The Columbus Blue Jackets announced Thursday that they would be relieving GM Jarmo Kekalainen of his duties effective immediately. President of Hockey Operations John Davidson will assume General Manager duties in the interim while a search for a permanent replacement is conducted.
“This is one of the hardest days I have had in my career as Jarmo is a friend, someone I have a great deal of respect for and someone who has done a lot of good things during his time here,” said Davidson. “While the future of our club is bright, our performance has not been good enough and it is time for a fresh perspective as we move forward.”
“On behalf of our ownership group, I’d like to thank Jarmo for his hard work and commitment over the past 11 years,” said Blue Jackets Majority Owner and Governor John P. McConnell. “He and Tiina, and their daughters, are special people who will always be a part of our Blue Jackets family and I wish them the very best in the next chapter of their lives.”
The 57 year old was appointed as the 3rd GM in franchise history on February 13th 2013. While the club has seen its most successful stretch of on ice hockey during his tenure (410-362-97 along with 5 playoff appearances) there had been increasing rumblings that Kekalainen’s vision was beginning to run counter to what ownership and upper management had in mind.
With blue chip prospects such as Adam Fantilli, David Jiricek, Denton Mateychuk, Kent Johnson and Cole Sillinger all in the system, Columbus felt the time was right to turn the reins over to a new GM to help usher in a new era.
Media availability with interim GM John Davidson will be available on the Blue Jackets’ YouTube page at 11:30am ET.
Photo: vesselinho. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.