It's the homecoming so many Columbus Blue Jacket fans wanted to see.
According to a report from Brian Hedger and Michael Arace of The Columbus Dispatch, the Blue Jackets will bring back John Davidson as their president of hockey operations, the position he held in Columbus from 2012 until his 2019 departure for the New York Rangers.
Davidson's stint in New York was a quick one with team owner James Dolan firing him and general manager Jeff Gorton on May 5, after the Rangers failed to make the postseason.
With the Blue Jackets pulling the trigger on bringing Davidson back, he will return to the franchise he helped build from the bottom of the league into a club that made the postseason four-straight seasons. According to the Dispatch report, Davidson's hiring could be announced as soon as Thursday.
During his first tenure in Columbus, Davidson changed the Blue Jackets' culture and gave the city of Columbus a winning team. He hired Jarmo Kekalainen, who has been largely successful in his role within the front office. When Davidson arrived in Columbus, he inherited a club that had made the playoffs once in its first 11 seasons. They made it four times in Davidson's seven years with the Blue Jackets.
In Davidson's statement when he resigned in order to join the Rangers in 2019, he had a great deal of praise for the organization.
"I am extremely proud of the work we’ve done over the past seven years and know that one of the challenges before me now will be competing against this group moving forward," said Davidson.
Now, he'll get a second shot at building Columbus into a winner.
