Kekalainen a good GM?

[Brun0]

Well look at the jackets and how it has been turned arround. Stacked up young talent in just a few years.

Their blue line is the youngest in nhl.

Click to read more...

 

[Mulletman]

It's not because of Kekalainen that the Blue Jackets are good. I've never heard anyone on HF who's had anything good to say about this clown.

 

[Seatoo]

I think he's a good GM. Top 10? No.

I mean, we have Benning so a panel of HFCanuck posters would be an improvement but I think you get where I'm going with this.

 

[Kardi]

It's not because of Kekalainen that the Blue Jackets are good. I've never heard anyone on HF who's had anything good to say about this clown.

Do you read every thread on here?



also.. 'Kekalainen's skill as the team's draft guru played a major role in the Blues' rise.

Patrik Berglund, T.J. Oshie, David Perron, Alex Pietrangelo and Vladimir Tarasenko among others were all added to the team during Kekalainen's watch.

Kekalainen's resume includes a stint as director of player personnel with the Ottawa Senators, where he drafted Marian Hossa and Jason Spezza, among others.' http://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...ts-gm-jarmo-kekalainen-hiring-column/1915915/

 

[CanuckGame39]

Threads like these make me laugh. 2 months ago people were bashing on him calling him one of the worst GMs in the league.

 

[Hello Johnny]

It's not because of Kekalainen that the Blue Jackets are good. I've never heard anyone on HF who's had anything good to say about this clown.

Oh really? Kekalainen had nothing to do with acquiring Wennberg, Jones, Saad, Werenski, or the hiring of Tortorella?

You seem to be pretty bitter towards him for absolutely no reason. I've always been a believer in Kekalainen and JD. Even when the team was bad under them I thought the moves they made were generally good and changed the fabric of the team's identity.

 

[sabresfan129103]

I honestly thought he was gonna be on his way out especially after the draft. I am completely shocked by how good the Jackets are this year. Happy for their fans.

 

[hamzarocks]

A lot of Columbus fans hated his guts over the offseason. But now that they are doing good, I guess you gotta give credit to him. He has an eye for talent. Werenski, is a gonna be a number 1 dmen, jones as well. Murray is a good bet to become a number 2. I don't think the jackets are this good. But they have a lot of pieces and a lot of talent has take a nice step this year with saad, wennerberg, jones, Bob all playing great hockey .

 

[WannabeFinn]

It's not because of Kekalainen that the Blue Jackets are good. I've never heard anyone on HF who's had anything good to say about this clown.

Jarmo isn't the one who drafted Werenski and Wennberg? Traded for Jones and Saad?

 

[Prins Filip]

Oh please don't fall for that, from the threads made by Mulletman you can pretty easily deduct that he is finnish and likes to either provoke the bit too sensitive finns in here or get some positive comments about them by irrationally bashing the finnish players (or a GM this time).

Like 50% of his threads have something to do with finns.

 

[BB88]

It's not because of Kekalainen that the Blue Jackets are good. I've never heard anyone on HF who's had anything good to say about this clown.

He traded for Jones and has build a blueline with Werenski, Jones, Murray, Savard, Johnson, Nutivaara.
He traded for Saad, he signed Gagner.

I'd say he has had a positive impact on the team(this year).

 

[Asiantuntija]

Pretty good. But skipping Puljujärvi was dumbest think ever.

 

[captaincanadian]

Threads like these make me laugh. 2 months ago people were bashing on him calling him one of the worst GMs in the league.

HF very much has a "What have you done for me lately" mentality as a whole. It's always been amusing to watch popular website opinion fluctuate on players and personnel based on the last few months showing. It's probably most apparent when following discussion of coaches.

 

[Hzzz]

The hartnell trade was also pretty good move by Jarmo

 

[ruunto71*]

I thought he was way over his head when he hired Tortorella, but you can't argue with results

 

[The Jones Zone]

William Karlsson for Wiz

Thanks Anaheim

 

[The Jones Zone]

Pretty good. But skipping Puljujärvi was dumbest think ever.

remains to be seen, all we know right now is neither of them are ready play in the NHL right now

 

[TheCLAM]

William Karlsson for Wiz

Thanks Anaheim

Congrats on the 3/4 liner

 

[Sens]

Congrats on the 3/4 liner

He'll be a 2C he's good

 

[Asiantuntija]

remains to be seen, all we know right now is neither of them are ready play in the NHL right now

And other one isn't ready even for AHL. Puljujärvi is much better player and you will see that, he is 18-year old and almost ready to NHL. They don't want send him to AHL because he is too good.

 

[hirawl]

And other one isn't ready even for AHL. Puljujärvi is much better player and you will see that, he is 18-year old and almost ready to NHL. They don't want send him to AHL because he is too good.

I lolled. Congrats.

 

[mikeyp24]

And other one isn't ready even for AHL. Puljujärvi is much better player and you will see that, he is 18-year old and almost ready to NHL. They don't want send him to AHL because he is too good.

You realize PLD isn't eligible to play in the AHL right? He has played on a garbage team in a garbage league and he is in the process of learning a new position still. He's not even played a total of a season at C yet. Mean while Puljujarvi is playing with the likes of McDavid and Draisaitl and isn't really that impressive. This draft will not be able to be judged for 5 years still. When PLD is 22 we can see if it was a mistake

 

[Marc the Habs Fan]

If you take out the drafting (Wennberg, Werenski, Dubois, etc) because it's a bit of a grey area when it comes to evaluating the GM (who had the final say, him or the chief scout?):

The Saad trade was good. Anisimov's numbers are obviously inflated by Kane and Panarin. Dano will be a long time NHL winger in a 2nd or 3rd line role but not a star.

Jones for Johansen looks good and has helped turn their D into a major strength.

Karlsson + 3rd for Wisniewski + 2nd was a theft considering how quickly Wiz crashed.

Hartnell for Umberger's corpse is a solid trade, even though Hartnell's contract remains a bit of an issue.

Gagner was an unreal FA bargain bin signing.

So that's 5 pickups.

I still don't understand how they didn't get a pick for helping the Leafs out of the Clarkson headache.

The rest of the team is essentially Howson's bunch.

He hasn't really made a key mistake, which in nearly 4 years of GMing can't be understated.

 

[Nucker101]

I think he's a hell of a scout/talent evaluator. Not the best with contracts and cap management, ideally CBJ has an assistant GM who takes care of most of that stuff for him so he can do what he does best, find talent.

I was shocked that he passed on Puljujarvi though, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt since he's such a good scout and likely has seen Puljujarvi play more than any other GM had prior to the draft.

 

[Mr Positive]

GMs are judged on results. There is wiggle room there, but with the crazy amount of success Kekaleinen has created, it's undeniable. He's made a winner. End of story.