let’s talk about the Blue Jackets… it’s bad.. real bad.

[Straight Fire]

I've watched a lot of CBJs games this year due to Johnny's arrival there.

A few thoughts:

- I think the biggest problem is goaltending.

- IMO Gaudreau is looking decent and better than I expected considering the drastic transition to a bottom tier team not to mention leaving the only team he's known. He's a cerebral player that has to make quick dishes and anticipate and see the whole ice for his playmaking. His teammates will succeed when they're where they're supposed to be. Pretty much all of us in Calgary got used to what to expect despite the odd naysayer and negative Nancy's opinion about his play due to size. Hardly a soul in Calgary doesn't miss him dearly and we see our inability to move the puck up the ice and cross the offensive blueline with his absence. Unfortunately Huberdeau has a long way to go yet in filling Johnny's shoes if he indeed can. But some length of rope is given to him similar to the one that should be given to Gaudreau. I fully anticipate stronger performances and overall consistency as Johnny figures things out there more and more.

- I don't think Laine/Gaudreau should be a write off just yet. IMO there is a little more of a disparity in talent between Jenner and Johnny than Laine and Gaudreau.

- Nyquist strikes me as a bit hit and miss talent wise.

Anyway, nothing too profound but short and sweet improve the goaltending and D I guess and the upside looks okay to me. Gaudreau will improve still and gel more and more with the group IMO.

 

[Viqsi]

IMHO, prolonged failure is institutionalized, meaning at some point the institution itself must be blown up, i.e., change of owner, change of GM and staff, change of HC and staff. Of course, this only works if you get an aggressive "losing is not an option" owner who rules by some combination of a bottomless wallet and an itchy trigger to quickly fire the incompetent, or else you end up like Phoenix, i.e., a parade of increasingly bad and often chintzy owners.

What the hell do you think the Davidson/Kekalainen/Tortorella hiring was?

Honest to f***ing G-d, folks, at least do a little research before pontificating on our franchise, why don't you...

 

[Leafshater67]

Elvis looks like a low tier ECHL backup right now. Absolutely abysmal goaltending. What happened?

I know he doesn’t have a strong D in front of him but he’s played 1/4 of the season with a GAA of over 5. Wow. Is he hurt still?

 

[Viqsi]

Elvis looks like a low tier ECHL backup right now. Absolutely abysmal goaltending. What happened?

I know he doesn’t have a strong D in front of him but he’s played 1/4 of the season with a GAA of over 5. Wow. Is he hurt still?

Frankly, I increasingly suspect we lost two goalies on the Fourth of July last year.

 

[CBJx614]

No

The team has no identity or direction. JK should have been fired a while ago.

How many teams have an identity or direction in years 1 and 2 of a rebuild? Even when you get a Crosby/Ovechkin/Mcdavid level prospect in the draft, those teams usually don't get rounded out and have an identity or direction for at least a year or two. Last year was year 1 of the rebuild, they overachieved and missed out on the playoffs, signed Gaudreau and immediately the expectations around the league and city was if we can build off of last year, we should be a playoff team.... And then reality hit, this isn't so much of a retool that the FO sold us on, but a legitimate rebuild.


If the hockey gods actually decide to bless the Jackets with a top 3 pick, that kid will immediately have a better core surrounding them than any of Crosby/Ovechkin/Mcdavid/Matthews had.

 

[HockeyVirus]

I don't understand how their GM still has a job. I loved the story line of them beating Tampa but we all knew they had 0 chance of winning a cup. Yet he took a team that was bad most seasons and sold a lot of the future to be a playoff bubble team.

It seems the team has no direction at all, trading away a core piece like Seth Jones signaling a rebuild and then signing the top UFA. Not to mention his scouting has been terrible, offering Gudbranson 4x4 is criminal in 2022. Outside of that the drafting has been nothing short of meh.

The Elvis contract was questionable day 1. Not sure what he has done to continue to be GM since being hired a DECADE ago.

 

[SeanMoneyHands]

How long before John Hockey regrets signing there and asks for a trade to NJ? I bet he sure regrets it now not signing with the Devils.

 

[Viqsi]

It seems the team has no direction at all, trading away a core piece like Seth Jones

Again: this was forced upon us by Jones' agent. The same agent, incidentally, who forced the Pierre-Luc Dubois situation. And tried to force a Werenski situation, except Werenski fired him so he could stay.

 

[HockeyVirus]

Again: this was forced upon us by Jones' agent. The same agent, incidentally, who forced the Pierre-Luc Dubois situation. And tried to force a Werenski situation, except Werenski fired him so he could stay.

That is all fine but doesn't dispute the point of my post. He has been GM for a decade, how many GM's have that long of a shelf life with those results?

Sure I can see players forcing their way out, but you need to pick a direction. Why are you trading away pieces for futures and then signing in their prime top UFA's? You are unintentionally tanking for Bedard (which is good) but what was the goal of this season? To be a bubble team in no mans land like the last decade? The GM has absolutely no vision and is just winging it.

 

[Viqsi]

That is all fine but doesn't dispute the point of my post. He has been GM for a decade, how many GM's have that long of a shelf life with those results?

Sure I can see players forcing their way out, but you need to pick a direction. Why are you trading away pieces for futures and then signing in their prime top UFA's? You are unintentionally tanking for Bedard (which is good) but what was the goal of this season? To be a bubble team in no mans land like the last decade? The GM has absolutely no vision and is just winging it.

So he gets fired because a player agent decided he could f*** us over and therefore did?

And Gaudreau fell into our laps so we accepted the gift. Remember Panarin with the Rangers in 2019? Same basic thing.

 

[HockeyVirus]

So he gets fired because a player agent decided he could f*** us over and therefore did?

And Gaudreau fell into our laps so we accepted the gift. Remember Panarin with the Rangers in 2019? Same basic thing.

No he gets fired because he has been GM for 10 years and the team is still spinning their tires. I get it, stuff happens in sports. Players get hurt and have to retire, players force their way out.

But you as a GM need to have a vision of where your team is going. Are you drafting and developing? Are you trying to win now? Because he has made moves for both and the result is the team being too good to get a franchise level talent and too bad to ever be a legit playoff threat.

 

[Viqsi]

No he gets fired because he has been GM for 10 years and the team is still spinning their tires. I get it, stuff happens in sports. Players get hurt and have to retire, players force their way out.

That seems a distinction without a difference.

But you as a GM need to have a vision of where your team is going. Are you drafting and developing? Are you trying to win now? Because he has made moves for both

Oh FFS, did you even read my second sentence? Gaudreau was not a "win now" move. Gudbranson was not a "win now" move. They were moves made with the knowledge that we are still developing, but we ALREADY HAVE most of the guys we need to draft.

Honest to f***ing G-d Almighty, people, there are stages of team development other than "established cup contender" and "BURN IT ALL DOWN", and THEY ARE NOT INHERENTLY BAD THINGS.

 

[tarheelhockey]

It seems the team has no direction at all, trading away a core piece like Seth Jones signaling a rebuild and then signing the top UFA.

How could you not sign Gaudreau, though? Adding a prime-aged star isn't something that can be done on command, especially for a smaller market team. When one falls in your lap you take him, and figure out the rest later... especially when you're still only 1 point out of last place. A 10% better chance at moving up from #2 to #1 isn't worth missing out on an actual current star.

 

[Crede777]

No he gets fired because he has been GM for 10 years and the team is still spinning their tires. I get it, stuff happens in sports. Players get hurt and have to retire, players force their way out.

But you as a GM need to have a vision of where your team is going. Are you drafting and developing? Are you trying to win now? Because he has made moves for both and the result is the team being too good to get a franchise level talent and too bad to ever be a legit playoff threat.

It's pretty clear that he assembled a core from 2013-2016, had a team that repeatedly made the playoffs from 2017-2020, and unfortunately had to blow it up due to three players leaving for greener pastures.

Unfortunately, they kept facing the eventual Cup winners in the 1st round each year.

But he showed he can draft and develop a team that is capable of repeatedly making the postseason. Hopefully some things he doesn't have control over (draft lottery, UFA decisions) don't go as badly this time.

 

[Drake1588]

As a fan of a Metro division club that ran up against the Blue Jackets a lot in the regular season and playoffs, that team was excellent for a good four/five years there.

They never succeeded in turning the team into a 'destination' that would attract rather than repel players who were hitting free agency/were free agents, but they damn well did everything else. It wasn't entirely within their means to shift that gravitational pull. Key departures forced their hand earlier than they would have liked, I'm sure, and now they're trying a retool that has skidded this season. Yet that was a tough team that contended in a brutal division.

 

[OgeeOgelthorpe]

 

[bossram]

Seems to me like they miss Seth Jones.

Huh?

I mean, it's not like Seth Jones is leading Chicago to glory.

CBJ was never a good team to begin with. But the spate of injuries they've had ensured they would be in the tank battle (and signing Gudbranson certainly didn't hurt in that regard either).

It's not that surprising where they are.

 

[HugeInTheShire]

The most surprising thing I've noticed when I've watched CBJ is the compete level they were known for seems to have faded away. They were a team that if they didn't have the puck, they wanted it and when they had it, they refused to give it up.
I don't think signing Gaudreau was in any way a mistake though, even if he isn't helping them win games right now, he is still a player that guys will choose Columbus to play with.

 

[Volica]

That Werenski injury sure didn't help either, he's one helluva defenceman.
But yeah, anyone who thought that centre depth was getting anywhere outside the bottom of the league was kidding themselves. Your two best players can't both be wingers that only play one side of the ice. You need your Backstrom to your Ovi.

 

[PAZ]

Not getting him either.

Seriously, when it comes to lottery-based anything, nothing goes our way. Ever. It's been twenty-three years and that has been one of the few constants. We might get someone else nice-ish and comparable to KJ, but we're not getting any of those Big Names that folks sit up and take notice for. That just doesn't happen here.

It doesn't have to work out your way with this draft. I'd say there's a very high probability Columbus get's a top 5 pick. Bedard, Fantilli, Michkov, Carlsson are all superior prospects compared to KJ, and most likely whoever is available at 5/6 too, as there are always late risers.

 

[Bowski]

The definition of mediocrity and failure:

Maybe an upgrade from 2-time President to Czar or Emperor might spark something in his clueless BFF GM?

 

[Viqsi]

It doesn't have to work out your way with this draft. I'd say there's a very high probability Columbus get's a top 5 pick. Bedard, Fantilli, Michkov, Carlsson are all superior prospects compared to KJ, and most likely whoever is available at 5/6 too, as there are always late risers.

It's not impossible. But next to nobody in the League or here will ever give us credit for it.

 

[BB88]

The team has no identity or direction. JK should have been fired a while ago.

How don’t they have a direction?

 

[Viqsi]

How don’t they have a direction?

I'm going to go out on a limb and predict this is another case of "Gaudreau was clearly a 'win now' move but they aren't Winning Now."

And now watch in amazement as some other <redacted> shows up and starts trying to relegislate that point even after it was discussed and clarified a little over 10 posts up on this very page, because people can't even read let alone do simple research using basic commonly available tools made public and easily found for free...

 

[Raistlin]

CBJ needs a Horvat, him with Johnson will be lethal in 2-3 years. Horvat with any possession focused winger will be ideal... and you guys have two in Gaudreau and Johnson. Horvat's faceoff mastery was evident since he was drafted, and CBJ have needed centers since forever. CBJ is only a few pieces away, its not that bad once the injured players come back.