Jarmo Kekalainen’s decade-plus-long tenure as the Columbus Blue Jackets general manager came to an end when the team parted ways with him last week. This comes in the middle of a season to forget for a Blue Jackets team that has a 16-26-10 record and is in last place in the Metropolitan Division. But, more importantly, they were in a state of disarray.
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Kekalainen not only whiffed on one coaching hire – Mike Babcock was forced to resign months after he was hired – but his next hire, Pascal Vincent, hasn’t fared much better. Kekalainen entered the season on thin ice, and the coaching hires, along with roster decisions, and a team that was expected to make progress in a rebuild taking a step back resulted in his firing.
Kekalainen had a tough end to his tenure, but he won’t be out of a job for long. He’s one of the most respected minds in the game and has a keen eye for talent. His teams have had issues, but talent wasn’t one of them, as he found elite players, especially in the draft. He would be a good hire for a handful of teams, even if it’s not as GM. Kekalainen can join a front office in some capacity and make a significant impact.
Lou Lamoriello should consider bringing Kekalainen into the New York Islanders, not only to turn the team around but also to save his job. He is the GM in the hot seat after the loss to the New York Rangers in the Stadium Series on Sunday when the team blew a 4-1 lead and lost 6-5. He could be the next GM to go.
The Islanders are on their third head coach in three seasons, and as they continue to struggle, the problems are being pinned on the front office. Coaching wasn’t the problem (it still isn’t), but the roster is, and who is to blame for constructing the roster? Kekalainen seems like an out-of-the-box and unlikely hire for the Islanders, but it might work if he can fill the gaps in Lamoriello’s style.
Kekalainen’s Strengths Are Drafting & Developing
The Islanders desperately need someone in their front office who can properly develop the farm system and add young talent to an aging roster. The prospect pool is one of the worst in the NHL, which not only prevents them from adding youth at the NHL level but keeps them from acquiring star-caliber players both at the trade deadline and in the offseason. In the summer of 2023, the Islanders were hoping to add Alex DeBrincat to their forward unit, but they couldn’t match the Detroit Red Wings’ offer, who acquired the star scorer.
Kekalainen had some great draft classes when he was the Blue Jackets’ GM. In the 2015 NHL Entry Draft, he selected Zach Werenski in the first round and managed to snag Vladislav Gavrikov in the sixth. In 2016, he selected Pierre-Luc Dubois and Andrew Peeke with the team’s first and second-round selections. In recent drafts, he restocked the team’s prospect pool, as he landed Kent Johnson, Cole Sillinger, David Jiricek, and Adam Fantilli.
The Blue Jackets were never short on elite prospects. The problems came afterward, and the decisions that Kekalainen made set the team back. They had the pieces in place for a successful rebuild but then fumbled. Whether it was the inability to find a reliable backup goaltender or the offseason additions that prevented young players from developing into stars, the Blue Jackets were left stuck in the same place, which was at the bottom of the division.
The Islanders can hire Kekalainen in a scouting or a development role, and the move would benefit all parties involved. He started his front-office career as a scout and worked his way up from there, and it’s what could allow him to find another job as an NHL GM in the future.
Islanders Add Another Savant to the Front Office
Kekalainen and Lamoriello are similar. They are both reserved and operate on their own schedules, rarely showing their cards. They also have a vision for how a team should be built, and their rosters reflect that. Lamoriello is an executive who rules the Islanders with an iron fist, making it easy to think that he wouldn’t want to hire Kekalainen, and if he did, the two would clash.
That being said, the two hockey minds could work well together. Lamoriello should be the one making the team decisions, but he needs a second opinion and one he respects. Too many big decisions have been made solely by Lamoriello, and the Islanders need another voice who can guide the team. This offseason, he re-signed the team’s unrestricted free agents (UFAs) to long-term contracts to keep the roster intact. Most of those contracts will age poorly, but nobody told him otherwise, and thus, the Islanders signed Scott Mayfield and Pierre Engvall to seven-year deals.
Kekalainen wouldn’t be the one telling Lamoriello who to sign or what moves to make in free agency. After all, that was part of his downfall in Columbus, notably when he signed Johnny Gaudreau, hoping he’d help a team that wasn’t ready to contend become the team to beat in the Eastern Conference. However, he’d add another opinion and would specifically help Lamoriello on the prospect side of things. Two veteran executives in the front office would go a long way to helping the organization remain competitive and maintain a balanced roster, one that has players on movable contracts and more youth in the lineup.
Lamoriello Remains in Charge of Personel
Parts of the GM job that Lamoriello has done right have to do with the NHL roster. He’s not aggressive and is ridiculed for keeping things the same every season, but for the most part, his roster decisions have paid off. The extensions he gave Mathew Barzal, Ryan Pulock, Adam Pelech, and Ilya Sorokin have allowed the Islanders to establish a core to build around.
Then there are the few moves that Lamoriello has made that have paid off. The acquisition of Alexander Romanov in the 2022 offseason added a hard-hitting, shot-blocking young defenseman to the left side of the unit. Likewise, Jean-Gabriel Pageau (acquired at the 2020 trade deadline) added a third-line center who was essential to the deep playoff runs. Then there was the Bo Horvat trade, a deal that gave the Islanders a top-line center and elite scorer who would be a core player to build a contender around.
The problem hasn’t been the ability for Lamoriello to find a core and keep it. The issues are what comes next. The Islanders have struggled to add complementary pieces to help their stars. Barzal and Horvat feed off each other’s strengths, but Brock Nelson is asked to carry his line and Noah Dobson, the only two-way player on defense, is asked to provide the spark from the point. Lamoriello should still be in charge of the roster moves, but having another voice should round out the team.
Kekalainen Can Learn From Lamoriello (And Be His Successor)
His recent stretch showed Kekalainen in a bad light. The Blue Jackets are a mess, and whoever takes over has to clean up the mess that he left. Consecutively poor decisions also make it easy to think that he won’t be successful in a front-office role or that owners shouldn’t trust him to turn their team into a contender. After all, the Blue Jackets only won one playoff series in his tenure.
That’s not how the NHL works. It’s a league of second chances, especially for head coaches and GMs. Kekalainen proving himself in a unique role could make him stand out as a worthy candidate for a GM job. Moreover, if he addresses the issues that were his undoing with the Blue Jackets, he’ll return to the executive role more prepared and capable of building a Cup contender.
Lamoriello has a lot to teach anyone, and Kekalainen is no exception. Whether it’s making a trade at the right time, what to look for in a head coach, or anything in between, Lamoriello can help guide someone looking to take the next step in a front-office role. He won three Stanley Cup titles with the New Jersey Devils, and Kekalainen will take his advice with the hopes of building a great team of his own someday.
It’s worth noting that Kekalainen is 57 years old, which is young compared to Lamoriello, who is 81 and the oldest GM in the league. Kekalainen has a lot of time to turn his career around, and from the Islanders’ perspective, he’s the type of talent evaluator who could succeed Lamoriello.