July 23, 2021.
That date was an important one for two hockey clubs, both thought to be trending in opposite directions.
Two of the biggest trades in #CBJ history happened on this date.
— Jeff Svoboda (@JacketsInsider) July 23, 2023
In 2012, Rick Nash was dealt to the New York Rangers for three players and a draft pick.
In 2021, Seth Jones went to Chicago for Adam Boqvist and draft picks.
For the Columbus Blue Jackets, it marked the official end of Seth Jones' time in the Union blue sweater. For the Chicago Blackhawks, Jones was supposed to be one of the main cogs to reignite the Hawks' status as an NHL heavyweight.
The idea of being a contender didn't work out for the Blackhawks as they're fully immersed in their own long rebuild now, although Connor Bedard softens the blow, and the Blue Jackets are trying to trend back towards contention status, also feeling good about themselves with additions like Adam Fantilli.
And though the Jackets would miss Jones' production, the trade meant a haul of valuable assets coming back the other way.
Adam Boqvist, Jake Bean, via the Hurricanes in which the Jackets traded their second-round pick acquired from Chicago to Carolina for Bean, the No. 12 pick in 2021 which turned into Cole Sillinger, and the conditional first-round pick that wound up to be David Jiricek in 2022.
The Blackhawks knew the sure thing they were getting in Jones and the two agreed to a long, eight-year, $76 million deal with an AAV of $9.5 million. They also received the 32nd pick in the 2021 draft, a pick that Columbus received from the Tampa Bay Lightning and turned out to be Nolan Allan and a 2022 sixth-round pick.
Just as you never really know how players and bloated contracts will age, you never really know how draft picks are going to turn out but the Jackets did well at the time of the trade.
And they stand to do well as we progress into the future. Perhaps very well.
In the two years since the trade, Boqvist has dealt with an injury-plagued start to his career. Though he's never cracked more than 52 games in parts of four NHL seasons, the positive is he's still only 22 years old and we started seeing his strengths when health allowed him back on the ice last season.
Boqvist was limited to 46 games in 2022-23, with all but one coming after December as he missed half the season with a broken foot. Then the points started coming with nine assists in January, 12 points in February and March (five goals, seven assists), and two assists in six April games.
The 24 points set a career-high as did the 19 assists and nine power-play points, the latter of which placed him in a tie for fifth on the club which is crazy in its own rate. That's more an indictment of the shoddy, ongoing power play woes.
Boqvist's now in the second year of a three-year contract signed prior to last season and if he can find a way to curb the rotten injury luck, he could be in line for a significant breakout season.
It's going to be interesting to see where Boqvist can slot into the defensive pairings for next season. After Zach Werenski, Damon Severson, and Ivan Provorov, you have Erik Gudbranson penciled into the third pairing, in all likelihood and because of his contract, Andrew Peeke, Jiricek looming possibly as early as this season, Nick Blankenburg, and Boqvist. And there are more.
Maybe a trade happens, and of course you can never really have enough depth when you're talking about defense and the Blue Jackets being plagued by injuries, but there is a surplus that exists on the blue line.
And talking about injured defensemen, don't forget about Bean.
Bean was reduced to 14 games last season with a shoulder injury and is also looking to reclaim his spot somewhere on the back end. He's entering the last of a three-year deal signed in 2021 before he's eligible for arbitration as an RFA after next season.
It's a big season for Bean as he plays for his future contract, and for whichever team he's playing on now and for the future. If that team is Columbus, he'll have had a big year to cement himself as a regular.
The 20-year-old Sillinger struggled last season and we covered three questions surrounding him and his season ahead. It's hard enough trying to get a pulse of prospects, and though Sillinger is already entering his third NHL season, he still basically feels like a prospect.
A very good first season followed by a sophomore slump and he's as much an unknown right now as anyone. But he does have 143 NHL games of experience under his belt and whether it's regaining confidence or just entering a new year and getting a fresh start with a new head coach, it could be enough to reignite the first-year spark we saw.
Jiricek is going to be part of the Blue Jackets blue line very soon and we recently talked about his status among the top 50 prospects as written by The Athletic's Scott Wheeler.
When evaluating the Jones return two years later, if even half of the return can become major contributors at the NHL level for the Jackets, it will be a win. Jiricek could have something to say about that all by himself.
In addition to who the Blue Jackets were able to net as a direct and indirect result of the trade is the amount of cap space that was made available by moving on from Jones. For instance, does the Johnny Gaudreau addition happen a year later?
Trades are fun to revisit after the fact and see how the pendulum sways. Right now, it's hard to argue the impact it's having on the Blue Jackets.
