real gem in a form of Kekäläinen.

I've followed his career since -98 and he rarely does any bad moves or decisions. I love this deal because of he leaves Jokerit (hate them) but hate because he makes the Central even tougher for Detroit.

He is hard working, intelligent, does his homework and has a great track record to prove it.

I said 3 years ago when he became the GM of Jokerit that he wouldn't be here in Finland for the full 5 years, just too good to be in SM-Liiga.

Mark my words; Few years and CBJ's Howson era is just an awkward memory.

 

[Henkka]

He also drafted for the Senators during 1999-2002.

If funny how you see a pattern. You draft for somebody for four years, kids that are born in 1980-84. Their career peak is at years ~2006 to 2008.

At 2007 Ottawa Senators reaches the Stanley Cup Finals.

He drafts for St. Louis Blues from 2003 to 2010. Those guys career peak will be at ~2013.

I still predict Blues will go to finals this year, even though right now they have some problems. Winning those problems could be THE starting kick for an unstoppable run at this season.

Still, that Blues is not built by Kekäläinen. He just collected those great assets by drafting, that great GM Doug Armstrong turned ever greater team with great trades. But the value was always there, thanks to Jarmo's picks. Now he wants to be that builder and before that, turn the organization around with his experience, from top to bottom.