President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Don Waddell has done nearly everything right in his first campaign with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
But if David Jiricek is still in Columbus by the time this week is over, Waddell will have made his first misstep with the club.
Before Saturday night's game, Waddell spoke with Jody Shelley and Steve Mears on FanDuel Sports Network to talk about the first month and change of the 2024-25 season. When asked about Jiricek, Waddell did not mince words.
"We haven't seen enough to keep him in (the lineup) on a regular basis," said Waddell.
To Jiricek's case, Waddell did admit that the soon-to-be 21-year-old (his birthday is November 28th) hasn't been given much of an opportunity. His five games played and average of just 11:47 per game in those games have worked against him, but for a franchise that is preaching everything must be earned and not given, the limited action is a clear indication that the coaching staff doesn't feel that Jiricek has earned more of a chance.
Waddell on Jiricek: "The games he's played, to be fair, maybe he hasn't had a great opportunity. ... But in those games, we haven't seen enough to keep him in there on a regular basis. We're going to have to make some decisions here in the upcoming week about what we do." #CBJ
— 1st Ohio Battery (@1stOhioBattery) November 17, 2024
In answering the question about Jiricek, Waddell mentioned that forward Kent Johnson was likely going to be coming back from injured reserve in the coming week.
"We're going to have to make some decisions here in the upcoming week about what we do."
For Johnson to be activated, the Blue Jackets would need to deactivate someone and, pending (another) injury, that would mean either waiving someone or sending someone down to AHL Cleveland.
That player must be Jiricek.
It seems like Jiricek has been around forever, but as the sixth overall pick in 2022, he's the second-youngest player in Columbus at the present time, behind Adam Fantilli. Forwards typically make their NHL debuts much earlier and with much less of a learning curve than defensemen, so that's not much of a surprise.
In fact, there are only four players — Pavel Mintyukov (ANA), Kevin Korchinski (CHI), Simon Nemec (NJ), and Lane Hutson (MTL) — who have played at least 15 NHL games younger than Jiricek.
It's not "too late" for Jiricek to become an impactful, shutdown defenseman in the NHL. The expectations were perhaps too gaudy in that department and that has played into what seems to be a manufactured rush for Jiricek to become a top guy right away. With a few rare exceptions, most NHL defenseman aren't impact players at age 20 (or even 21, or 22 for that matter). If Jiricek were to not play another NHL game until opening night next season, he would still be a 21-year-old regular NHL defenseman — still ahead of the curve.
There's also not going to be an opportunity for Jiricek to get quality NHL minutes anytime soon. The Blue Jackets have rolled with eight defensemen most of the season and with the recent addition of Dante Fabbro, the ceiling for Jiricek in 2024-25 appears to be scattered appearances on the third pairing. In other words: not enough for him to develop, but more than enough to stunt his growth.
For the continued development of Jiricek, ice time is vital. He would get that in Cleveland, likely alongside Denton Mateychuk, and there's still an excellent chance the two of them see years of ice time together at Nationwide Arena. Building that chemistry in Cleveland wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, and he could do that while fixing the holes in his game that the organization sees as liabilities.
More than any of this, it gives the new Blue Jackets brass time and space to gain the trust in him that the last regime had. When he was hired, Waddell said that he didn't ask any of the current coaches or other management folks for their opinions on the current players; he wanted to form his own. We don't truly know how he (and head coach Dean Evason) feel about Jiricek beyond the fact that they don't feel he's ready to be a contributor to the big-league defense in 2024-25.
One option that's been circulated is trading him. It's come up several times over the last number of months, including last week on Elliotte Friedman's 32 Thoughts podcast:
Friedman on 32TP talking how #CBJ claiming Fabbro affects Jiricek: "He's (Don Waddell) a new GM so he wouldn't have the same attachment to Jiricek like a Jarmo Keklinen would have, so what does that mean for a player there?"
— NHL Watcher (@NHL_Watcher) November 12, 2024
Trading him doesn't seem like the right thing to do at this point. The return would not be equal — nowhere near it, probably — and again, we're not talking about a 26-year-old who has. Jiricek is still not old enough to drink. Moving him via trade is much more likely to bite the organization than it is help.
So move him to Cleveland, let him sort out what the club feels is holding him back, let the trust be rebuilt, and give him the ice time that he needs to grow as a player.
There's a caveat to all of this: once he goes to the Monsters, he can't come back this season. The previous Blue Jackets administration fumbled Jiricek's handling, telling him to "get a place in Columbus" when they really should've told him to get familiar with I-71. A team can only recall a player (only to demote him again) so many times before that player is, for lack of a better term, over it.
The Blue Jackets are likely nearing that point, but if they handle the situation right from here out, there's no reason the relationship — and a great career for Jiricek in Columbus — can't be saved.
