A Columbus Blue Jackets Head Coach Update + Is A Kirill Marchenko Contract Nigh?
tcla is out of the running as the blue jacket’s new head coach who is the next man up plus is there a Carol marchenko contract on the horizon we’re going to talk about all of that on today’s locked on Blue Jackets you’re locked on Blue Jacket your daily podcast on the Columbus Blue Jackets part of the locked on podcast Network your team everyday hello and welcome to lockdown Blue Jackets part of the lockdown 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 Columbus Blue Jackets before we get started I want to thank everyone for making this your first listen of the day every single day lock on Blue Jackets continues to be 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 indeed you still searching for a great candidate for your company don’t search just match with indeed start hiring now with a 7 5 sponsor job credit to upgrade your job post indeed.com lockon terms and conditions apply need higher you need indeed and uh speaking of hiring speaking of of uh openings in in companies uh the Blue Jackets are still without a head coach um which is that still it is taking much longer than I think anyone thought or wanted it to um I again fully expected my my flight on Wednesday I was like oh they’re definitely going to hire hire someone then um they didn’t a bunch of stuff came out on Wednesday instead and uh then I was super jaat likeed so we’re going to talk about it today um Tom mclen is uh officially out of the running apparently it sounds like he was basically a lock um and then they couldn’t come to terms with the Kings for um contract actually I feel like there was a bunch of a bunch of different things that happened here so we’re going to go through kind of them one by one and try and figure out what what went wrong here uh we’re going to talk about um couple of guys flying in this week for interviews um and we’re also going to talk about uh another thing on Dell’s to-do list which is that new kachenko contract looks like it might be getting close so uh we’re going to do all of that uh but we’re going to start off talking about Todd mcleen who by all accounts was the guy that they wanted and I was all for this I was on board um they just had to figure out so he was on the hook for I think five or 5.5 million from the Kings this season um and so the Blue Jackets and the Kings would have had to negotiate how much they wanted to pay of mullen’s salary this year from because they’re like is they wanted to you know and again there are reports out there that um and I don’t know how how true this is or whether they paid a settlement or or what but uh Mike Babcock was making $4 million a year from the Blue Jackets they’re still on the hook for um Pascal Vincent second year of his contract um and on top of that if they then had to pay you know an extra x amount of money to the Kings for or to mlen for the Kings contract like that that all adds up and so I can kind of see why ownership would kind of bulk at that um obviously we don’t know what the exact numbers are we don’t know how much the Kings wanted the Blue Jackets to pay of mullen’s salary but apparently no one could come to terms uh with with what was happening um mlen Wanted multi-year contract which makes sense um I wonder if he wanted again more money and or more term than the Blue Jackets were willing to uh willing to offer and it all just kind of fell apart at the 11th Hour which is really frustrating um and you know for the second year in a row the Blue Jackets con the coaching conversation just continues on and on um you know and I understand they want to get this right after the clown show last year they want to get this right um frustrating that it got this far and then fell apart because of money um however I do also have been well I also have been hearing and again I don’t know how reliable a source this is I believe Brian hedger um of The Columbus Dispatch is the one that uh that first reported it um but the there’s reports that the blue jacket and mlen had differing opinions of how close this team was to being a playoff team or being a contender or you know even contending for the playoffs you know so Landing in that kind of 15 to 18 um or 14 to to to 17 whatever um part of the league that could make the playoffs but you know if they don’t they got real close um so whether that’s that mlen has come in and said yeah I think you guys are three years away away from contending for the playoffs and Columbus has decided actually no we think that we should be contending for the playoffs as early as not next season but maybe the season after that then I can see again why why kind of those kind of talks would uh would break down um I I’m not gonna lie I am kind of frustrated by this again because of how wrong things went last year um and you know I do think that part of it was and I’m not solely putting all of this on on on this hot one thing but obviously pas got the job what four days before training camp started didn’t ever really have time to prepare felt like he was playing catchup the entire season um there were other issues with with vinta that were not I think based on on lack of preparation um but and we obviously we’re in very different kind of parts of the year there’s I think still like two months before training camp starts is so you know they’re not like up against the wall yet but I’m frustrated that it’s taking this long and I’m frustrated that you know their first choice they couldn’t they couldn’t make it work after you know going with Brad Larson as you know an internal hire didn’t work going for Mike Babcock obviously didn’t work having to settle for Pascal vinsent didn’t work like this is the fourth head coach in a row where I’m like man can we just figure it out already you know um that being said there are a couple of of options that are still on the table one of which I am much more fond of than the other um it sounds like Gerard Gant is not an option um that was I I I don’t if think he was I don’t ever think he was officially an option but he was some a name that someone had thrown out there as okay of the three of the three candidates or the three finalists it was mlen Woodcraft and someone else um it sounds like the someone else was in fact Dean everon um not dralon but dagal was a name that was thr out there his name has stopped appearing at all so I’m pretty confident saying that he’s not involved here so it comes down to Jay Woodcraft or Dean Everson um I did see someone else saying that that mlen was not necessarily completely out of the running yet I wonder if uh the Blue Jackets having you know had him say no to this offer uh are going to regroup and maybe come back with a different offer later on depending on how these uh talks with Woodcraft and Everson go this week um because uh per I believe Aron ports line uh but both Woodcraft and evera are flying into Columbus uh either today or like early this week for interviews so we’ll see where that goes um I want to talk a little bit about Woodcraft and Everson uh in just a minute I know we covered them last week but just to kind of reiterate and these are it sounds like that these are the two options that they’re choosing between so uh we’ll do that in just a second here unlocked on Blue Jacket first I going to tell you all about out indeed because we’re all driven by the search for better when it comes to hiring the best way to search for a candidate isn’t to search at all don’t search match with indeed if you need to hire you need indeed there are your matching and hiring platform with over 350 million Global monthly visitors according to their data and a matching engine that helps you find quality candidates fast you can ditch the busy work you can use indeed for scheduling screening and messaging so you can connect 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we’re talking about head coaching options right now um Todd mlen out narrrow the field to J Woodcroft or Dean everon uh we talked about these guys last week but just to reiterate uh Jay Woodcroft was previously the head coach of the Edmonton Oilers he was uh an interim coach uh and then he was a um head coach uh had a pretty successful run with the Oilers uh in his first full season uh or no excuse me the the half season that he was the interim for uh the team went 269 and three finished second in the Pacific and lost in the Conference Finals to uh the Colorado Avalanche who I believe went on to win the cup that year if I’m getting my my years correct in his first four season as head coach he went 80 uh all 82 games uh 5023 and nine second in the Pacific uh and lost in the second round to again the eventual Cup champions he was fired uh 13 games into the season after the team went 3 n and one um the team did then figure it out uh and ended up going all the way to Cup Final whether that was uh as a result of coaching whether that was just as a result of sometimes teams go through go through weird stretches um but I I like Woodcraft as an option A lot um he did really good work with the bakesfield Condors in the AHL um they won the Pacific Division playoff championship during that weird covid season where um the C cup wasn’t handed out but the Pacific div did their own weird little um weird little playoff run um so the bfield Condors won there they won the regular season title for the Pacific Division 2019 under Woodcraft as well um I like this option A Lot he I think is a better Coach than the other guy Dean Everson um he doesn’t have as much experience though and I think that’s going to be the potential sticking point is I think the Blue Jackets really want someone with experience um and he’s not unexperienced uh but he’s got a total of 133 uh NHL games of the reg 133 regular season NHL games as the head coach uh plus 28 in the postseason so I can’t do math that’s just over 160 I believe 161 total uh NHL games between the regular season and the postseason um versus you know uh mlen has a lot of experience Dean Everson has uh slightly more experience uh than that he’s got 251 NHL uh regular season games and then he has uh a further again I can’t do math on the flight 23 postseason games um so he’s had uh Woodcraft has had more playoff success uh which I think is interesting in that the Oilers have played the same amount uh more playoff games than um yeah 20 so the O have played 28 playoff games under uh two seasons of Woodcraft under four season of Everson uh the Minnesota Wild uh have only played 23 so five fewer games in two extra in two extra years so a little bit more experience in the regular season actually less experience in the postseason which is really interesting um and the Minnesota Wild have not been as good as the Oilers have been in in everson’s time so and again I don’t know if I mentioned that at the top of the straight straight at the top there but Everson was the head coach of the Minnesota Wild from 2019 to uh 2024 um he played he coached 12 games for the Minnesota Wild uh in that weird 2019 2020 coaching season uh he was the interim head coach uh for the rest of that season the they went eight and four until getting shut down by um by Co lost in the qualifying round to Vancouver went one and three uh the next and then the next three seasons he play but he had a full uh season of coaching with them uh they went 356 and five finished third in the west and lost in the first round to Vegas uh who went to I want to say the Cup Final that year no they went to the oh gosh they went to the the Western Conference Final I believe and then lost to Montreal because of that that was a hilarious season where Montreal won the Western conf won the yeah the Western Conference um second season second full season season uh 5322 and 7 went second in the central lost in the first round to St Louis last season or the season before last uh 46 25 and 11 third in the central again lost in the first round to Dallas most recent season uh coached 19 games and the wild went 510 and four and then uh he got fired after that um they had in that kind of five seven and oh sorry 510 and four he uh had a seven game losing streak mixed into that as well so we’ll uh we’ll see what happens between those two guys I still like Woodcraft better everon has more experience especially kind of in the in the long run um Everson has been coaching since uh 1999 I believe it is uh where he coached in the WHL uh spent six years coaching the WHL until 2005 and then he was in the AHL uh as a head coach between 2012 2018 and then went to Minnesota for 2019 through 2024 so he has more experience um as as an NHL head coach than Jay Woodcraft and again has just kind of in general been coaching longer um he was uh mostly he’s Woodcraft has mostly been an assistant coach he was a video coach for the Red Wings in 2005 um and then went to the sharks in 2008 until 2015 uh and then uh he went to the Oilers as as an assistant coach went down to the bakesfield Condors as their AHL head coach so Everson has more experience I think Woodcraft is a better Coach is it going to come down to who has more experience is it going to come down to who is a better fit with the team um you know I I kind of fall on the side of I think like younger is is generally better I don’t think experience in in the way that Everson has experienced is necessarily going to gel well with this team I think Woodcraft did well with a uh flawed Oilers roster shall we say very topheavy obviously you know they they managed to get the job done or almost get the job done this year with a very similar roster but uh I still think I like wood if if the options are Woodcraft or Everson I still like Woodcraft for the job um you know with the understanding that obviously my my choice would still be mlen but if we can’t have him for you know whatever reason then Woodcraft I think is is a a fine consolation prize um just in terms of money he is still under contract with the Oilers this season I believe so there will be a similar negotiation that will need to happen but where m was making I want to say mlen was making 5.5 with the Kings actually um Woodcraft was likely only making about 2 million with the Oilers so there’s way fewer dollars that have to be dealt with there um and probably less negotiation in theory um Woodcraft to me still feels like the obvious choice I could see a world where they want to go for Everson but that doesn’t really excite me as much I just I don’t know what it is I like everything I’ve heard about everon from you know from from setho Pilot lock wild from a couple of my friends that are wild fans I’m not excited about that uh I don’t think I’ve heard very many good things about everon um but you know people in the know uh I have heard better things about Woodcraft uh in terms of being a coach so we’ll see that’s my my final my final opinion I think is if we can’t have mlen let’s have Woodcraft really not excited about everon but I am kind of glad that Gant is out of the is out of the frame I I was super not excited about him as a coaching option um especially based on you know his last couple of stints and what happened in in New York like the team was winning but at kind of at the cost of the young development of uh the development of the younger players um and also I’m suspicious that he’s been fired from three separate coaching jobs when the team was 500 or better so I’m like something has to be going on there maybe I’m reading too much into it but Final Answer Woodcraft and I I think that’s going to be wal’s higher as well um for for no real reason I know that he said he wants experience but like the actual NE like tangible experience I think basically comes out in the wash everon has more games woodcross had more success and it’s not like everon has coached like a thousand games in this league he’s coached what like a hundred more games than uh than Woodcraft which again is not nothing it’s over a full season but like it’s it’s just over a full season it’s not make or break if you ask me um so we’ll see maybe I really would like this to be sorted sooner rather than later um it’s fine like I’m not I’m not losing sleep over it but I just I really would like there to be a head coach in place um because the closer we get to kind of August the more nervous I get about how long this is spinning out so we’ll see where these conversations this week go between uh woodell Woodcraft and and uh woodell and Everson and uh who knows maybe in a couple of days we’ll be uh we’ll be talking about the newest head coach but let’s come I’ve got for coaching situations um I want to talk about the potential of a car marchenko contract and whether that could be uh the next thing checked off of darwell’s to-do list so we’re going to talk about that in just a second here on lock on Blue Jackets welcome back to locked on Blue Jackets uh we’ve talked about the head coaching now we’re going to talk about Corell marchenko uh needs a new contract uh of all of the players in um in kind of RFA land for the Blue Jackets this one feels like not necessarily the most important but this is going to be the one that I think takes the most work with the exception of like maybe Kent Johnson I could see being um kind of a pain in the but just but that’s reasons of mostly that I don’t trust Pat on um not to be a pain in the butt just to be a pain in the butt you know um but chikov has signed uh they avoided arbitration with J Christenson and Jet Greaves which is great news um both of those guys signed to contracts to avoid arbitration and uh ports line I believe who is my uh Source again on this one doesn’t believe that it’s going to go to um arbitration with maeno as well so great uh in terms of like what’s next for marenko I guess um in terms of what that contract could look like by all accounts the player and the um the agent his agent is Dan milstein who represent a lot of the um a lot of the Russian players in the NHL uh they’re both pushing for a long-term deal uh which has caused Don woodell to dig deeper into him as a player before considering it um and woodell hasn’t heard a bunch of negatives about maeno so you know that’s pretty solid if you uh if you ask me um I this to me feels like a no-brainer like I don’t necessarily think that he’s going to that he needs to get like a Tim stutler type deal or a Jack Hughes type deal in terms of um like money and necessarily term but like like if you can sign him to like 6×6 do you do that and like I I I think I do quite honestly like I I genuinely think if you can sign him to 6 million for the next six years like like that feels like a no brainer to me is that probably slightly too much money for like next year marchenko probably is that not enough money for like marenko if he hits big which I think he might um you know and and we’ve seen you know you look at um for ex again Tim ster and Ja Hugh are the ones that I keep coming back to here is um you see teams sign them immediately out of their elc’s sign them to that big eight-year contract and and bet on the player and we’ve seen success with both of those things like Jack Hughes when he’s healthy is just a complete Menace um Tim studler had 90 points in the NHL as a 21 year old or even maybe a 20y old you know um bet on maeno and he will reward you you know like and I think like it’s not like this team has a bunch of money kind of tied up in other players right now you know they they shed a bunch of of cap uh I I am trying to find the uh the Blue Jackets uh cap situation right now because cap friendly has died um in terms of here we go the roster breakdown um the Blue Jackets currently have about $17 million in cap space right now um and they still need to sign uh marenko singer and Kent Johnson to uh to that money um I believe those are the those are the only left yeah with with griev Christiansen both signed um and then um Alex neander is still on this page for uh the blue jacket as a UFA but he’s he’s going to go somewhere else obviously they shed the cap of uh Jake Bean of Adam boquest um plus if you assume that Patrick l is going to be on the out that’s another $8 million there almost $9 million so like if you even if you accept even if you like they keep L $17 million for much enko singer and Johnson like you should be able to get those three players done for $12 million 13 maybe 14 at a push um and that gives you some flexibility again it means that you can be a little bit uh choosier in what happened with Patrick l for example um I think you know again we’ve talked about the monan signing it’s it’s a little more money than than I would and a little longer term but it is what it is um the B jackets are in fine shape in terms of the cap right now uh next year they’re going to have to figure out uh demet fonov is going to get a new contract but um proov comes off the Box Jack Johnson comes off the Box Sean Cari mat Olivier Justin Danford all come off the Box um you know there denal teras of needs a new contract next year as well but like again the Blue Jackets are in pretty good pretty good company here so like if if I’m wadell and I’m like yeah I’m just going to you know obviously a couple of years down the line ftil is going to need new contract brendley is going to need a contract if both those guys take off like people think they might Y is going to need new contract in a couple of Seasons as well um I believe this is the last we’re going into the last year of his uh his ELC actually so he’ll need a new contract next summer um but if you can get marchenko signed at $6 million now like that feels to me anyway that feels like a a pretty good I don’t know I just I I feel pretty good about that um for for maeno for the team um there is a uh contract extension thing aob that uh that I am trying to find here it is uh and in terms of the Blue Jackets um oh well in terms of um marchenko he is uh currently making or uh his his projected uh projected cap hit for this is um for a long-term value uh 5.2 million for a shortterm value uh 3.4 million so 3.4 million at two years or 5.2 at six um yeah if you can get 6×6 for for marchenko like I feel I feel pretty effing great about that quite frankly um shout out to AFP analytics for um they’ve got a really great spreadsheet that you can go to and it shows everyone who needs a new contract right now um or is going to need a new contract and what their projected cap hit is going to be based on like previous cap hits based on previous players getting new contracts that are kind of similar to um similar to those players so really really great resource um and hopefully again hopefully the marenko contract comes out soon another thing off the to-do list you know doell is he’s working his way through he’s doing okay you know it’s it’s tough when a new GM comes in because it feels like they’ve got so much to do and really the only thing that you can do is take it step by step and do it item by item uh and you know I I always get not frustrated by I do feel a little bit like man there’s so much to do this needs doing and this need’s doing and this needs doing but like one at a time and and it’s fine there’s nothing here that I’m not that I’m worried like isn’t going to get done you know I’m not worried that they’re just not going to hire a head coach I’m not worried that they’re going to go to arbitration with marchenko I’m not worried about ma about cylinder and Johnson’s contracts it’s just you know things need doing uh apparently contract talks have ramped up with uh Cinder and uh Johnson as well um oh it’s Mark shy that that had the the s or the the tweet that I saw um but he says um since the coaching search is still going obviously that’s you know there’s some moving Parts there CBJ has ramped up talks with cro maeno Cole singer and Kent Johnson don’t expect maeno to reach an arbitration hearing so great good job um again the blue Jacks have never had a player go to arbitration um I everyone got really stressed about it you know myself s included a little bit but we shouldn’t we shouldn’t be worried manchenko is likely not going to hit arbitration it’s going to be fine um and everything is everything is is pretty okay in CBJ land I just need them to hire a coach you know um tomorrow uh unless news happens today which again like I love to record immediately before news hits like it’s 6:00 a.m. in Columbus right now so I’m not expecting news to hit immediately after I finish recording but if something lands uh this morning immediately after you guys listen then we’ll we’ll cover that tomorrow if not um the great guys over at lockdown NHL uh Prospect did a great episode on the Blue Jackets Prospect pool how they did at the draft um things like that so uh we are going to look at kind of what they said about the Blue Jackets 2024 draft things they like things they didn’t like players are excited about H we’ll break down what they said and uh what I think of what they said so uh if nothing happens today that’s going to be the episode if something happens today the her a Coach the side manchenko whatever that’ll be off tomorrow but but right now we’re just kind of playing it day by day you know but you can find me online at Jake _ jaob Foster j k o b f r s t e r you can find the show at lore blue jacket if you have comments questions criticisms you can email me at lock Bluejacket gmail.com thank you for listening to this episode for making us your first listen of the day every single day you can find lock on Blue Jackets wherever you got podcast you can find us on YouTube you can find us on Sirius XM we are uh jumping up in subscribers we’re getting there slowly we creep closer and closer towards uh 800 would love to hit a th000 by uh by opening night um which I believe uh opening night is also my wedding day so if you guys want to get me a wedding gift and uh and uh subscribe to this show I would super appreciate that quite frankly um once again tomorrow will either be Prospect talk or a reaction to whatever they do today uh if if something does happen today but until then make sure you stay locked on
Well, Todd McLellan is out as the CBJ’s next head coach after terms couldn’t be agreed to. Who’s next on the list? We talk about what went wrong with McLellan, who the best option of Woodcroft and Evason is, and then we take a look at what Kirill Marchenko’s next contract could look like, and why the Blue Jackets should just bite the bullet and pay him long term!
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