‘We’ve done a lot of losing and it sucks’: A conversation with Columbus Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen

Things couldn’t be much worse for the Columbus Blue Jackets right now. Losers of their last eight games, the Jackets currently sit two points behind the Detroit Red Wings in dead last of the Central Division standings.

Columbus GM Jarmo Kekalainen joined Jason Gregor and Frank Seravalli on this week’s episode of the DFO Rundown Podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts.

The interview opened with Kekalainen talking about Elvis Merzlikins’ candid comments after Thursday night’s loss, when the Columbus netminder described the club’s recent run of games as “painful”.

“I think that feeling is shared by the coaches, management, players, and the fans,” said Kekalainen. “We’ve done a lot of winning, especially in the regular season in the years past and created a winning culture, and we had to make some hard decisions at the deadline here and nobody thought it would be easy after that, but it’s been even maybe harder than we thought.”

The Blue Jackets may have been sellers at the deadline, but it sure sounds like they plan to retool on the fly and quickly leave this season in the rearview mirror. Columbus has three first-round picks in this year’s draft, and will look to immensely bolster their prospect pool heading into next season.

Columbus has worked hard to produce a “winning culture” and Kekalainen fully expects his club to come back next year ready to compete.

“At the end of the day this is also a good experience for everybody kind of knowing what this feeling is like, and never wanting to experience that again. We’ve done a lot of winning and that feels great and everybody’s in a good mood. Well now, we’ve done a lot of losing and it sucks so you definitely don’t want to go through something like this again. We’ll take that lesson into next year and prepare accordingly, and come back strong.”

Kekalainen also gave a vote of confidence to his club’s head coach, John Tortorella.

“I’m sure he would be the first one to tell you that it’s been a grind. He’s the winningest coach, he was born a coach for a reason and it’s been hard on him too. We talk about it every day, it’s been a totally different experience than what we’ve had and what we’ve tried to build here in the last few years. We can’t wait to get through it and turn a new page, that’s for sure. I just met with him this morning again, like we do a lot of different mornings, and talk about things like the culture and individuals and what we need to do. He’s very passionate about it, and he’s a great coach so I’m sure it hurts.”

The club has some solid core pieces and has notoriously been incredibly mindful of their salary cap during Kekalianen’s tenure, with nobody on the roster currently making more than $5.9 million (Winnipeg retained 26% of Laine’s $6.75 million cap hit).

The Columbus GM said he certainly isn’t closed off to the idea of paying big money for some players, as long as they’re ones that fit into what the Jackets are trying to build.

“I think it seems inevitable but I’d be happy to do that with a guy like Seth Jones or Zach Werenski for example. They’re a huge part of our team and will be hopefully moving into the future because I think they’re great professionals both of them are really good players but also great professionals and teammates and leaders. It’s the inevitable progression but I think that you have to be disciplined in order to, to be able to follow that progression with the players that you feel are the core of your team and then you need to have that room to be able to fit them in.”

You can listen to all of Episode 22 of the DFO Rundown Podcast wherever you get your podcasts or by clicking here.