Arace: Two blocks and a million miles separate the Columbus Crew and the Blue Jackets
There are two city blocks and a million miles between the new Crew stadium and Nationwide Arena. The separation was never more measurable than it was in 2023.
The Crew posted a 25-11-10 record in all competitions. They were the most dynamic and exciting team in MLS, and they led the league in scoring and goal differential. They finished off their season by winning the MLS Cup for the second time in four years, and for the third time in the 28-year history of the league’s first chartered franchise.
The Blue Jackets' record in the calendar year of 2023 – including the end of last season (when they were the second-worst team in the NHL) and the first half of this season (they were 28th out of 32 teams on New Year’s Day) – was 32-47-9.
What does all of this say about the respective management teams?
Of Crew president/general manager Tim Bezbatchenko, 42, it says this: He is the best GM in the league. Full stop.
Bezbatchenko won his first MLS Cup with Toronto FC, a team with a huge payroll, in 2017. He returned home after Save the Crew in 2019. Since, he has won two more Cups with two different coaches, two different rosters and mid-pack payrolls.
Bezbatchenko’s 2023 season was a master class. It began with a new coach: Bezbatchenko knew he wanted Wilfried Nancy and he paid the price to pry Nancy out of Montreal. Together, they installed a radical possess-and-attack, braveball system from the academy levels on up to the senior team. And they retooled.
By midsummer, eight of the starters from the 2022 season finale were gone. A flurry of acquisitions followed. How did it work out? Put it this way: Bezbatchenko sold attacking mid Lucas Zelarayan, arguably the best player in franchise history, to a team in Saudi Arabia – and the Crew GOT BETTER.
The Crew’s march to the MLS Cup title marked time in Columbus, and in MLS. It was the stuff of legend. And before the parade route down Nationwide Boulevard was even drawn up, Bezbatchenko began retooling for 2024. What will this year bring?
Will Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen, 57, hang on to his job?
Kekalainen is in his 12th season. His teams, from 2013 through 2023, have a record of 410-361-97. That’s a points percentage of .528. His Jackets made the playoffs five times in seven seasons (2014-20) and won one round, the famed sweep of the mighty Tampa Bay Lightning in 2019. Given the team's historic mediocrity, this was significant and should not be dismissed. But they haven’t made the playoffs since. They won’t this year, either.
Compared to the Crew, the Jackets have lacked vision. They’ve entered each of the past four seasons talking about playoffs instead of concentrating on a long-term plan to shape a new era. This sort of thinking can be dangerous when you mistakenly think you’re one or two players away from contending for a playoff spot every year.
To that end, Kekalainen has made dangerous forays into the free-agent market, where sensible cap management gets lost in the chase for shiny objects. I don’t know if Johnny Gaudreau’s contract ($9.75 million per through 2028-29) is going to come to haunt the franchise, but I’ll bet that Damon Severson’s ($6.25 million per through 2030-31) will. It’s one thing to pay Johnny Hockey for his retrograde 30s, and it’s quite another to overpay another team’s castoff when he’s on the other side of his prime.
Why didn’t Kekalainen just hang on to Vladislav Gavrikov? Don’t you miss Oliver Bjorkstrand? What was Kekalainen thinking when he flipped the No. 22 overall pick to Philadelphia in a deal for Ivan Provorov? He could’ve gotten winger Gabe Perreault in that range. If you’ve been watching the World Junior Championship this week, you know Gabe Perreault. I could go on here. What’s the plan?
Defense was a problem and Kekalainen took expensive steps − including the acquisition of aged blueliner Erik Gudbranson ($4 million per through 2025-26) and Provorov ($4.725 per through 2024-25), not to mention Severson − in an attempt to fix it. Because playoffs. Bjorkstrand had to be traded for cap relief. Because playoffs.
Playoffs?
It was a misread. These Jackets have not been playoff-caliber since 2019-20, and they have the record to prove it. Mike Babcock wasn’t going to change that math. By the way, what genius decided that hiring Babcock was a good idea? Kekalainen? John P. McConnell? John Davidson? Basil McRae? Rick Nash? Ken Hitchcock? Jeff Rimer? Boomer? The Babcock fiasco made every list of the 10 biggest NHL stories of 2023.
The Babcock embarrassment along with some sloppy salary-cap management along with a lack of a long-term vision are all huge knocks against Kekalainen. In many markets, any one or two of those things might be enough to get a GM fired. Yet ...
Kekalainen and his staff have used the widest drafting window that ever opened in Columbus to stockpile a huge stable of estimable young talent. If Kekalainen is still learning how to build, he is long past knowing how to draft.
This team is so much fun to watch, and to project. I watch every game. I watch Adam Fantilli, know he is superstar material. I watch Kent Johnson as he conjures a bit of Patrick Kane. I watch the Russian line of Kirill Marchenko, Dmitri Voronkov and Yegor Chinakhov and I’m fascinated. The fans get it. They’re flocking to Nationwide Arena to glimpse the future. They want to see defenseman David Jiricek skate and pass and shoot and hit. They know that forwards Gavin Brindley and Jordan Dumais, and defensemen Denton Mateychuk and Stanislav Svozil, among others, are also in the pipeline.
We shall see how the remainder of the 2023-24 season plays out. It has been interesting viewing so far, even when coach Pascal Vincent leaves Fantilli on the bench in overtime. Pazzy needs to smile every once in a while. This team holds so much promise. It is the most talented team ever seen in Columbus. Whether it remains so and turns into a contender, a bona fide contender, will be on Kekalainen.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Two blocks and a million miles separate Columbus Crew, Blue Jackets
