The opinions vary greatly.
"David Jiricek is going to be a star. The Columbus Blue Jackets would be foolish to trade him."
"He stinks. They should move him right now for whatever they can get."
"He clearly wants a trade, but the Blue Jackets won't do it."
"He wants to be in with the team, but the Blue Jackets don't want him."
"He should be in Columbus."
"He should be in Cleveland."
Okay — those aren't exact quotes, but damn if they aren't close. Instead, that is the general range in takes that have surfaced from the Blue Jackets' faithful in recent days, as well as pundits and insiders from around the league.
Jiricek, the sixth overall draft pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, has played a total of just 53 games with the Blue Jackets over the last three seasons. In that time, he's scored one goal and added ten assists for 11 points.
In just six games with Columbus this season, Jiricek had one assist, a -2 plus/minus, and averaged only 11:12 per game. He was loaned to the AHL's Cleveland Monsters last week and had the game-winning goal in overtime Sunday in just his second game back with the team.
The career trajectory of Jiricek is still unknown — there isn't a human being out there that knows if Jiricek is going to be a top-line All-Star blueliner or AHL journeyman who spends the next decade on two-way contracts. Anyone who claims to know or is convinced one way or the other is fooling themselves.
But does he want a trade and are the Blue Jackets willing to move him? Those, we have some intel on.
Tuesday, NHL insider Frank Seravalli reported on his Daily Faceoff podcast that he believes it's a matter of when, and not if, the Blue Jackets move Jiricek — and that a move is close.
"(President of Hockey Operations and General Manager) Don Waddell has 5 to 6 concrete offers on the table that he's evaluating," said Seravalli, and listed the Minnesota Wild, Pittsburgh Penguins, Philadelphia Flyers, San Jose Sharks, and Buffalo Sabres as potential suitors.
As for a potential return, Seravalli said that the team is looking for a "young, top-end pick or prospect or potentially a package of players."
The tone was different from Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic. He said, also Tuesday, that "Columbus is trying to sort through where the best offers are coming from and initially focus on trying to get another prospect like him sort of type of deal."
Johnston, speaking on his Insider Trading podcast, added that he "think(s) Columbus is shifting into draft pick packages." He said that there has not been an official trade request, but described Jiricek as "a player that wants a fresh start."
ESPN's Emily Kaplan said Wednesday to "expect something to get done quite soon" on The Hockey PDOCast, saying that Jiricek is "very available" and that she believes the Blue Jackets "have narrowed it down to a handful of teams."
New PDOcast with @emilymkaplan:
— Dimitri Filipovic (@DimFilipovic) November 27, 2024
Rangers in crisis mode + their activity on trade market
Brandon Hagel's monster season + Four Nations case
Penguins plans right now
Michkov's development
How the Hawks are using Bedard this yearhttps://t.co/JoQ0LTu67i
Aaron Portzline of The Athletic has said on several occasions that Waddell is listening but that he (Portzline) doesn't feel like anything is imminent, as some others do.
So, where is all this coming from? Let's go back to the summer of 2022, piece it together from there, and see what led us here:
How Did We Get Here With Jiricek?
Shortly after being drafted, Jiricek impressed mightily at both the World Junior Championships and in training camp, but did not make the Blue Jackets 2022-23 opening night roster in his rookie season.
He would be called up just two weeks into the season but played in only two games before being sent back to the Cleveland. Jiricek would play in two more games with the Blue Jackets in the final two weeks of the season as an end-of-the-season look-see.
Jiricek made the roster last season (2023-24), when it was insinuated by the Blue Jackets last regime that he would be with Columbus for good.
That was not the case, however, with Jiricek bouncing between Columbus and Cleveland for much of the 2023-24 campaign. Over a 16-day stretch in January of this year, Jiricek:
- Played in one game (1/9)
- Was scratched for the next two (1/12 and 1/15)
- Sent to Cleveland (1/18)
- Played two games with Cleveland (1/19 and 1/20)
- Was recalled by Columbus (1/21)
- Was scratched for one game (1/23)
- Was sent back to Cleveland two days later (1/25)
At the end of the sequence — which was Jiricek's fourth demotion to Cleveland in three months — Portzline reported that the moves "raised eyebrows all season, and it reached a boiling point this week." He would go on to call the relationship "strained", while Elliotte Friedman of SportsNet called it "a big problem."
Jiricek was no fan of the situation earlier: “I played good hockey in the NHL. I’m an NHL player right now. That’s my opinion, that I should be in the NHL right now," he said.
Jiricek continued: “They told me the last game was not good enough for me. I told them I don’t think so, but that’s your opinion. I was out of the lineup after that. A whole month now, it feels like I haven’t played.”
Nonetheless, Jiricek would end up playing 43 games with the Blue Jackets last season, with his ice-time varying: he played less than 12 minutes six times, and more than 18 minutes five teams. The metrics — both simplified and advanced — showed that Jiricek struggled more often than not. That's not a huge surprise for a 20-year-old defenseman trying to make it in the NHL, but it would be fair to say that the organization was hoping for more from their sixth overall pick.
This offseason, when Waddell was brought in as the President of Hockey Operations and General Manager and Dean Evason was hired as head coach, they promised a clean slate for everyone — including Jiricek.
But again, the organization (and a new regime) was underwhelmed with what they saw, sending Jiricek back to Cleveland on November 20th.
“I watched him last year when I got the opportunity to come here for the playoffs in Cleveland and thought he played very, very well not just defensively, but offensively (too)," said Waddell. "For whatever reason, it hasn’t gone as smoothly, the transition to the NHL."
"So, we just made a decision. Let him go play games in Cleveland and we’ll see how it goes.”
Did The Blue Jackets Mismanage Jiricek?
This regime? No.
The last one? Probably so.
Former general manager Jarmo Kekalainen gave mixed messages last season, saying "it’s best for his development to play against NHL players and practice against NHL players," before moments later adding "but if he’s not playing here, he needs to play in the American League because he needs to play."
At around the same time, former Blue Jackets coach Pascal Vincent made what some could take as a jab against Jiricek, saying: "I get it. My daughter wants her own car. She’s 13 years old. It’s the Amazon effect. Everybody wants it now.”
These aren't exactly ringing endorsements from Kekalainen and Vincent, who at the beginning of the 2024 calendar year were the two leading voices in the organization. Mix that with the tribulations of getting to know I-71 better than the Ohio State Highway Patrol, and his frustration last season was more than warranted.
This season, though? The argument could be made that it was more on the player than the brass.
Evason played very veteran defenseman Jack Johnson most nights over Jiricek, and the team wasted no time in picking up Dante Fabbro off waivers November 10th. Even when Jiricek did crack the lineup this season — just six times — he was rarely on the ice in key situations.
The holes in his game, primarily tied to his skating ability and below-average speed, didn't seem to be improving. There was (and remains) buzz that Jiricek does not seem to make much of an effort to address these concerns.
For a franchise that has turned "This Is Earned ... Not Given" into its key message in warp speed, that's not good. Jiricek's play despite his lack of growth would have went exactly against that message; one that plays on the big screen before every home game and is tattooed in large print in the locker room.
In a "State of the Team" address before the November 16th game against the Montreal Canadiens, Waddell said that the team simply hadn't "seen enough to keep him (in the lineup) on a regular basis":
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
Four days later, Jiricek was sent to the Monsters.
When asked about a potential trade of Jiricek, Waddell was non-committal. “I have to listen to every trade offer,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what the player’s name is."
Those comments, along with multiple reports from around the league, began to make it clear that a trade of Jiricek was more than an option; it was likely.
Where Do We Go From Here?
Let's be candid: Jiricek's fit with the Blue Jackets is not ideal.
Evason's system commands a few things out of his defensemen: be aggressive, be quick, and be able jump into the play. Not every system is like that — the proof of that can be seen the last couple of seasons, particularly with Vincent, who wanted his blueliners to play it safe and stay back.
For an example of what Evason's system can do for a defenseman who plays to those strengths, see: Werenski, Zach. You know, the Top Star in the NHL last week and the 20 points in 20 games defenseman who was already phenomenal and is now getting some Norris Trophy talk.
The issue here is that the speed and skating required by Evason's system has never been a strength of Jiricek, and it would probably be a good bet to assume that if Evason and Waddell ran things for the Blue Jackets in 2022, they would have drafted someone else.
That does not mean Jiricek is a bad player and it does not mean that he won't be a long-term, NHL defenseman.
But his identity and Columbus' defensive identity just don't mesh.
Combine that with everything above, and this gets us to the point we're at. Jiricek's frustration is valid and warranted in every now.
So too, though, is the desire for Columbus to see more.
And that is the perfect scenario to make a trade, provided the Blue Jackets get a reasonable offer and one that they feel can improve their club now and in the future.
What might that return look like? It's hard to say.
Will there even be a trade? Not if they don't feel they're getting fair-market value for him. The relationship seems damaged, but is it damaged beyond repair? There are only a few people who can answer that: Waddell, Evason, Jiricek, Jiricek's agent Allan Walsh, and maybe a few close friends or family members.
Here's what isn't hard to say though: Waddell and Evason are new to the organization but they've done nothing so far that should cause even the slightest bit of ire from the fans.
Let's trust them to make the right decision.
