The Blue Jackets are the Biggest Mess in the NHL
The Blue Jackets are the Biggest Mess in the NHL
One story I’m genuinely surprised doesn’t get much attention, and I feel should, is how much of a mess the Columbus Blue Jackets are. It feels as if every day something new comes out that reinforces the notion that the organization simply has no plan and no one running it has a clue what they’re doing. Now, I get why people aren’t paying attention: it’s the boring kind of incompetence. No exciting quotes are to be found, no stories of locker room drama. It’s less sexy than the Arizona Coyotes possibly being relocated. So, allow me to show you what is going on.
As indicated in the last paragraph: I’m not sure that there’s a plan in Columbus. No, scratch that: if there is a plan, I’d be stunned, and frankly, I’d prefer that. Because, if this is the plan the Blue Jackets have come up with for the future of their organization, this franchise is genuinely screwed. So, where do I start? Actually, it’s not that hard: the mishandling of prospects. With both of my NHL teams, frankly, I’ve not been happy with the handling of prospects. But, at least with the Red Wings it’s mostly how they’ve handled Berggren that upsets me, and only a tiny bit with Edvinsson and Albert Johansson. With the Blue Jackets, it’s just about everything. The worst thing about the Blue Jackets is that I don’t know who’s to blame. Jarmo is gone and things have remained the same, so maybe it’s John Davidson? Could it be Rick Nash? Or is Pascal Vincent even worse than I thought? And that’s the biggest problem. Who on earth needs to be held accountable by the media and fans? I have no clue. I don’t know which three of those names to point you to. Now, it might be all three, and I have reasons to believe it could be all three. We’ll start with the front office because that’ll be a shorter complaint section than Pascal Vincent, because believe me, I have a lot to say about Vincent.
Rick Nash, for those who don’t know, is the director of player development for the Blue Jackets. I’ll own up to the fact that I’ve been openly critical of him in the past, to the point of wanting him fired. He’s silenced critics like me this year (at least for this year) with how much of a resurgence Cole Sillinger and Yegor Chinakhov have had. That, and how much better Kirill Marchenko has gotten. Key parts of the future are definitively better, and it’s hard to imagine Rick Nash had no part in that. So, I’ll eat my humble pie and admit I was wrong. Now, I’m saying all that to admit that he’s not as incompetent as I once believed. You all sense the “but” coming, don’t you? Well, here it is: but, something stinks with how players are being developed. Look at Kent Johnson and David Jiříček for an example. Now, I get those are not fully on him, a lot of it is also on Jarmo and now John Davidson, but Rick Nash deserves some blame. And yes, this is where I’m bringing in John Davidson (and by proxy, Jarmo, despite not being a part of the organization anymore). How do you screw up the development of what are your two most important prospects (yes, we’re still counting Kent Johnson as a prospect, because the organization clearly does) so badly? I’m actually in shock at how badly it’s been handled for both. I can’t imagine this is fully on just Rick Nash or Davidson, it’s got to be both. What was the plan for developing Kent Johnson? Was there any? So, Pascal Vincent refuses to play him early in the season, and they send him down to Cleveland. In Cleveland, they play him at center. When they call him back up to Columbus, they move him back to the wing. What is going on? Is he a center or is he a wing? Clearly, because you made him playing as a center in Cleveland as a priority you envision him as a center, but then, he doesn’t get any center playing time in Columbus. Ever. Not saying he should spend his entire time at the center position, but you’d think you’d give him some. But, we’re going into his third season (which is next season, but his current season is over), and it’s time. You have to commit: is he a center, or a winger? You can’t afford to be indecisive any longer. Especially now that you have the superstar you plan to build around in Fantilli. It’s time to start being serious about winning. A part of that is committing to Johnson either being a center or a winger and actually playing him. Personally, with how much Sillinger has improved this season, and how good Voronkov has been, I’m not as opposed as I was keeping him on wing. I do believe it’s in the organization's best interest to try him out at center and try to make it work, but the center situation for the organization isn’t as dire as it was at the beginning of the season. Now, it does show how terrible this organization is at developing centers, but, admittedly, this organization has never been good at that, and everyone knows it.
Now, don’t think I forgot about Jiříček, and I won’t take too long with my complaints about his development, because I’ve done it before. But, I’ll re-iterate my issues along with some new ones, because frankly, the new issues are what put it into my head to write this article (but not what pushed me to do so, and we’ll get to that later). How did it take them thirty or more games to recognize that his defense isn’t NHL caliber and that maybe his skating is not ideal (and to be honest, I’m not convinced it’s bad enough for him to have been sent down)? That’s on Rick Nash. He should’ve known this already and made it clear to the front office that he wasn’t ready. But, instead, Jiříček got called up and told to “get a place” in Columbus, meaning that they expected him to never get sent down again. But, that’s not what happened, and now we’re watching what is the worst fumbling of a top prospect I’ve seen. He got sent down and made it clear to the press how unhappy he was, and he should be unhappy. He was done dirty. The development staff and front office should have never called him up if he wasn’t ready, and they should’ve known if he wasn’t. This was a failure on their end. But, that’s in the past. What is happening in the present is him getting called up to Columbus right before a Cleveland Monsters game (the Blue Jackets AHL affiliate), not playing, and then going to Vegas with the Blue Jackets, and then getting sent to Cleveland mere hours before a game, and having to miss that as well. That’s a whole weekend of development that was missed. For their top prospect. Is there a plan? It doesn’t seem as if there is one. Who thought that any of this that happened was a good idea? If he’s getting called up, he needs to be playing. Tell Pascal Vincent that he must play Jiříček if you’re calling him up. This thing where Jiříček gets yanked around and misses an entire weekend of development is an absolute embarrassment for the organization and one that could’ve easily been avoided if there was an actual plan in place. If there was a plan, that’s even scarier, because that means that the plan is either the worst plan in hockey development history or, the organization is too incompetent to carry it out. Frankly, I’d rather assume there is no plan because that’s a lot less scary.
Now, speaking of not playing the kids, we come to Pascal Vincent. The current head coach is the third in one year for this organization, and soon to be the third of four. Ok, that’s probably premature to say, but, he should be fired once this season is over. In my last article on the mess that is the Blue Jackets organization, I had no firm stance on whether he should be fired or not. At this point, I am firmly in the “fire Vincent” camp. Brad Larsen was a better coach than Vincent. The problem with Vincent is that he thinks he’s Tortorella, but the problem is: that he’s not. He’s from being Tortorella. Vincent has copied Tortorella’s style completely but doesn’t understand how John makes it work. John, for one, is a great communicator. He always ensures each of the players knows exactly where they stand with him, what he wants to see from them, and more importantly: encourages them. He doesn’t throw his players under the bus, especially to the media. That, and he’s good with the X’s and O’s, but that’s beside the point. Everything we’ve heard from reports, none of those are true for Pascal. Players never know where they stand with him and are often confused when he healthy scratches them or benches them for a period. They often don’t know what he expects from them, and, even worse: Vincent is more than happy to throw players under the bus to the media. He so desperately wants to be the next John Tortorella, but, like so many people who copy others in whatever it is they do, they don’t understand what made the original so great. Tortorella isn’t great because he’s a hard-ass, he’s great because he understands players, he understands what motivates them, and how to get the most out of them. I know that sounds so basic and generic, but it’s a genuine skill that many coaches just don’t have, Pascal Vincent being one. Now, mind you, Pascal does get results from these players after punishing them, but the reason the players play better afterward is that they’re fearful. They’re terrified of his seemingly random wrath, whereas that’s not an issue with Tortorella, who is fair.
That isn’t the end of my complaints with Pascal Vincent, though. The other is his refusal to play the kids. That is an unforgivable sin when the season is already lost (the Blue Jackets were officially eliminated from playoff contention yesterday, as of publishing), and you’re rebuilding. As Aaron Portzline of The Athletic pointed out on Twitter, neither Trey Fix-Wolansky nor Carson Meyer got any shifts in the third, and Mikael Pyyhtiä got his first shift of the game in the third. There is no excuse for that. This is the time to be figuring out the future, who has a place in Columbus next season, and you’re just not going to play the players who potentially have a future with the organization. Instead, you’ll play veterans who are on their way out. It makes no sense. But, that’s been the trend all year, hasn’t it? Vincent wouldn’t play Kent Johnson to start the year, and then in the middle of the year it was Jiříček and Voronkov not playing (and the front office no doubt forced Vincent to play Voronkov, due to there being an out clause in his contract), and now it’s Jiříček, again, Fix-Wolansky, Meyer, and Pyyhtiä. These young players get put out in the dog house for small mistakes that are normal for young players to make, and yet veterans like Ivan Provorov get trotted out on the top pairing despite regularly making stupid mistakes no veteran should make. Same with Severson and Gudbranson. They never lose shifts, get benched for a period, or get healthy scratched, and they’ve openly cost the team games, with mistakes far worse than the kids have made. But, these veterans, no matter how bad or grievous the mistake, never face any repercussions. But, if Kent Johnson makes a defensive zone turnover, you won’t be seeing him the rest of the game, and he’ll be healthy-scratched the next. None of this is excusable, and while I imagine the organization has no appetite to do this, and some veterans may demand trades, Vincent needs to go. He’s actively harming the long-term future of this organization. I don’t know how it can be argued otherwise in good faith at this point. Which is a shame, as like I’ve stated before, I was an advocate for Pascal Vincent to be the head coach. I put myself out there in articles and social media stating that Pascal Vincent was the right man for the job. I was completely wrong. It’s not even been a full season, and it’s been more disastrous than anything that happened under Larsen.
Anyway, I’ll end my complaining there. While things are frustrating, I do think the Blue Jackets have the potential to have one of the brightest futures in the NHL. They have their star in Fantilli, some solid veterans like Werenski and Gaudreau, Daniil Tarasov is solid in net, and good defensive prospects. I will be writing, probably once the regular season finally ends, about the good things that happened for the Blue Jackets this year and why I do have hope for the organization. I know I endlessly whine about the Blue Jackets, but I promise, there are good things about them and I do plan to write an article highlighting the good and what brings me hope. But, for today, I reserve the right to complain about how poorly run this organization is.
If you want to follow me on social media, find me on Bluesky, Instagram, Mastodon, Threads, and Twitter. You can also find Vibes Based Hockey on Instagram and Tumblr.