FILE - Columbus Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen appears during a news conference about the death of goaltender Matiss Kivlenieks, Wednesday, July 7, 2021, in Columbus, Ohio. The Columbus Blue Jackets have fired general manager Jarmo Kekalainen. President of hockey operations John Davidson made the move Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024, midway through Kekalainen’s 11th full season on the job.
Adam Cairns | The Columbus Dispatch
The Columbus Blue Jackets fired general manager Jarmo Kekalainen on Thursday, ending his time on the job after more than a decade.
President of hockey operations John Davidson made the call midway through Kekalainen’s 11th full season on the job and three weeks before the trade deadline. Kekalainen was the third-longest tenured GM in the NHL.
Davidson and the hockey operations team will assume GM duties on an interim basis until a full-time replacement is hired.
“This is one of the hardest days I have had in my career as Jarmo is a friend, someone I have a great deal of respect for and someone who has done a lot of good things during his time here,” Davidson said in a statement. “While the future of our club is bright, our performance has not been good enough, and it is time for a fresh perspective as we move forward.”
The move comes with the Blue Jackets in last place in the Eastern Conference and on track to miss the playoffs for a fourth consecutive year.
It’s also several months since the botched hiring of coach Mike Babcock, who was forced to resign on the eve of training camp for his conduct with players.
Ownership, after Kekalainen and Davidson named Pascal Vincent coach following the Babcock fiasco, said in September there would not be any front office changes at that time. But the heat was clearly on given the lack of success since the franchise’s last playoff appearance in 2020.
“On behalf of our ownership group, I’d like to thank Jarmo for his hard work and commitment over the past 11 years,” majority owner John P. McConnell said. “He and Tiina, and their daughters, are special people who will always be a part of our Blue Jackets family and I wish them the very best in the next chapter of their lives.”
Only St. Louis’ Doug Armstrong, hired by the Blues in 2010, and Winnipeg’s Kevin Cheveldayoff in 2011, had been in a GM post in the league longer than Kekalainen, who replaced Scott Howson midseason nearly 11 years ago to the date in 2013.
Kekalainen inherited Todd Richards as coach, and Columbus reached the playoffs in his first full season in 2013-14. He fired Richards seven games and seven losses into 2015-16 and replaced him with Stanley Cup-winning coach John Tortorella, who guided the Blue Jackets to four consecutive postseason appearances — the organization’s longest sustained stretch of success since its inception at the turn of the century.
Tortorella and the team parted ways in 2021, and Kekalainen hired Brad Larsen, then fired him two lackluster seasons later. Hiring Babcock, whose old-school coaching tactics had drawn sharp criticism from current and former players, last summer was a major risk for Kekalainen and Davidson but one they thought would be worth it given his winning track record.
Instead, word emerged that Babcock had asked to see personal photos on players’ phones. The NHLPA launched an investigation, Babcock resigned and Vincent — an assistant under Larsen who had also been under consideration for the gig originally — was elevated to take his place.
The results under Vincent have been underwhelming. The Blue Jackets have won just 16 of their first 52 games, star players such as Johnny Gaudreau have been benched late in games and more significant changes beyond the firing of Kekalainen could be coming when the regular season is over in April.
