Columbus Blue Jackets: Reflections from the 2019 season

Following two decades of playoff defeat, the Colombus Blue Jackets elected to go all in at the 2019 trade deadline. Was it a success?

19 years. From the 2000 Expansion Draft until April 16th, 2019, the Columbus Blue Jackets had yet to experience the most simple of successes, a playoff series victory. 19 years, 0 playoff series victories.

But on that Tuesday night in April, the Blue Jackets finally did it, upsetting one of the best regular season teams in recent NHL history and completing the sweep against the Tampa Bay Lightning. But at what cost?

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Blue Jacket’s General Manager Jarmo Kekäläinen was faced with the toughest challenge for an organizational leader, deciding between two radically divergent directions to take his franchise. He had aces high in pending unrestricted free agents Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky, and chose to go all in.

In a sporting climate that endorses folding, the Blue Jackets chose to put their chips on the table; they chose to be fun and to reward a fanbase forever deprived of remote playoff success.

In the era of the teardown, tanks, and #TheProcess, the Blue Jackets went against the grain. Though the team rewarded management’s vote of confidence by going where no Columbus Blue Jacket had gone before – the second round, grading the success of Kekäläinen’s moves isn’t simple.

The Deadline Moves

In: Matt Duchene, Julius Bergman, Ryan Dzingel, Keith Kinkaid, Adam McQuaid, 2019 seventh-round pick (Flames)
Out: Vitaly Abramov, Jonathan Davidsson, 2019 first-round pick, 2020 first-round pick (conditional), 2020 second-round pick, 2021 second-round pick, 2022 fifth-round pick

Following the Blue Jackets deadline maneuvers, the gamble was seen alternatingly as both a success and failure and sometimes both simultaneously.

On top of controversially deciding to retain ‘own rentals’ in Bobrovsky and Panarin, the Blue Jackets doubled down, bringing in Matt Duchene and Ryan Dzingel from the Senators, as well as defensemen Adam McQuaid and goaltender Keith Kinkaid.

Kekäläinen and Columbus management had decided to give their squad every opportunity to win, and what they did with that opportunity was then up to the players on the ice.

Deadline Additions

• Duchene – 23 games, four goals, eight assists, 12 points, 17:57 ATOI
• Dzingel – 21 games, four goals, eight assists, 12 points, 14:16 ATOI
• McQuaid – 14 games, one goal, one assist, two points, 11:25 TOI
• Kinkaid – zero games played

To argue the case for failure, one need look no further than the performances of the assets brought in by Kekäläinen. Duchene, Dzingel, and McQuaid all underperformed their career norms, failing to significantly enhance Columbus’ play down the stretch.

While the acquired skaters’ struggles during the regular season were defensible, as many trade deadline acquisitions take time to acclimatize, the Blue Jackets acquisition of Kinkaid only to play him a total of zero minutes is quite head-scratching.

Despite the Jackets’ additions failure to jell immediately, and failure to even touch the ice in the case of Kinkaid, the Blue Jackets made the playoffs. It was there where Matt Duchene showed up when it mattered, recording 10 points in 10 games.

Though the same can not be said for Dzingel and McQuaid, who combined for a mere one point in the postseason, without Duchene, Columbus may not have been able to pull off their historic upset.

Season Splits

Pre Deadline: 35-23-3 record, 191 goals for, 180 goals against
Post Deadline: 12-8-1 record, 57 goals, 50 goals against

To make a case for the success of Kekäläinen’s gamble, one must look past the numbers. The success of the Blue Jacket’s 2019 season lies in the exorcism of two decades of failure, the emotional release of a starved hockey fanbase, and the first ever happy handshake line.

Every Blue Jacket before has been forced to shake hands with their first-round vanquisher, but these 2019 Columbus Blue Jackets finally had a moment un-vanquished. The trades were made for that very moment. That handshake line.

Regardless of the goals, assists, points, or wins contributed by the Blue Jackets deadline additions, the only number that truly matters is embodied by that victorious handshake line – 19 years, 1 playoff series victory.