In 10 years as the general manager of the Blue Jackets, Jarmo Kekalainen has overseen five playoff appearances, one playoff series win, and another qualifying series win. He's also currently overseeing a "reset" that has seen the Blue Jackets miss the playoffs for the last three years including finishing with the league's second-worst record in 2022-23.
During this current phase, Kekalainen has built one of the best prospect pools in the NHL, headlined by Kent Johnson, Kirill Marchenko, David Jiricek, Denton Mateychuk, Cole Sillinger, Dmitri Voronkov, Luca Del Bel Belluz, Jordan Dumais, Stanislav Svozil, and Corson Ceulemans.
Kekalainen deserves credit for building a pool of young talent with potential, but whether or not these prospects pan out in the NHL is probably going to be the determining factor in whether or not he is the Blue Jackets GM beyond the 2024-25 season when his contract expires.
During Saturday's media availability after he fired Brad Larsen and made his third coaching change as GM, Kekalainen made it pretty clear what he expects from the team next season.
"We want to get back into the playoffs," Kekalainen said. "We've had enough of being on the outside looking in and watching the playoffs on TV."
That sounds like a GM that is heading into the 2023 off-season with a playoff-or-bust mentality.
As of now, I do not believe the Blue Jackets are going to be a playoff team in the 2023-24 season. However, it's April, and the next season doesn't start for six months, so we have a lot of time, including events like the draft and free agency, until then. Furthermore, there must be monumental changes made before next season, which Kekalainen alluded to Saturday.
"There's gonna be some changes, too," Kekalainen said. "We're going to look at every position and we're going to make the necessary changes."
If Kekalainen is sounding like this regarding the playoffs, should that be the expectation? Maybe not for next season, but if this team doesn't make the necessary moves and subsequent improvement not just next year, but in the next two years, there needs to be a change at GM.
Make no mistake though, Kekalainen has earned the right to see out the rest of his contract, and perhaps even longer, as the prospects he's accumulated should produce wins sooner rather than later. But, this is a results-driven business, and one playoff series win in a decade just isn't good enough.
It will be easier to have this discussion in September, and even easier around American Thanksgiving.
