Jack be Nimble, Jack be Quick

Late Monday night the Columbus Blue Jackets and Boston Bruins finalized a trade to send star center Jack Eichel (along with a late pick and cash considerations) to Columbus in exchange the the Blue Jackets own conditional 1st round draft pick in 2023, a 3rd round pick in 2023, top prospect Brock Faber and center Mikael Granlund. Jackets General Manager sat down with us to discuss the trade and the team's future.

Thank you for joining us on such short notice Andrew. You've been busy these last few weeks?:

You're right, I have been busy! I can into this season with playoffs as a real expectation, and through the firtst half of the season the team was not playing well enough to realize that goal. Oustide of our top line, most of our forwards were underperforming and I felt that a shakeup was in order. I think the players have responded well since the trade. Robert Thomas and Jeff Skinner in particular have found some chemistry on the second line.

So tell us how did this Eichel trade come together with the Bruins? His name had been in trade rumours for other a month and he's the latest star player to be traded in a season full of big moves following the trades of Tage Thompson, Jordan Kyrou, Mat Barzal amoung others.:

We've been trying to nail down a bonafide long-term star center to play on our top line for most of the season and kicked tires on some of the names you mentioned. We love Mikael Granlund, but he's a free agent at the end of 2024 and Robert Thomas has struggled to find a place in our lineup early on. The Blue Jackets have had their eye on Jack Eichel for years and have had serious trade discussions with all of the past Bruins General Managers about acquiring him and I'm ecstatic to finally bring him to Ohio. Trevor was a pleasure to deal with, we've been chatting over the course of several weeks and he knew exactly what kind of value he wanted and we were lucky that it fell in line with what we were willing to give up in this deal.

You included college prospect Brock Faber in this trade. Did that hurt given the rebuilding nature of the club?:

We love Brock we think he's going to have a long successful career in this league and it definetly hurt to let him go. It's be a tough week for him, he just lost the NCAA National Championship game a couple of days ago and we know he's excited to turn pro. We tried to throw out some different names and different options to get this trade across the finish line but Trevor was really zeroed in on this player. With the success of our drafting the past couple of years and the prospect pool we've accumulated I felt we could move one of our prospects out to bring in a player of Jack's caliber.

The team's trades a couple of weeks ago, selling off veteran players seems to be the opposite of the "buyers" action taken with this Eichel trade. What direction is this team going in for the rest of the season? Are the Blue Jackets sellers or are they buyers?:

I don't make any trade without a long-term outlook on my team. Jack Eichel is a great player we can add right now to hopefully push us into a playoff spot this season, but he's still only 26 years old, he's a restriced free agent at the end of the season and so he's going to be with us for a long-time. The same could not be said for Jake Muzzin nor Valeri Nichushkin and potentially that keeps the door open for moving more pieces as the trade deadline approaches. For now I want to see how Jack fits into the lineup and see what this team can do with the pieces in the room right now and I will re-evaluate as the deadline approaches.

It's been a busy week for your NCAA prospects as several have been wrapping up their collegiate careers and looking to turn pro. What are you plans for them?:

That's true, as I mentioned, Brock Faber is going to turn pro next season, I'm sure with the Bruins but we also look forward to having Wyatt Kaiser, Mason Lohrei and Alex Laferriere joining the Greenville Swamp Rabbits next season, as all have given notice to their respective schools that they will not be returning next season. Lohrei having played at Ohio State right here in Columbus has been able to use our facilities since graduating and be around the NHL club. But, for all three I hope to ease them into the AHL lineup next season and not place too high expectations on them, there will be lots of veteran influence on that team to show them how a professional hockey player conducts themselves.

You placed a top 10 protection on the first round pick sent to the Bruins. Are you worried the team will be falling down in the overall standings?:

Any time you have a draft like this next one, and especially with a generational talen like Connor Bedard you want to protect yourself, even if its a long shot. We won the draft lottery just last season with the longest odds and if the hockey gods are in our favour again this offseason, I don't want to be kicking myself that we no longer hold that pick. But hopefully, we can turn things around and give the Bruins the last pick of the round.

Thank you for your time, and good luck the rest of the season.