The Blue Jackets just can't get out of their own way

Mike Babcock — Photo via AP

Columbus is more than ready to support a competitive hockey team.

The Blue Jackets just can’t get out of their own way.

Last week, former NHLer Paul Bissonnette reported on his podcast that the Blue Jackets’ newly-hired head coach, Mike Babcock, had been asking players for their phones to view photographs during preseason meetings.

Babcock immediately responded to the allegations through a team release:

“While meeting with our players and staff I asked them to share, off their phones, family pictures as part of the process of getting to know them better. There was absolutely nothing more to it than that.

“The way this was portrayed on the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast was a gross misrepresentation of those meetings and extremely offensive. These meetings have been very important and beneficial, not only for me but for our players and staff as well, and to have them depicted like this is irresponsible and completely inaccurate.”

Although captain Boone Jenner also released a statement through the team that suggested the allegations were “blown out of proportion,” things changed when a few of the team’s youngsters expressed discomfort about their meetings with Babcock.

This sparked an investigation from the NHL and NHL Players Association that involved executive director Marty Walsh and assistant executive director Ron Hainsey flying to Columbus to meet with players.

Several days later, Babcock resigned as head coach.

And if we’re telling it like it is here, he was forced into resignation — made abundantly clear by the cringey statement from general manager Jarmo Kekalainen:

“This was a difficult decision on everyone’s part, but one we felt necessary to ensure our focus remains on the players and the team’s upcoming season. On behalf of the entire Blue Jackets organization, we want to thank Mike for his hard work and the professionalism he has shown in working together on a plan to step down.”

The negative attention and immediate fallout from this situation is exactly what the Blue Jackets deserve for hiring Babcock in the first place.

Maybe this will serve as the kick in the ass they need in order to start operating like a serious organization.

A serious organization doesn’t hire a head coach who was described by one of his former players as a “terrible person” and a “bully who was attacking people.”

The stories of Babcock’s verbal and mental abuse were aplenty, both in his time as head coach of the Red Wings (2005-2015) and Maple Leafs (2015-2019). At best, he was — and evidently still is — a socially-awkward weirdo with horrific interpersonal skills.

At worst? An egotistical aggressor who has no business being an NHL bench boss, let alone of a team that has some of the most intriguing young talent around the league.

Yet, the Blue Jackets hired him anyway. Impossible-to-miss red flags and all. Doing so stood as the low point of the organization’s 23-year existence, only to be one-upped by his firing resignation two months later.

It’s unclear whether or not Kekalainen was the one who ultimately hired Babcock, but logic suggests he at least had significant influence on the decision.

In isolation, that should be enough to have him on the hot seat. Combined with his handling of the Blue Jackets’ roster and salary cap over the last few years? Or the fact his teams have won all of two postseason series in the 10 years he’s been general manager? Well, it’s a wonder he even made it far enough to be in a position to (presumably) influence Babcock’s hiring.

Again, the Blue Jackets’ young talent really is something:

• Adam Fantilli (18)

• Kent Johnson (20)

• Cole Sillinger (20)

• David Jiricek (19)

• Denton Mateychuk (19)

• Corson Ceulemens (20)

• Kirill Marchenko (23)

• Yegor Chinakhov (22)

Fantilli is a star in the making. Marchenko has already flashed some intriguing scoring ability at the NHL level. Johnson’s skill seems destined to translate into high-caliber production. The rest have a chance to be impactful NHL players in some capacity, and surely a few of them — along with others not mentioned — will hit.

Throw in Zach Werenski (26) and Patrik Laine (25) and the Blue Jackets really do have something to build around. They just aren’t there yet.

But Kekalainen’s transactions of late have unnecessarily burned organizational assets such as draft capital and future salary cap space — as if the Blue Jackets’ competitive window is right now and not several years away.

If not for the questionable four-year, $16 million signing of Erik Gudbranson last summer, Kekalainen and Blue Jackets brass wouldn’t have been alerted that Johnny Gaudreau had interest in coming to Columbus.

They dropped everything to contact Gaudreau’s agent and get a deal done, completely ignoring that he’d be of little use on an uncompetitive, rebuilding squad in the immediate term and taking up precious future cap space ($9.75 million per season) in his mid-30s.

Sure, he’s a star and the Blue Jackets were surrounded with a reputation that they couldn’t keep or land top players. It makes sense from that perspective, but the kind of contract they gave Gaudreau was the kind that’s given by a team ready to win right now — one ready to capture the handful of seasons remaining of his high-end play without a care of his eventual cap burden.

In other words, not the Blue Jackets.

This summer, Kekalainen traded a third-round pick to the Devils in exchange for Damon Severson — someone who’d be available via free agency several weeks later — and the right to sign him to an eight-year, $50 million contract.

That’s a flabbergasting contract for an offensively-inclined, second-pairing defenseman who’ll turn 30 a year from now. It’s another instance of a contract that a win-now team would sign, not the Blue Jackets.

There’s no doubt in my mind they would’ve been able to sign a similar defenseman to the exact same contract when they’re ready to compete several years down the line, but now they’ll be locked into an aging Severson.

How about trading a first- and second-round pick for Ivan Provorov? The 26-year-old defenseman has only two seasons remaining at a manageable $4.725 million cap hit, but it’s hard to imagine Kekalainen would eventually let him walk after spending a pretty penny to acquire him.

The mounting evidence that Provorov’s game isn’t much to write home about suggests that’ll be bad news.

Where’s the room for those youngsters to develop into the big-impact players the Blue Jackets are hopeful they’ll become?

Then there’s the Babcock situation.

It shouldn’t feel this bleak for a team that has as many exciting prospects as the Blue Jackets do. They’re currently the laughing stock of the NHL, and that absolutely sucks for the fans in Columbus who just want to watch some competitive hockey and support a competent organization.