What Will The Columbus Blue Jackets Do This Offseason? | Jet Greaves Flying High For The Monsters
Jack grees has been the MVP for the monsters all season he’s continuing that in the playoffs we’re going to talk about their first game over the Syracuse Crunch and uh we got some mailbag questions to get to as well so that’s all coming up today on lock on Blue Jackets you’re locked on Blue Jacket your daily podcast on the Columbus Blue Jacket Part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day hello and welcome to locked on Blue Jackets part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day I am as always your host Jay Foster here to give you the Good the Bad and the Ugly about your favorite team and mine the Columbus Blue Jackets before we get started I want to thank everyone for making this your first list of the day every single day locked on Blue Jackets is free and available on all podcast platforms and over on YouTube We also available on uh Sirius XM just look up locked on blue jacket on the sxm app and you can find us there as well I also have to let you know that today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time download the game time app create an account use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase terms apply now we’re doing another it’s a notot of BU just Monday but I felt like we needed to talk about that performance by the monsters in game one of the North Division final because uh Jack gaves just continues to be the absolute man um they are up one nothing on the crunch uh after a one nothing win uh Jack Greaves his first postseason shut out he made 28 of 28 saves Justin Pearson with the short-handed uh game-winning goal that was the only goal that was scored like if I’m the crunch I’m so mad about this game because the so much like so much happened and so little of it was of any consequence you know um so I want to talk a little bit about the game I want to talk a about Jack Greaves who uh has played five career playoff games and has a record of four and one with one shut out uh a 952 sa percentage which is now the best in the NHL now that um Eric Portillo has uh become human again uh he has dropped all the way down to a 922 which is still extremely good but it’s been a rough couple of games for him over in the over in the Pacific Division um Jack Greaves standing alone at the with AHL goalies 952 save percentage 1.47 goals against average uh of the teams that are still in it he has played uh he’s allowed only eight goals in five games which is the same as uh Hunter Shepard who uh of the other eight goalies that are still in this in this matchup he has allowed the fewest so I’m going to go ahead and and say that all all of this is to say that Jack Graves has been the monster MVP basically all season long like he was what third in the league in wins um in his third season tried for second in the league in wins excuse me um with 30 wins in uh 46 games he only lost 16 games all season had a 910 sa percentage in the regular season has elevated himself in playoffs a lot of people were saying that you know he he’s too small for playoff hockey he’s too small to be an impact maker at this level um he is generously six foot tall I having stood next to him I don’t think he quite hits six foot tall but hey if he wants to put that on his stat she I’m not gonna I’m not gonna um argue with him about it uh but he’s he has just been truly excellent for the monsters this season in the postseason um like even the one game that the monsters lost he still had a 923 save percentage and he’s been getting better as the games go on so game one 923 game two 923 game three these are all against Belleville 951 game four against Belleville which was the Series winner 970 game one against Syracuse Crunch a 100 save percentage uh like he has been genuinely excellent and like the monsters have had other players that are that are succeeding it’s very much still kind of a scoring by committee for them um they don’t have a player in the top 20 in League scoring um currently the leading scorer is Justin Pearson who is uh a a rookie he has two goals two assists in five games and then they’ve got a handful of guys that have three points like it’s it is very much like scoring by committee 15 of the 23 so 22 because that includes jeary uh of the 22 players that they’ve used so far um 15 of them have a point and of the like of the guys that haven’t blankenberg Malatesta okab have only played one game each J Christenson has played two games the only players that have played in all of the series so far that don’t have points are Roman asan Luca delbel blo and Alex whan um which all all three like all three of those names surprise me actually I would have thought that Shan and delb especially would uh would have racked up at least a couple of points by now but like Trey fix he has two assists in five games he was he was excellent for the b in the regular season hasn’t figured it out in the postseason yet he’ll he’ll figure it out um David Urich three points in five games again a guy that I was expecting a little bit more from um the monsters are really struggling offensively at the minute um they have scored I want to say like 12 goals total yeah they’ve scored 12 goals total they’ve allowed eight um they’re four they’re like the they’re four in one in the postseason so far um I’m not like worried worried but of the teams that are still alive in uh in the in the uh in the playoffs they have uh scored I believe the fewest of any of the of any of the teams that are left so the rain have scored 24 the Firebirds have scored 23 uh the Admirals have scored 20 the Hershey Bears have scored 18 the Wolfpack have scored 17 the Griffins have scored 16 the crunch have scored 16 and then it’s the monsters in last place uh with uh only 12 goals scored so like they are really struggling on the offense side of things and J Greaves is bailing them out but I don’t know how long he can continue to to do that like I’m looking at guys like trffic sansy to step up I’m looking at guys like um Owen singer to step up mely he’s he’s TI for second other the team is scoring right now but I want more than three points in five games you know he had a really good first series against um against Belleville I want him to step it up you know like it’s it feels wild to me that Justin Pearson is leaving this team in scoring right now uh because in the regular season he had 22 points in 66 games for the monsters um and now he’s got four points in five games in the playoffs so like what’s happening here um nothing nothing nothing satisfying is happening here except for like Justus a p it’s great that he’s leading the team at scor but like cyinder EK pure uh d trafix walansky uh maau like I want Del B Balo like I want these guys to be contributing more than they are right now because they can’t say they can’t out goalie their their scoring Wes um or maybe they can who knows maybe Jack Greaves can just continue playing like he is and they can win every game one I that feels extremely unlikely it could happen um but right now J GES has been the Undisputed MVP of this team for extremely good reasons now I’m asking the rest of the team to kind of Step Up get involved you’re playing against a a goalie for the crunch who admittedly has played extremely well so far um in Brandon Halverson uh who has a 920 save percentage and a 2.06 scores against average he’s three and three in the playoffs so far um but also he’s got like 12 AHL games total he’s played uh this is his first postseason per okay he’s got 66 regular season games he played 14 games for the crunch this season and previous to that didn’t hadn’t played since the 2019 2020 season where he played two games for the TUC on road runners like that was his last AHL experience before this um you’re playing you’re playing against the guy that you can beat like you should be putting numbers up on this guy and it’s they’re just not and hopefully they figure it out I have faith in them to figure it out but we’ll see um game two is today this afternoon at I want to say 3 p.m. Eastern um so in like eight hours as of the time of recording this but um I want more from this team which sounds stupid when you look at like the record like Jay they’re 4 and one and they’re up one nothing in the series like they’re in and they’ve still got two home games to play um so they’re in Cleveland tonight uh or this afternoon and then they go to Syracuse for two games and then they come back for an a game five if necessary um in in Cleveland so you know it’s everything is fine everything is looking good however I want more from this team this team can give us more you know I feel very much like they haven’t even reached their final form yet so show me show me more show me show me what you can actually do because I I believe that this team has even more to give um going to take a quick break and then I’ve got a couple of mailbag questions uh that I uh that I’m really interested to answer actually so uh we’ll get into those in just a second here unlocks our Blue Jackets first I’m going tell you about game time uh because it’s the only okay here’s the thing it’s the only ticketing app that I use right now um I used to use other inferior ticketing services and I when I found game time I was like oh this is just so much better they’ve got kill last minute deals they’ve got Allin prices they’ve got views from your seat they’ve got a lower price the lowest price guarantee they take the guesswork out of buying tickets the NHL playoffs are happening at the minute the NBA playoffs are happening at the minute you can get tickets for both of those things at game time and you can get better prices at game time than uh basically any other ticketing service like I said they’ve got this lowest price guarantee so if you find the your tickets in your section in a row for Less game time will credit you 110% of difference they’ve got last minute deals uh like even up to an hour before puck drop you can still get up to 60% off buying last minute tickets uh for sports comedy theater uh concerts all kinds of things you can get views from your seat which is great because then you don’t have to try and figure out oh I get there and there’s a big concrete pillar in the way and they’ve got the most flexible customer service policy in the ticketing industry take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Game Time download the game time app create an account and use code code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase terms apply again create an account and redeem code l o c k d o n NHL for $20 off download game time today last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed welcome back to lock on Blue Jackets uh we’re talking well we were talking about the monsters and now we’re talking mailback uh I got a couple of of good questions in on uh on email and three DMS so um we’re going to we’re going to get the this one out of the way uh Ken Holland apparently is in conversations for the Blue Jackets GM job um my question is mostly why I don’t think this makes sense for either side if I’m being honest um I guess it really depends on on whether the Oilers want to kick him to the curb or not um but Ken Holland has failed to win in the in Edmonton with two of the best players in the world um I don’t think make sense for the Blue Jackets to be like well we’ve got an inferior roster than the Oilers but hey maybe Ken Holland can can come in and and be good for us and I just I don’t if he couldn’t win with McDavid like why should we be arguing he did nothing at the trade deadline like all of the players that he acquired at the trade deadline are not in the uh are not in the the roster are not in the lineup right now in the playoffs uh they’re down 3-2 against the Vancouver Canucks um there’s just I don’t know there’s there’s nothing there that as a Blue Jackets fan I’m like man I really wish Ken Holland would come and fix this team he’s 70 years old the Blue Jackets allegedly want a disruptor and I just I don’t see how just rehashing the same old hires that haven’t worked elsewhere is disrupting anything you know um but and on the flip side I don’t see why Ken Holland would want to come here either um he’s got the best players in the world why would he why would he go to columb and be like well this roster is worse um unless it’s and it’s not even like I don’t even think it’s particularly particularly enticing to give him the option to be GM and president of hockey operations because I believe he already has that role in Edmonton so it’s not even like you can kind of entice him away with like quote unquote promotion um I am I am more I think I prefer the concept of hiring Ken Holland to Mark berser fan but that’s like saying oh well the car was driving at 20 mil hour when it hit me instead of 30 mil hour when it hit me you know um it’s very much this is a much this is a slightly less fatal car crash if you hire Ken Holland than if you hire M ban but we’ll see blue jacket is still being very tight lipped obviously um with the Avalanche out of the playoffs now McFarland could be an option uh tulsky could be an option um I know the the someone says that they might be looking at Don Wadd out of out of Carolina as well which would be be so funny if the Blue Jackets were like we’re hiring from Carolina and we’re going to take Don WD instead of Eric tulsky but hey Don wle would still be a better option than than Ken Holland or ban um you know Mark Hunter is another potential option but he’s not going anywhere with the Knights until they finish their Memorial Cup so there’s like at least another week there we’re not going to hear anything soon um you know like it could be June by the time that anything starts actually happening just because of all of the moving pieces all of the people that they want to talk to are still kind of in in various uh playoff situations or literally just finished their playoff situations but in terms of Kent Holland like my knej reaction is no and my slightly more measured reaction is also no um so that’s kind of that’s kind of that um I have a an unserious question which I just wanted to kind of I wanted to break up not to like answer the question seriously because I forgot this happened um if they hire Mark bersan which I hope they don’t how long before he tries to sneak by the Press by hiding behind a potted plant again um and I just wanted to kind of remind people that that happened more than anything um because I think it was fraking hilarious and possibly the best thing that Mark ban has ever done um which is you know the bar is on the floor but um I just wanted to remind people that a grown man did not want to talk to the press and so he picked up a potted plant and carried it across the room so people couldn’t talk to him which is like the kind of hater behav avior that honestly I I respect massively um but I still don’t think the Blue Jackets should hire Mark ban potted plant hysteria aside um a kind of a follow-up is question uh in a fantasy world where instead of recycling kind of the same three guys what kind of GM would I like to see um and this was a this was a fun question because I was kind of looking at it and I was like I’d love to see um first off I’d love to see more people that again are not just the same 25 men that just get recycled and rotated around when they get fired from one job for not being very good it’s very much of like well it didn’t work for them but it might work for us you know like definition of Madness type thing if he was bad at one job why do you think he would be better somewhere else you know it’s it’s the only the only career where this happens is in sports you know like if I got fired from my job for being bad at being bad at my job like I don’t know that another company will be like well you are really bad with that company but we’re going to hire you anyway because we think that you might be do it differently here and it’s just it’s a wild it’s a wild sentiment um I also it’s a wild sentiment that you have to ask permission to like go somewhere else um I guess like if you’re under contract or whatever it makes sense but I don’t know that’s it’s just it’s always been weird to me that like again in any other job if you had to get permission from your boss to like interview for other jobs it would be wild I I understand why it works in sports but wild um I would love to see more people that kind of have analytics backgrounds obviously you know we’ve talked about a lot about tski and and his uh his kind of whole whole deal but I would love to see like um more more analytics more analytics people um get those kind of jobs I think there’s really such a Reliance right now on they have to have played Pro Hockey to get the job um but arguably one of the better GMS for the last kind of DEC decade or so is uh Julian breb who I don’t believe ever even played professional hockey like he was he was a lawyer before he he worked for the Canadians uh and then went to the um went to the lightning uh you know he he never actually played and actually played hockey like professionally he like I said he was a lawyer and then went to he was director of legal Affairs for the Canadians and then uh oversaw the Hamilton Bulldogs their HL affiliate at the time won the called the cup there um like he he was never a hockey player and arguably one of the best GMS of the past 10 years so I don’t think that you need to be a professional hockey player to understand the game in the way that means that you can succeed so let’s get more people that have never played like not necessarily lawyers but you know and I wonder if it’s you know people that played in college and got degrees in like business management or PE or um public relations or like maybe Sports law like uh Financial experts like I just I don’t know there’s I wouldn’t be surprised like sports management is like a degree that people can go and get um I would love to see more Scouts take the the jump to get to um the GM level you know and I think that was Yan’s biggest strength was how strong of a scout he was and then he brought that into his GM Ro and I do think that’s still like the best thing about him was how good he was at drafting so you know fewer hockey people more hockey Minds which is a a weird distinction to make but and also think that they should hire people that are you know um off the Beaten Track you know whether they want to hire Europeans whether they want to hire women whether they want to hire people of color whether they want to hire you know I don’t necessarily think that like women’s sports is a step up to men’s sports like I like that’s not really how linear the the progression should be but they should be looking at the women’s game because there are so many intelligent people working in that area that they could be they could help at the NHL level so that’s kind of how I feel about that is is less of the same 25 people rotated round and round and round and more firsttime hires more fresh eyes more fresh Concepts um and that’s kind of how I feel about about the GM kind of Carousel as a whole um going to take another quick break and then we’ve got a couple more mailbag questions that I want to get to really quickly uh and kind of how the Blue Jackets should should approach the offseason and how they probably will approach the offseason so that’s coming up in just a second here unlocked on Blue Jackets first I want to tell you about eBay Motors passion drive and patience is the formula for winning championships it’s also what keeps your ride or die alive eBay Motors has everything you need to maintain your vehicle level it up to Peak Performance whether you need a supercharger a roof rack exhaust kits LED headlight or literally anything you can think of whether you’re into speed power or style eBay Motors has got you covered with over 122 million parts for your number one ride or die you’re always going to find exactly what you’re looking for and with eBay guaranteed fit your part is guaranteed to fit your ride every single time or you’re going to get your money back because with eBay Motors you’re going to burn Rubber not cash all the parts you need at the prices you want it’s easy to make your car the MVP and bring home huge wins keep your ride or Diet life at ebaymotors.com eligible items only exclusion apply eBay guaranteed fit is only available to us customers welcome back to lock on blue jacket we got a couple more mailbag questions that I want to uh that I want to get to this is kind of a twoin one question um which is what would I like to see them focus on this offseason uh bolstering what we have retooling the team as a whole and then following up uh what sort of offseason do you think they’re going to have and like the answer to these questions is not necessarily the same thing um what would I’d like to see them focus on I think bolstering the roster a little bit uh but I also like it’s weird there’s a lot of people saying that they need to go out and get like a Topline Center or a a another defenseman or like a a starting goalie and like yeah but all like a all of those things are easier said than done I know they have like a kind of a glut of prospect right now that they could ostensibly use to kind of get a couple of guys that are a little bit further along in the timeline um or do you get guys that are kind of veterans that are goingon to be here for a couple of years to Mentor the young guys and then kind of fade gracefully off into the distance but the thing is that the Blue Jackets they’re not in like cap hell or anything but they have 23 million or 23.4 nearly 23.5 million to spend on uh A fitting um Patrick l back under the cap so that’s 8.7 million there which brings it down to what like 17 million um let me pull up my calculator real quick but the point is they’ve got they’ve got a ton of guys to they’ve got a ton of guys that they need to resign on top of that and everyone’s looking at this and going oh wow they’ve got $24 million to um to play with here uh they’ve got 15 and a half dollars or $5.3 whatever it is um to resign yo chikov kro marenko Alex neander call singer Alexander texier Jake Bean Kent Johnson that’s not a lot of money to resign seven players like that’s an average of about $2 million a player um some players will take less like I imagine um neander will probably take less texier will probably take less but like do you trade Jake Bean do you move on from texier like do you like what do you do with yo cheetak COV what do you do Cole singer like marenko and Ken Johnson to me feel like the priorities to resign right now um but like there’s there’s just I don’t know that the money isn’t money and then you get to the point of like right okay well do you move on from proov do you move on from Adam boquist do you try to get out from under the mlin contract and end up like giving up assets for someone who needs to hit the cap floor to take that contract you know um there’s just again a lot of moving parts so while I would like to see them bolster the the team a little bit I just I don’t see how they can do that you know um I I honestly would like probably go into next season with mostly the same roster that we had this season which I know sounds insane but I think a lot of the team a lot of the players took steps this season we had injury issues um I think you know some players will be much better next season than they were this season um they they got rid of you know a handful of of guys that were kind of taking up roster spots for younger players um and you know this is not even getting into like does d matuk make the team um like what’s going on with like I said what’s going on with Pro’s contract do they try and shift him uh at the draft do they again like the Elvis contract is the one that really sticks out to me the L contract is is a tough one like I think if L is on this team and being a Difference Maker like 8.7 million like that’s fine I’m okay with that but I don’t know I just the more I look at this team and the more I look at kind of the structure of the team and who they need to keep and who’s got to go and like what’s happening is like I do wonder is Patrick l a blue jacket come October and like probably yes but the more I think about it the more I’m like oh man maybe maybe that’s a contract that they move you know and I don’t necessarily think that would be a good thing for the team but I could very easily see it happen um so like that’s what I’d like to see them focus on what do I think they’re going to focus on is tough because again like I don’t know who the GM is going to be I don’t know what the new GM is going to is going to Value like I’d love to see guys like marchenko get locked up semi semi longterm uh you know I’d love to see uh like Kent Johnson will probably get a bridge deal Co s will probably get a bridge deal carve Bridge deal um neander ium will get like a one-year Pro IT contract to like hey can you recreate what you did at the end of last season you know marchenko is really the only guy there that I would want to lock up kind of long long term like we’re talking you know four years plus um so that to me feels like the priority for the the newest um the new GM uh but like it’s I don’t know do you try and move on from Shan Carelli he’s got 2.5 million on his contract and he’s UFA at the end of it Justin Danforth I wonder if he goes I again this is not me saying that these are moves I would make these are moves that I could see happen you know um I don’t necessarily think that they should move on from either of those guys but again I could see a world where they do it really depends on new GM coming in he wants to put his mark on this team like do they go wild and trade Bo Jenna it’s I don’t know it’s so hard to predict what’s going to happen with this team in the summer uh because again like we don’t know what’s going to happen at the draft like do they draft a forward do they draft a defenseman is it someone that’s going to be available for the team this upcoming summer or is it you know a lot of people talking about Anton salv as as the blue who the Blue Jackets are going to draft which I kind of I’ve talked at length kind of about how I feel about that pick and how you know I don’t love it um he’s under contract until the end of the 26 the 2025 26 Season so like he’s not going to be around for at least two more seasons and like he that takes a he’s not going to be a a factor for the next two years at least um I don’t know that they drafted anyone that’s going to be an option for the Blue Jackets this upcoming October really looking at like who’s going to be available looking at kind of the there’s no one here that like is going to be a coal cylinder where they like they don’t give you the option to send them back to Juniors you know apart from like and you know people are talking about will celebrini even be in the NHL come October will he go back to Boston University for other the season like it’s I don’t know what’s happening with with any of this um but it’s going to be an eventful offseason that’s that’s my kind of my my main takeaways what kind of offseason do you think I’m do I think they’re going to have an eventful one will it be good who can say it’s either going to be great or it’s going to be a disaster I feel like there’s really no in between for for the Blue Jackets it’s either going to be unmitigated success or it’s going to be set the whole thing on fire and start again and like I don’t know which direction it’s going to go in um but who knows maybe they’ll surprise us uh that’s kind of what I’ve got for today uh Monday we will have another Prospect profile and I sat down with Sebastian high of uh lock on initial Prospect and of Dober Prospect and we talked about alfons Frey who is a uh underrated Swedish defenseman that Sebastian is very high on and we had a really good conversation about him and what the Blue Jackets could do at Fourth overall so uh that’s going to be Monday’s episode thank you for listening to this episode for making it your first listen of the day every single day lck on Blue Jacket is free and available on all podcast platforms we’re on YouTube We’re on SiriusXM you can find me on Twitter atore Jacob Foster j a k o b f r s t e r you can find the show at lore blue jacket on Twitter and on Instagram uh you can email us if you have comments questions criticisms uh that’s at locked onblue jackets gmail.com thank you once again for listening and until tomorrow make sure you stay locked on
The Cleveland Monsters are up 1-0 on the Syracuse Crunch after a 1-0 win on the back of Jet Greaves’ 28 save performance and Justin Pearson’s shorthanded game winning goal, but I want more from the stars of this team. What needs to happen in Game 2 to prevent every game from being a 1-0 win?
Plus, it’s mailbag time, and we’re talking GM candidates (please no Ken Holland), what I want to see from NHL GMs going forward, and what the CBJ offseason should look like vs what it will actually look like!
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