On the eve of the Memorial Cup final, the most persistent rumors sent Patrick Roy to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Even his lifelong accomplice, André Tourigny, mentioned this scenario during his appearance on BPM Sports on Tuesday afternoon.
The former glory of the Canadian will try Sunday to win the Memorial Cup with the Remparts of Quebec for a second time, after the triumph of 2006.
Columbus would be an interesting destination for the 57-year-old coach. The Blue Jackets are in some ways reminiscent of his first, and only team, the 2013-14 Avalanche.
We had just started an aggressive reconstruction in Colorado. The team’s main leaders, Matt Duchene, Gabriel Landeskog and Ryan O’Reilly, were 22 or younger. Nathan MacKinnon was entering his first season. In defense, Erik Johnson and Tyson Barrie weren’t very old either.
The Avalanche were predicted to be in the bottom of the standings, but under Roy’s leadership, the team had finished atop the central section with a 52-22-8 record and even won its first round of the playoffs. Unsurprisingly, the former Canadian goalkeeper had inherited the Jack-Adams trophy given to the coach par excellence.
Like the Avalanche then, Columbus is under reconstruction. General manager Jarmo Kekalainen resolved to do so after his failed spring 2019 bet, where he attempted a playoff breakthrough with potential unrestricted free agents Sergei Bobrovsky, Artemi Panarin and Matt Duchene.
Kekalainen is forming an interesting core of young firsts. The trade of defenseman Seth Jones to the Chicago Blackhawks in July 2021 remains at the heart of this transformation.
In his first NHL season, 20-year-old forward Kent Johnson, the fifth overall pick in 2021, had 40 points. Center Cole Sillinger, also 20, suffered second-year bad luck after his 31-point rookie season at 18, but that 12e overall pick in 2021 (with one of the picks secured for Seth Jones) remains full of potential.
Two 22-year-old Russian wingers, Kirill Marchenko and Yegor Chinakhov, have joined the team in recent years. Marchenko, a second-round pick in 2018, scored 21 goals in just 59 games last year. Chinakhov, the team’s first choice in 2020, 21e overall, had 13 points in 30 games.
To this core of young people can be added a Leo Carlsson, a Matvei Michkov or a Will Smith since the Blue Jackets hold the third choice in total this summer. Not to mention of course the presence of Johnny Gaudreau and Patrick Laine…
The defense is starting to look interesting. Zack Werenski is only 25 years old. His injury hurt the team last year. Werenski has only played 13 games, but he remains one of the NHL’s fine young defensemen. He had 48 points in just 68 games the previous year.
Obtained in the exchange of Seth Jones, the 22-year-old right-hander Adam Boqvist is not perfect defensively, but his offensive qualities are not in doubt. The eighth overall pick by Chicago in 2018 had 24 points in 46 games last year, pro-rated 43 points from an 82-game season.
At 19, 6-foot-3 Czech right-handed defenseman David Jiricek, sixth overall pick last summer (another product of the Jones trade), had a convincing first year as a pro in the American League with 38 points in 55 games.
The team’s other 2022 first-round pick (12e overall), left-handed defenseman Denton Mateychuk, 18, had 65 points in 63 games at Moose Jaw this winter.
Not only have the Blue Jackets been drafted five times in the first round in the past two years, but they have a second in addition to theirs this summer, the one the Kings got in the trade of rental players Joonas Korpisalo and Vladislav Gavrikov. This choice is located at 22e rank.
Patrick Roy might not win a championship as quickly in Columbus as if he inherited the New York Rangers, for example, but he would have plenty of fun in the coming seasons in Ohio with so many talented youngsters!
Brad Treliving in Toronto
PHOTO LARRY MACDOUGAL, THE CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Brad Treliving
It would therefore be official, the former general manager of the Calgary Flames, Brad Treliving, would succeed Kyle Dubas in Toronto.
Still surprising to see Leafs president Brendan Shanahan appoint a GM whose team has reached the second round of the playoffs only twice in nine years, but also missed the playoffs four times.
Treliving also left the Flames with an aging and overpaid core, unable to make the playoffs. Most of his big acquisitions in the free agent market, James Neal, Troy Brouwer and maybe eventually Nazem Kadri, didn’t work out as expected.
The acquisition a few years ago of Elias Lindholm and Noah Hanifin for Dougie Hamilton, Micheal Ferland and Adam Fox (who refused to sign a contract in Calgary) however paid off big.
Not sure if this is big news in Toronto, but let’s give the runner a chance nonetheless…