What It Meant For Everyone When 'Johnny Hockey' Chose Columbus

By Will Chase on September 2, 2024 at 1:45 pm
Columbus Blue Jackets left wing Johnny Gaudreau tosses a stick into the crowd after the game the Nashville Predators at Nationwide Arena.
Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports
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On July 13, 2022, the shockwaves reverberated all over social media.

The Columbus Blue Jackets were signing Johnny Gaudreau.

From the instant reaction of the signing to those all around the NHL wondering aloud in amazement, questioning the why of it all.

Everyone outside of Columbus couldn't fathom why the top player on the open market was choosing to take his talents to Central Ohio. Gaudreau set the league on fire in 2021-22, scoring career-highs with 115 points, 40 goals, and 75 assists. He was +64, playing all 82 games, and setting high marks in just about every offensive category you could measure.

The seven-year, $68.25 million contract is the richest deal ever made by the Blue Jackets franchise in free agency or otherwise. As the story went, the Blue Jackets historically have had a hard time convincing players, top players in the game, to come to Columbus.

It didn't take much convincing to lure Gaudreau. He was the one who sought out the Blue Jackets.

It wasn't all about money for Gaudreau.

He accepted less than he could have made with the Calgary Flames, the team whom he played parts of nine seasons with before two seasons in Columbus. He could have made more with teams like his hometown New Jersey Devils. In the end, much of Gaudreau's reasoning for signing with Columbus was centered not only on playing hockey but also on family. 

The Blue Jackets were not thought of as a team to be major players in free agency heading into the 2022-23 season.

In 2021-22, the first season of the post-John Tortorella era under new head coach Brad Larsen, the Blue Jackets were surprisingly more competitive than most would have thought, managing a near .500 record all season, which culminated in a final record of 37-38-7 and an 81-point finish. Still, 19 points out of the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.

When news became reality that the Blue Jackets were signing Gaudreau, the best player in free agency that offseason, it might have shifted internal expectations of where the team was and just how close they were to being a competitive team as it pertained to making the playoffs.

Gaudreau's signing in Columbus brought jubilation to a franchise that long-awaited a superstar. A franchise ready to feel wanted and ready to shed the label that it wasn't a hockey destination.

Gaudreau knew so much of what other players, including the many players who have played in Columbus, already knew. That it was a great city and community to raise a family which is among the chief reasons the Gaudreau's, Jonny and his wife Meredith with a baby on the way, picked Columbus as their next home. The couple had their second baby in early 2024.

Our Ed Francis wonderfully detailed that summer what it meant for the city and the franchise to have its superstar, while simultaneously answering back at the many critics who chastised Gaudreau for making such a decision to come to Columbus.

RELATED Enough, Already: Johnny Gaudreau Doesn't Owe Anyone An Explanation — But Here's One On His Behalf, Anyway

Who can forget the introductory press conference with a wide-smiling 5-foot-9, 163-pound Gaudreau eager to face the media for the first time as a Blue Jacket and talk about his excitement for what was ahead?

"I wanted to come here," Gaudreau said in response to a reporter's question about how so many players have previously not wanted to come to Columbus.

Who can forget the excitement of the Blue Jackets home opener against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Oct. 14, 2022, when Gaudreau scored the game's first goal — his first as a Blue Jacket — at the 2:21 mark of the first period?

Columbus lost the game 5-2 but Gaudreau made his mark fast.

Who can forget Gaudreau's first game back in Calgary on Jan. 23, 2023, facing the boos, the cheers, and the jeers from a fanbase that grew to love him?

As fate would have it, Gaudreau was awarded a penalty shot in the first period, which he did not convert on, but did finish the game with two assists in a 4-3 overtime loss.

Commonly referred to as Johnny Hockey going back to his Boston College days, Gaudreau won the Hobey Baker Award in 2014-15 as the best college player in the nation.

In 2016-17, he won the Lady Byng Trophy, which is awarded annually to the player who best combines sportsmanship, gentlemanly conduct, and ability.

Because of his undersized stature, so many doubted he could make it in the NHL, but Gaudreau transcended the game with his natural skill, becoming a seven-time NHL All-Star.

And yet, as great as he was on the ice, he was even better off of it as Gaudreau was more than a hockey player. He was a person who made a mission of giving back to his community.

In the wake of Thursday's tragedy that claimed the lives of Gaudreau and his brother Matthew, it's two lives cut way too short, an entire family left reeling by the losses of two sons, brothers, husbands, and friends. We saw those all around local communities far and wide share in moments of silence and tributes for the Gaudreau brothers.

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