I've watched around 10-12 games of CBJ this season.
Eye test which I know is blasphemy....
First few weeks of the season, Werenski-Jones were off. Half a second slow in their decision making. Not up to their usual standard. It got better.
Things rolled along, he looked fine, looked like Seth Jones, a great defenseman.
Werenski went down. He's played with Del Zotto the second most...while not terrible, it's not exactly a legit top 4 partner. Had a stint with Lehtonen. Lehtonen isn't an NHL defenseman. Gavrikov and Jones didn't really show any chemistry.
Columbus is just flat out a bad team this season and I think it's destroying the spread sheet so the narrative is that Jones isn't good. Bad team, bad defensive partners...overall just not going to assist in making a player look good.
The best way I could put it is that everyone looks like garbage on Buffalo. They leave and they look great.
The minute Seth Jones leaves Columbus and goes to a real team, he's going to be in the Norris conversation.
I don't think Jones is bad, but I don't think he's $9 mil plus good either. Columbus has had a strong defensive team, and system, and Jones is on the ice for a lot of goals against, and poor SV%, in multiple seasons. Now these are more than a Jones measurement, but after a few seasons, it's a trend, and you wonder why... ok, he plays against tough competition, and so on.. but if you go from a strong defensive team like Columbus, to the Leafs, will he suddenly look better defensively? Offensively, I think his numbers go up dramatically...
You look at a guy like Hedman, and he's a guy who you can put out with anyone, and he's going to make them look good... Jones isn't in that category, really very few are.
I just don't think he's the right answer for us... I think we need a defensively responsible guy, who can pair with Brodie for decent minutes, and is adequate at moving the puck. Sandin and Liljegren have done fairly well on the PP with the Marlies, and Sandin looks good at the NHL level in doing so. Get me a medium budget guy, who makes us better defensively, maybe physically, and isn't going to kill the budget.