Johnny Columbus

BY JEFF SVOBODA (@JACKETSINSIDER)OCT. 11, 2022 | BLUEJACKETS.COM

Brad Larsen was on his way to a speaking engagement with his kids when his phone started buzzing.

It was the opening day of free agency in the NHL, but Larsen’s work with Hockey Ministries International still took precedence. Plus, the Blue Jackets head coach left the house thinking the Blue Jackets likely were done for the day after the signing of Calgary defenseman Erik Gudbranson to a four-year contract.

But as the biggest fish on the free agent market, superstar winger Johnny Gaudreau, remained unsigned, chatter started to build Columbus could be a destination for the perennial All-Star.

He was in touch throughout the late afternoon with Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen, but as so happens with a younger generation these days, his kids — his son, Ty, and daughter, Faith — were just as plugged into what was happening.

Finally, at 7:01 p.m., reporter Elliotte Friedman broke the news on Twitter that reverberated across the CBJ fan base and the hockey world: “Johnny Gaudreau is going to Columbus.”

“I had my kids in the back; they got the news first,” Larsen said. “They were pretty excited. My son was real excited.” 

Half a world away in his native Czech Republic, Jakub Voracek was sitting at home when his phone started buzzing as well.  

“Somebody texted me that, ‘You guys got a hell of a player,'” Voracek said. “So, then I kind of think about it. Who was out there from free agency? I didn’t think Johnny was going to sign in Columbus. 

“I looked it up and saw it was great news, so I was pleasantly surprised.” 

The story was the same for members of the Blue Jackets as they were scattered across the country and the world. As it became clear that the NHL’s second-leading scorer a season ago would be headed to Columbus, a development the team confirmed later that evening when Gaudreau signed his seven-year contract, group chats pinged, Twitter takes were fired off and Blue Jackets fans rejoiced.  

The conversation has scarcely died down, even when the Blue Jackets arrived at camp and the man known as Johnny Hockey put the union blue sweater over his head for the first time. 

“Signing a guy like that, it’s unbelievable,” defenseman Andrew Peeke said on the first day of camp. “He’s a guy that’s one of the faces of the NHL, a superstar player.” 

Some in hockey circles have questioned his sanity; others proclaimed his decision to be a boon for a city looking for a star to call their own. In Columbus, a roster reset built around young talent and aimed at turning the team into a perennial contender received an immediate jolt. Phones in the ticket office rang off the hook as fans spent the summer thinking about adding Gaudreau to one of the most exciting cores in the league.  

Tomorrow night, Gaudreau will step on the ice for the first time in a game that counts, and the buzz around the Blue Jackets is yet to fade. For the first time in franchise history, one of the top players in the game at the peak of his powers has decided on the open market to wear CBJ colors. 

“He chose to come here,” Larsen said. “The decision that he chose us, this organization, this city, to grow his family and really come in at the prime of his career, it’s a big statement. It really is. It shows his belief in what we have going on here.”

So how did Gaudreau get here, and what will it all mean once the puck drops in North Carolina tomorrow night? 

Before we look at the future, it helps to look at the past. Before Johnny Gaudreau was Johnny Hockey, a six-time All-Star who is one of the most dangerous players and marketable names in the league, he was a South Jersey kid from a hockey family. 

He grew up in Salem County, just across the Delaware River from Wilmington and a little bit south of Philadelphia. His father, Guy, was a coach, and Guy’s sons Johnny and Matthew followed in his footsteps — or skatesteps, you could say — to get on the ice at a young age. 

Just a little north, across the bridge from Philadelphia, there was a family with two talented sons about the same age — the Robinsons, with older brother Buddy around two years older than Johnny and younger sibling Eric just a few months younger than Matthew.  

“His dad was my first coach,” said Eric, who is now entering his sixth season with the Blue Jackets. “I am a little bit closer in age with his younger brother, Matt, so he was always playing with my older brother and I was always playing with Matt. We would be scrimmaging against each other, it would be me and my brother vs. Johnny and his brother.” 

Gaudreau added: “My dad would schedule us at the same rink — games right after each other, practices right after each other. It was kind of easy for my parents and the Robinsons to finish two games in one day and then get out of there.” 

As the Gaudreaus and Robinsons got older, it was pretty clear there was some talent in the group, and Guy coached the Gloucester Catholic High School team featuring the elder Robinson and Gaudreau that advanced to the program’s first and only state championship game in 2010. By then, it had become clear Gaudreau was ready for a bigger challenge than prep and AAA hockey. 

For the 2010-11 season, he left New Jersey and moved to Iowa to play in the United States Hockey League, the country’s top junior league, with the Dubuque Fighting Saints. It was a big move considering how close Gaudreau was to his family — not to mention the fact he was listed at 5-foot-6, 141 pounds when he showed up in Dubuque at the age of 17. 

“I remember seeing him and being like, ‘Wow, he looks like a middle schooler,’ honestly,” said Tyler Lundey, a member of that Fighting Saints squad who would go on to play at Ohio State. “But once he got to the rink with you and you’re on the same team and you’re progressing through games, you’re just like, ‘This is one of the most skilled players I’ve ever seen.'” 

In its first season in the USHL after a decade-long absence, Dubuque would go on to USHL’s Clark Cup championship that year, dominating foes with a 9-2 playoff record. Gaudreau scored 36 goals and 72 points in 60 games, then posted a 5-6-11 line in 11 postseason games for a team coached by current Boston Bruins mentor Jim Montgomery.  

Along the way, he developed a reputation as a prankster, victimizing teammates with a “wet boot” for practice by filling water cups and placing them inside of teammates’ skates that would tip over and drench the inside of the skate when the player went to put them on. But that was nothing compared to the way he treated opponents, who all thought they could intimidate one of the smallest players in the league but ended up on the wrong side of highlight reels.  

“You’re super thankful that a guy like Johnny Gaudreau was on your team because if he embarrasses you, at least no one is in the stands,” Lundey said. “You had a lot of times where guys who were pretty big defensemen, and Johnny was 5-6, and they would go after him, and you just couldn’t hit him. He embarrassed some people just from dangling. They would think they had him and they’re going to go for a hit on him, and he just slipped them and made that guy look foolish. He did that so many times.” 

Dubuque acquired Gaudreau thinking he’d be a Fighting Saint for years to come given his size and inexperience, but after one year, it was clear he was ready for yet another step up. Gaudreau originally committed to Northeastern University for NCAA hockey, but coaching changes in the summer of 2011 prompted him to change to Boston College. 

There were questions about how a player of his stature would fit in college, but BC — which had great success with similarly diminutive talents like Brian Gionta and Cam Atkinson — proved to be a perfect fit. The numbers were almost comical — 21 goals and 44 points in 44 games as a freshman, 21 goals and 51 points in 31 games as a sophomore, and 36 goals and 80 points in 40 games as a junior. 

That performance in 2013-14 allowed him to win the Hobey Baker Award as the top player in college hockey, and it came right around the time a star in another college sport was winning the Heisman Trophy. As Johnny Manziel became known across the sports world as Johnny Football, Gaudreau picked up a nickname of his own — Johnny Hockey. 

Doing it in college and the junior ranks is one thing, but succeeding in the NHL is another animal. Gaudreau had been drafted by Calgary in the fourth round of the 2011 draft after his excellent year in Dubuque, but while he had filled out and grown to a listed height of 5-9, there were still some who wondered if Gaudreau could continue to be such a dominant player in the best league in the world. 

The answer didn’t take long to figure out. He played in just one game at the end of the 2013-14 season for the Flames — and scored a goal. In his rookie campaign a year later, he posted a 24-40-64 line in 80 games, placing third in the Calder Trophy voting and appearing in the All-Star Game in Columbus for a team that went to the Western Conference semifinals.  

From there, the numbers have hardly stopped impressing. Over the past eight seasons, Gaudreau’s 608 points in 601 games ranks sixth in the NHL behind just Connor McDavid, Patrick Kane, Sidney Crosby, Leon Draisaitl and Brad Marchand. His 399 assists in that time are third behind only McDavid and Kane, and Gaudreau has also scored 209 goals in that span. 

“It was one of those things where every level he went to, people would doubt him and say he wouldn’t have success at the next level, but he just kept proving everyone wrong and continuing to dominate in juniors and college and obviously in the NHL,” Robinson said. “From a friend’s point of view, it was exciting to see.” 

Last year was a career season, as Gaudreau tied for 15th in the NHL with 40 goals, was third in the NHL with 75 assists, and tied for second in the league with 115 points. At the end of the season, the question remained: Would Gaudreau re-sign with Calgary or hit the open market? 

News broke in the days before free agency opened that Gaudreau would likely leave the Flames, and the Blue Jackets’ Behind The Battle video series documented how he ended up in Columbus. Gaudreau had done his research about the city, and as the opening day of free agency stretched on, the team’s conversations with Gudbranson about his contract also made clear just how much Gaudreau was interested in Columbus. Negotations throughout the afternoon led to a seven-year, $68.25 million deal that was announced that evening. 

As the Blue Jackets front office celebrated in the team offices on suite level, many around the NHL simply wondered what had happened. Many pundits had expected Gaudreau to end up closer to home in a place like Philadelphia or New Jersey. Others wondered why he’d leave Calgary after so many successful seasons. Considering how few big-ticket free agents had ended up in Columbus over the years, many in the NHL simply didn’t see the decision coming. 

It’s a question Gaudreau has answered repeatedly — and in the same way — since he arrived for his introductory press conference in Columbus on July 14. 

“I talked to a lot of players this summer when I signed here; a lot of ex-players, a lot of people who lived in Columbus,” said Gaudreau, whose wife, Meredith, gave birth to their first child in late September. “It’s very close to my hometown in New Jersey. I know a lot of people who do live here, and it’s all great things. Off the ice, I just heard really good things.

“And then on the ice, obviously there’s a lot of great players in that locker room and a lot of young guys who are coming up in this league and are going to have good careers. It was really exciting to come in here and be part of this team.” 

One of those conversations was with Robinson, as the South Jersey natives stayed in touch over the years as all four boys played high level hockey. While Gaudreau has become one of the top players in the NHL, Eric Robinson worked himself into a regular with the Blue Jackets and Buddy skated with Gaudreau in Calgary as well.  

As Gaudreau entered free agency, Robinson wasn’t shy about pitching him on playing for the Blue Jackets.

“When I heard it might be a possibility, I kind of didn’t believe it,” Robinson admitted. “I was doing my best to convince him that it’s a great place to play and live. I wasn’t really sure how much ground I was making on him. But when you see the news that said it’s official, it’s surreal.” 

It’s a win for the city to get an impact player like that who chose you. He came here to be a Columbus Blue Jacket.

Brad Larsen, Head Coach

There’s no denying just how impressive Gaudreau’s stats have been in his first eight seasons in the NHL. Fans will quickly notice his excellent shot, good vision, and impressive skating skills. But what makes Johnny Hockey, well, so good at hockey? 

“He’s a master at understanding the space that he’s in,” said Gudbranson, who had played against Gaudreau plenty of times before becoming his teammate a season ago. “If there’s a foot that he can use between me and him, he uses it like one of the best in the league. He’s good at exposing that stuff. His hockey IQ is through the roof. The stuff that he sees vs. some of the stuff other guys see is very much at the high end.” 

Werenski, who has played against Gaudreau the past few seasons with Columbus and also skated with him at the World Championships in 2019, had a similar answer regarding Gaudreau’s ability to read an opposing player and then go off of that to create space. 

“He’s hard to stop,” Werenski said. “He’s a smaller guy. He’s quick. He’s shifty. He’s so good with the puck. He’s got a motor where it never turns off. His feet just keep moving. You think you’ve got him, and he cuts back and he’s 10 feet away from you and he makes a play. He’s one of those guys with something special to his game that not everyone has.” 

When speaking to a group of Blue Jackets full season ticket holders at a meet the team party last week, president of hockey operations John Davidson had an answer you might not expect when asked by fans to list off the players that had surprised him during training camp. That would be Gaudreau, with the longtime NHL player, broadcaster and executive describing Gaudreau as the kind of player whose brilliance you can’t truly grasp until you see him on a daily basis. 

Larsen sounded like one of his defensemen when talking about the standout forward, raving about Gaudreau’s ability to manipulate time and space on the ice and make plays in traffic. 

“He’s a special player, let’s call it what it is,” the head coach said. “We’re doing power-play breakouts today and all of a sudden he cranked it up to full speed, and you can see the defensemen’s eyes get real big because if you’re not paying attention, he can blow right through you. He gets faster with the puck. That’s hard to do, especially at the NHL level.  

“He does things at a very high speed. Once he gets a half-step on you, he smells blood. He’s like, ‘I got him,’ and then he gets faster. What happens when you beat a guy? That usually draws someone to you, so they are short in coverage, and then he makes the next play. That’s what he can do that’s been impressive.” 

When Gaudreau signed, he made headlines with one statement — “I didn’t come to Columbus to check out the views. I came here to win hockey games.”  

At the end of the day, for all of the individual accolades, for all of the stats he’s likely to compile, the success of this deal will come down to whether he helps Columbus build a winner.  

Johnny Hockey is here, and there’s excitement in the air. One of the youngest teams in the NHL now has someone who chose to come to Columbus to help lead it to the next level. Get ready, Columbus.  

“It’s a win for the city to get an impact player like that who chose you,” Larsen said. “He came here to be a Columbus Blue Jacket. I think everybody is excited. We’re excited, but I’ll reiterate this — he’s wearing one jersey. He’s not wearing five jerseys out there. It’s not on him to get us to the playoffs. He’s going to be a part of it. He’s in it for the long term, which is awesome, but he’s just one guy. It’s up to everybody to pick up their game also.”