Jordan Harris didn’t expect to spend so much time on the phone this week.
His Tuesday could indeed be summed up as a long, almost uninterrupted conversation with family and friends. “The good thing about it is that it gave me the opportunity to catch up with everyone,” he told The Pressin the evening – on the phone, in fact.
Although he was happy to hear the voices of his loved ones, he would have certainly preferred that the circumstances were different. Everyone, in fact, was calling him because he had just been traded.
The day before, the 24-year-old defenseman had become a member of the Columbus Blue Jackets, following a trade that sent Patrik Laine and a second-round pick to Montreal.
Harris is no fool. He knew that with all the young defensemen growing up in the organization, a trade involving him was a possibility. He had thought about it especially at the trade deadline in March. And again at the beginning of the summer.
However, after mid-August, two weeks before returning to Montreal, he thought he would start the next season in the tricolor uniform. In this sense, he is therefore “surprised and not surprised.” “This late in the summer, I didn’t expect it anymore,” he summarizes.
The destination also surprised him: He didn’t know the Blue Jackets were interested in him. He doesn’t know anyone in management except assistant director of amateur division Trevor Timmins, who was the Canadiens’ head scout and assistant general manager when Harris was drafted in the third round in 2018.
Timmins called him after the trade to welcome him to the organization, a gesture appreciated by the defenseman who, otherwise, had only spoken briefly with general manager Don Waddell.
Besides, his new organization is essentially unknown to him. “Even in the process leading up to the draft, at the time, I hadn’t talked to them that much … not at all,” he says. “And I hadn’t heard any rumors.”
That said, he said he’s heard nothing but positive things about the city and the team from David Savard and Josh Anderson, who both spent several years in Columbus. He’ll also be reunited with Sean Monahan, who signed a five-year contract with the Jackets on March 1er last July.
Disappointment
Even though he approaches this new chapter of his career with optimism, Jordan Harris does not hide the fact that he is dealing with a mixture of emotions. An obvious “bittersweet” feeling, he specifies. He is “excited” by this new challenge, but he would have gladly stayed a little longer.
Leaving the team that drafted him is a “disappointment” for him.
The future is so encouraging. It was exciting to be a part of it. All the work that the players, the coaches and all the staff put in… It will be sad to leave all that, to leave all the relationships that I created. I will have a lot of good memories.
Jordan Harris
Without falling into cynicism, we deduce that these memories are not linked to the great exaltations on the ice. Because the two seasons that the American spent in the metropolis are among the worst in the history of the franchise on a statistical level.
Harris doesn’t really care. “Even when we weren’t winning, we felt like the city was there behind us,” he says.
Despite the relatively rare victories (61 in 164 games), he claims to have had more than his share of “good times”, even “exciting games”.
He remains convinced that with Sean Monahan and Kirby Dach in the lineup all last season, his club could have participated in the playoffs. “We were very close,” believes the man who will continue to follow the destiny of the CH from afar.
In Columbus, he sees “a good fit” for him. Much like in Montreal, he joins a “young and hungry” group, within which he will be able to show his “growth” as a hockey player.
In his new uniform, he wants to show that he can “have a big impact in the league.” With the Canadiens, his profile was more or less defined. Several observers criticized him for his lack of uniqueness. At 5’11”, he is also quite small for a player of his position – barely 40 of the 315 defensemen who played at least one game in the NHL last year were under 6 feet.
Last season, he was left out at times as Kaiden Guhle gobbled up minutes, Jayden Struble climbed the defensive ladder and Arber Xhekaj seemed to find his feet in the second half of the season. His average ice time dropped 51 seconds from last season.
Harris does not, however, feel that he has not been appreciated at his true value in Montreal.
“I don’t play hockey for the approval of others,” he says. “I do it because I love the game and because I want to constantly improve, for myself and for my team. Obviously I want to be appreciated. But I just want to play and have the chance to show what I can do.”
“I have nothing but gratitude for what the Canadiens have done for me,” he concluded. “But do I think I can show more? Yes, certainly.”