Columbus Blue Jackets Prospects Shine In Calder Cup Playoff Run; Trent Vogelhuber An Option For HC?
the monsters almost joined a very exclusive Club in the AHL and fell one goal short it’s not Monday but we’re going to do a monsters Tuesday today and uh talk a little bit about the NHL head coach situation that’s all coming up on today’s lock on Blue Jackets your locked on Blue Jackets your daily podcast on the Columbus Blue Jackets part of the lock on podcast Network your team every day hello and welcome to lockon Blue Jacket Part of the lockon 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 Jacket before we get started I want to thank everyone for making this your first listen of the day every single day Lo BL jacket is free and available on all podcast platforms and over on YouTube I also have to let you know that today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel make every moment more right now new customers are going to get to $100 in bonus bet with any winning $5 bet just visit fanduel.com locked on to get started uh obviously not a Monday but we are doing a a fake monsters Monday uh a monsters Tuesday I guess is uh is what we’re doing and of course when we’re doing a monsters episode we have to bring on uh one of my very favorite people uh de Weinheimer is here and uh we’re going to talk all things monsters we’re going to talk about the future blue jacket stars that played in this playoff run we’re going to talk about how impressive this whole run was for a very young and inexperienced Squad and uh we’re also going to talk about Tren fogal Huber because uh as of about 20 minutes before the the recording of this episode the Blue Jackets fired their coach so we’re gonna talk about all of these things um so let’s bring Dena into the uh into the studio and uh welcome back to lock on Blue Jackets Dena let’s uh let’s talk about the monsters because though the the season didn’t end the way we wanted it to I still think there is so much to like about what this playoff run did what you saw from this group The resiliency they didn’t you know they could have panicked in the first series down one- nothing against Belleville they could have panicked down three nothing in the series against Hershey they didn’t they clawed their way back into that series took it to overtime in game seven ultimately fell one goal short of beating the Behemoth Hershey Bears um how impressed Were You by just the playoff run as a whole because I know that we talked kind of before it started that you were getting 2016 Lake Area monsters vibes from this team do you still think that like are you still getting the same sort of Vibes even though they didn’t obviously do the thing uh you’re muted I I am so sorry anyway um yes absolutely uh just 100% this team was I know I’ve said it to so many people um in at so many times but there was something so incredibly special about this team and I would still put them up against some of the best teams um from Cleveland history from AHL history I mean they almost unseeded the like one of the or maybe the second best I forget what they where they actually rank um teams in the regular season ever in this Hershey Bear Squad it literally came down to an unfortunate um overtime penalty for delay of game and from Jake godette and they just had issues getting cleared back out after that delay of game penalty expired and then Garrett row um from from her she ultimately um sealed that one but it was just a lucky Bounce by Garrett row uh if any of the other OT games had a bounce go in Cleveland’s favor we could be talking about Cleveland being in in coacho Coachella Valley or actually Cleveland would be coming back for their uh first home game uh right now but yeah um my my stance still stands one of the best teams ever yeah just it was so good to have and this is maybe melodramatic off me but it was really good to have meaningful hockey in the Blue Jackets organization because it’s been a minute obviously the monsters haven’t made the playoffs in in a couple of years um the Blue Jackets haven’t made the playoffs since 2020 um it’s been kind of a miserable time to be a Blue Jackets fan but I think that this moner team if if you are you know a Blue Jackets fan that invested in that kind of way like this gives you a lot of Hope for the future I feel like um I want to talk about some of the guys that like future Blue Jacket stars but I also want to talk about some of the guys that maybe won’t make it to the NHL or will never be like some of the guys that so uh for example um I want to talk about that fourth line uh of of Josh Dunn of Justin Pearson of Alex whan um because I know that we’ve talked a lot about how good that line was but that line for a fourth line outplayed every other line the monsters had what like how how how um how surprised Were You by that and how cool was it to see guys like Justin Pearson who is on an AHL contract he’s not under contract with the blue jacket it’s um Josh Dunn uh who has kind of struggled a little bit this season I thought and really came alive in the playoffs like how how impressed were you and how surprised were you that this line really kind of lit up the way that they did if you would have told me game one of the Belleville series that the top four scorers in the playoffs would be Justin Pearson when talking in point totals through 14 games Justin Pearson Josh Dunn David Urich and Alex whan I would have laughed and said no one of these AB like the other but yeah yeah for sure but um pleasantly surprised by that group I mean that just goes a long way in showing Hey whenever you give players like Josh Dunn if you get him in the right situations with the right people he can make magic I mean they’ve always used him as a um as a face off specialist but what he created with Alex whan and Justin Pearson normally you see Josh dun on more of a checking line the more traditional fourth line um player but they have redefined what a fourth line can be those three and Trent Vogal Huber completely have redefined what fourth lines are and I think in the best way possible yeah and I want to talk about tread vogle huba specifically in h in a little bit but I want to talk about um a player that didn’t show up in the way a lot of us were expecting um Trax wolansky really struggled this postseason and he had flashes where he looked like he was getting it and I was like okay he got that one now he’s just G to he’s going to be ready to go but I believe he only had what was it four points these playoffs four or five points he had three goals and five assists for eight points eight points yeah in in 14 games that is that is not a trfi wanski number what what was up with that is it just like the other team is targeting him because they know he’s one of their best players and shutting him down is it like do we think that he was nursing some kind of injury because that’s how the postseason goes was it just un like bad luck you know sometimes sometimes you it just happens you have a cold streak at the worst possible time like or is it you know option D or of the above um I don’t if I had to venture a guess I wouldn’t say it would have been injury because he wouldn’t have been throwing his body around like it was because I mean I’ve talked about this so many times before about how former head coach Mike EES always called Trey the the angry little bowling ball he put that on display in the playoffs now granted that did seem to go down as the series um you know as they would advance and all that so maybe there was a slight injury there but we did like you said we did see flashes in that game seven he actually did score a goal and I’m saying actually like that because up until that point he had only had two goals in 13 games um but yeah I was genuinely shocked I think part of it was he had only had three games of playoff experience heading into that point to start the playoffs one of his main line mates was Luca Del Bell Belo who also struggled mightily with the playoffs in his first professional season so I think it was a mix of maybe not the right linemates uh the players on the other team hounding him there was plenty of times where he was double teamed if not more and it just things just did not work out for him I mean this was a guy that in 58 games in the regular season put up 60 points was a plus 17 the only advant or good thing I guess we could say is he did use the body a lot he did you know have a A plus five he only had three um penalty minutes and actually now that I’m looking all of his goals were on the power play so that just kind of goes to show uh yeah he was getting hounded a lot he just needed that open space and fortunately didn’t get it this in in this postseason yeah I will say also just to kind of to to add to that in terms of like bad puck loock or whatever he did have the third most shots on on the team we had 35 shots on goal in 14 games and only three of those went in you know so shooting at less than 10% is always going to be is always going to be rough um especially in the a small sample size like this but yeah I’m like I I do I was expecting a lot more out of out of fix wensy than uh that we got which is really unfortunate CU I mean you know locked on Blue Jackets fans know you know every day is know how much we love Trey fix wansi on this podcast and we want him to be you know the best possible TFW that he can be uh and he just wasn’t that in uh in the postseason I do want to talk about though uh a couple of players who were their best selves in the postseason and who are going to be uh potential future stars of the Blue Jackets so we’re going to talk about that in just a second here I locked on Blue Jackets first though I’ve got to tell you all about FanDuel because it’s Summertime Summertime means baseball it means the NBA Finals it means the Stanley Cup and you can bet on all of that over on fandor new Customs are going to get $200 in bonus bets right now if with any winning $5 bet just find the heaviest favorite you possibly can put five buck on it like the Panthers winning tonight or the Celtics winning the final uh and if you win you get $200 that you can use but everything from uh Finals MVP to who’s going to hit one out of the park just visit fel.com locked on and add a big win to your summer bucket list once again that is fanduel.com locked on FanDuel americ number one sports book welcome back to lock on Blue Jacket uh we’re talking about the Cleveland monsters and you know they the season didn’t end the way that any of us wanted it to but there’s still a lot to be proud of and there’s still a lot of uh excitement um and I want to look specifically at a couple of young defensemen um and we’re going to start off we’re going to look at David Urich who had 11 points in 14 uh playoff games for the monsters this season three goals eight assists was just an absolute monster out there genuine number one defenseman for them especially when Jake Christensen went down uh with uh with injury um early in the uh early in the the postseason um this is what we needed to see from David jurich I think after kind of a not necessarily A lackluster season but he didn’t have the impact at the NHL level that he wanted and I think that kind of impacted his AHL season a little bit he wasn’t as dominant as he was the season before for you know I think understandable reasons has this postseason like changed how you look at David jurich in terms of like his future as a monster or his future as a blue jacket like do you think do do you see David yich in in Cleveland in October um I think that would depend a lot on what moves if any are made up top with the new GM um with uh with Don Wada if they cuz I have seen some speculation that maybe they might try to move like uh I forget who all was even involved in that but like a bean or a one of them you know yeah every day there’s a new room or oh we’re gon’s contract we’re gonna move provo’s contract we’re gonna move we’re gonna move boquist etc etc so proov was the name I was trying to think of and it just absolutely left me all I could think about was his super fluffy Golden Retriever because if anyone knows me knows I have one and that I love dogs anyway um if they move one of those players absolutely I think what really benefited David Urich was by the time the postseason hit this was the highest level of the organ the highest level of the organization that was still playing hockey so he didn’t have that extra weight on his shoulders or you know the Mind space taking up I want to be in the NHL I deserve to be there this was the only thing he had to focus on and whenever he was able to get into that head space and just focus on each game doing his job he was able to put up amazing points I mean a 79 points per game 36 shots and he did fantastic I mean this is the player that in the final Series in the Eastern Conference Finals scored twice in back-to-back games to send this into overtime one of them was less than a minute to go one of them was about 90 seconds to go I forget if no it was Jake Christensen who did it the other time I’m I’m forgetting all the games have have run together into one after a while right right um but yeah he was a huge asset and I think having Columbus not make the playoffs actually did him a lot of good and he very well could be but again it all depends on if space opens up up top with the Blue Jackets for sure let’s talk about the other young defenseman that did not get as much ice time as David jurich but Den matuk turned pro at the conclusion of the Memorial Cup played I think four games for the uh for the monsters in that tail end of uh of of the Hershey series and uh three assists in four games uh was a plus five on uh in those four games and uh went pointless in in his first game and then had an assist in three straight including I believe the primary assist on the gamewinners in uh game five and game six how impressed Were You by uh by this kid in his in his Pro debut three assists on three shots holy moly I mean the the the cool thing about denta mcha coming in is he almost seemed to have a settling presence on the defense whenever he came in immediately was running point on the top power play unit for Cleveland he looked like he had been in this league for as long if not longer than say David Urich he just looked completely comfortable with his game the way he conducted himself and everything was just it looked every part of a season professional this kid is going to be something and I was beyond impressed like I was looking down at the ice and like oh that must be your check or that must be you know insert another let’s say like Jake Christenson once he came back into the lineup every time I looked down impressed with the defender uh 75% of the time it was D Muk yeah he looked like he was in his fifth Pro season you know and the motto of this this offseason for locks on Blue Jacket is we are tempering our expectations with basically everything but it’s so hard not to get super excited about about a player like bchuk um I just I have a really good really good feeling about him and uh he was I’m really glad that we got to see him kind of dip his feet in um in this in this short short sample size of of AHL postseason play um one more guy that I want to talk about and you know who it’s going to be because it’s locked up blue jacket and you know we can’t do a monsters Monday without talking about Jack Greaves um Far and Away the MVP of this team for me he was phenomenal eight and five had uh a shutout a 926 save percentage 2.17 goals against average and allowed 30 goals in 13 games for this team as a guy that this was his first playoff experience at the pro level like his third so really only his second full season as a member of the monsters he’s still only what 20 23 years old this kid’s future just like it feels Skyhigh and again we’re tempering our expectations but it’s so hard to look at this kid and not see an NHL goalie down the line do you agree yes absolutely is is the short answer yes I was trying to you know think of okay tempering expectations all this but with each season that he plays he looks better and better and better and it’s just I I mean it’s so easy to root for a player like Jack grees I mean he never let the games get too big for him I’m just thinking back to um that game I believe it was game six where Hershey scored with under a minute to go to go ahead and that shot of the celebration where Hershey is celebrating and jet is literally sprawled out like a starfish face down and you could just see it kind of almost like his he was he felt disappointed heartbreak all that but immediately okay Trent V Huber calls timeout jet Greaves and the rest of the team brush themselves off they come back force over time win the game you know it’s he and Trent vogo Heber said it earlier about him that he approached Roes every single game the exact same way whether it’s the All-Star Game in San Jose a random Tuesday night in the middle of December playing against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the NHL or now a Do or Die situation for four games straight in the cter Cup playoffs he was so poised the entire time and I would love to see him in the National Hockey League fulltime but I would be remiss if I didn’t say um you do want keep him a little bit I really want to keep him just a little bit longer because let let’s get him you know what tempering expectations I would just like to see him cook one more season and maybe move him up then yeah that’s kind of been my argument has been I don’t think he’s ready to be a full-time NHL backup I think you you leave him in you leave him in Cleveland you let him play you know 40 to 50 games next season instead of instead of him playing you know 20 to 30 at the NHL level but yeah it’s again tempering expectations but it’s real hard not to be enthusiastic about this kid especially when he came from basically nothing you know that was a oh we need a goalie we’ll throw we’ll throw him a contract and he has really kind of grabbed that and run with it which is really really fun um going to take another quick break and then when we get back the Blue Jackets have an opening at the head coach position and I know a guy that could potentially be in uh in discussion for taking that job so we’ll talk about that in just a second here I locked on Blue Jackets welcome back to locked on Blue Jacket H locked on podcast Network your team every day thanks for making us your first listen uh Trent VBA has been again another um big piece of the conversation this postseason the monsters um I watched before game seven I decided to hike myself up and I watched all of the behind the Battle episodes for Cleveland that the Blue Jackets put together and every single time Trent V was on screen talking I was like man I would run through a wall for this guy like if he told me to run into oncoming traffic I probably would do it you know like that’s the kind of that’s the kind of guy he is again to kind of to to reference um a a joke made on on C’s calling which is the podcast that Dina and I do with Cory over at the call of times uh I would push my grandma down the stairs if if Tren were asked me to um but again he is very early into his coaching tenure he’s very young I think he’s what 34 35 years old um I don’t necessarily think it’s time for him to be in the NHL as a coach but he do you see him as has a potential future option I know we were talking about this a little bit a little bit off mic before before we recorded but is he a guy that they bring in to kind of okay you’re the guy in X Seasons learn from the guys that we have now and when you’re ready we’ll we’ll bring you up is that kind of how you feel about about VBA as a potential option for columbus’ um coaching vacancy uh not this season but like you said in future years yes I mean Columbus has so many really promising young players like we already mentioned D matuk we have you know possibly Gavin Brinley might be I mean who knows down in Cleveland next year there are so many really high prospects that are getting ready to go pro why not have them down in Cleveland with Trent vogo Huber who has created this absolute fantastic winning culture not only just a winning culture but a culture where everyone is super close with each other and wants to play for each other like you always hear the cliche oh we have to battle you know together we have to do all this but it’s not a cliche here it is truly how these players feel about each other and that is all through Trent vogo Hubers and um his assistant coaches it’s through their their hard work in establishing that but again he has only been coaching since the 20182 2019 season um he was an assistant coach with Cleveland um up through the 2021-22 season and remember for you know what was it three of those Seasons at least two of those seasons were cut very short and were kind of odd because of well we all know what was going on starting in 2020 um but then he has only been a head coach in the American Hockey League for two years he has no um NHL coaching exper experience and I just think it would be really good to have him cook down in the American Hockey League with a lot of these younger guys and then just kind of move them all up in a group they already have that they already have the chemistry together um they’ll be joining players that have come up through through Trent you know in the past and I just think it would make for an outstanding culture and honestly if Cleveland let him lets him go all Jared bedar that would be a huge mess yeah now I think I would have to fly to Columbus and like find onad El’s house and be like listen P him around with with the slipper um just as kind of a more General note um for I I know that I I talked in yesterday’s episode a little bit about kind of potential coaching options for the uh for the blue jacket um is there anyone in the AHL right now that you think that Don wadell potentially has his eye on as a guy I I don’t think it’s necessarily or I think it’s very unlikely that they choose a a new like a firsttime NHL head coach because they’ve done that twice in a row now and it hasn’t gone super well either time so I think they’re going to go with someone with more experience but is there anyone coaching in the AHL right now that you’re like looking at as a potential option to make the jump up to the NHL I know what you want me to say no I genuinely don’t I I know yes you do yes you do um but honestly we would we would not be doing our jobs if we did not bring up Todd Nelson in Hershey he has been around gosh I I’m gonna look real quick because it just seems like he’s been around forever and he does a fantastic job no matter what um the Washington Capitals throw at him he just he he does it all and I’m surprised that he’s not you know full-time in the National Hockey League okay so he spent a part of a Time midseason in 2014 2015 as the Edmonton Oilers head coach and he has done some assistant coaching jobs with the Dallas Stars but primarily he’s been in the American Hockey League he has been coaching professionally since 20022 2003 season so literally as long as I’ve been out of high school it’s it boggles my mind why he is not a full-time coach in the in the National Hockey League I mean he played there albeit not a whole lot but he’s threee NHL games ofer yeah yeah but you know he has plenty of other experience playing in the AHL the IHL overseas he’s won um cder cups as a player and as a um I’m losing my brain here as okay so not as a player but as a coach he’s done so much he’s won coach of the year if we’re looking at just na or AHL coaches that may move up he would be at the top of my list um mainly because the other one I would have liked to have seen was in Rochester and buffalo already moved him up so yeah he was a guy that was again definitely on my radar and then Buffalo were like well I guess we’ll take him so yep yep no but going back to what we said about Trent vogo Huber I mean I think no one needs to look further than Ryan warsi who was just named the head coach of the San Jose Sharks just a few days ago um as a good comparable just let him cook in the AHL do some really good things down there and don’t don’t do what uh who was it who who were they with Carolina and let them you know let him be poached away from the San Jose Sharks and had him cook down there you know for two seasons now he’s their head coach but yeah that’s that’s my thoughts on that GNA throw Marco Sturman there just because he’s kind of come up as well um again I talked about him a little bit on on yesterday’s episode but just to kind of wrap up our our thoughts for potential AHL coaches I think you’ve got to have Marco stur in the uh in the in the conversation but if people want more monsters content if they want more AHL content where can people find you and your work online Dina so they can find all of the written stuff at the colder times.com uh if you’re on YouTube you can see my ex handle down there Dena Weinheimer um and then also you can catch Jay and I on the cter calling podcast uh as long as the AHL season’s going on it’s going to be weeklys weekly episodes on Wednesdays then after that I don’t know we’ll see we’ll see F stuff for the offseason yeah yeah I don’t know that a surprise for everyone um you can find me online atore Jacob Foster job f r s t e r you can find locked on Blue Jackets at Lor bluejackets on Twitter on Instagram uh you can email me if you want to at lockon bluejackets @gmail.com email.com is so funny sorry about that um lock Blue Jackets gmail.com um if you have comments questions criticisms uh anything thank you for making this your first listen of the day every day locked on Blue Jacket is free and available on all podcast platforms we are over on YouTube and on SiriusXM thank you once again for listening thank you Dena for coming to chat Monsters uh potentially for the final time this season but we’ll get you in in the offse I’m sure don’t worry uh and until tomorrow make sure you stay locked on
The Monsters’ season came to an end last week with a Game 7 OT loss to the Hershey Bears, but there’s a lot to like about what they did this postseason. We have Deana Weinheimer here to talk about the future of this Monsters squad, some exciting CBJ prospects in David Jiricek, Denton Mateychuk and Jet Greaves, and we look at Trent Vogelhuber as an option for the new head coach role in Columbus!
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