When John Tortorella was hired to coach the Blue Jackets in October 2015, the state of the defense was, to be kind, a work in progress.
Only the Calgary Flames allowed more goals (260) than the Blue Jackets (252) in that dreadful season. Worse, the Blue Jackets' team PDO (a statistic to measure luck and its regression) was 99.4, meaning they weren't lucky or unlucky. The defense was bad.
Ryan Murray was arguably the top defenseman, which stands in sharp contrast to where we stand two years later. Fedor Tyutin and Dalton Prout each played 60+ games. Due to injuries, a number of fringe AHL/NHL defensemen were afforded spots they would never recapture in Columbus.
But then came the blockbuster trade: Seth Jones for Ryan Johansen. A rare hockey trade, as they call it: a young, dynamic center with game-breaking ability who had a fractured relationship with the powers-that-be in Columbus, traded for an equally dynamic defenseman with ideal NHL makeup who was buried on an elite depth chart in Nashville.
In many ways, the trade has been a win for both franchises. It gave the Predators a center to compete up the middle in the playoffs, and it provided a major building block on defense for the Blue Jackets.
Jones now makes up one-half of a legitimate top pair alongside Zach Werenski, perhaps the first top pair the Blue Jackets have been able to proudly boast in their history. He was an NHL All-Star last year, and has seen his ice time go up from 19:44 per game in Nashville to 23:46 a night in Columbus. His next regular season NHL game played will be his 316th game in the league, and he'll turn 23 years old in October.
Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman most recent "30 Thoughts" column was headlined by the drama surrounding Colorado Avalanche center Matt Duchene and the ongoing pursuit by several teams (including Columbus), but it also included one other Blue Jackets note: Seth Jones, on the record, conceded that he has the Norris Trophy, which goes to the top defenseman in the NHL, on his mind.
Columbus defenceman Seth Jones admits he also thinks about the Norris. “I do. That’s the goal. I think I have the capability to win one. I hope I’m just starting to grow into the player I’m going to be.”
Friedman goes on to say, "The Blue Jackets are all-in for 2017, and Jones said he understands the next level for him is being a difference-maker every single night. He believes the young players on the roster learned a valuable lesson in the first-round defeat to Pittsburgh."
Jones offered an insightful reflection on the 2016-17 season for both himself and the Blue Jackets.
“We caught people off-guard last year. It was the tip of the iceberg for what we can do. But there’s not a Crosby stopper, there’s not a Malkin stopper. What they do is make the timely plays that are the momentum changers in a series. A lot of our guys had no playoff games. I had one series. What we saw is we have to be able to make the plays when needed under the pressure….In the big moment, that’s where the best players come out, and hopefully we find ourselves in the situation, where, in the big moment, we come out on top.”
Friedman wasn't the only NHL pundit to give some love to Jones, as Alex Tanguay seemed borderline offended that Jones wasn't listed among the top 50 players on NHL Network's latest list.
Blue Jackets fans have every reason to be optimistic about the future of the team. Zach Werenski is also thought to be a perennial Norris Trophy candidate, and he's played just one year in the league. With Jones and Werenski holding down the top pair, the future appears bright and legitimate.
