10 reasons why Jarmo Kekalainen should be hired as GM of the Ottawa Senators

Forums/Armchair-GM

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Created by: sensonfire

Team: 2023-24 Ottawa Senators

Initial Creation Date: Feb. 15, 2024

Published: Feb. 15, 2024

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Description

1. Jarmo used to play for the Ottawa Senators.

2. He was Director of Player Personnel in Ottawa for a number of years.

3. He was instrumental in drafting and developing guys like Martin Havlat, Marian Hossa and Ray Emery.

4. He's the GM of Team Finland internationally.

5. He is the most successful and longest-serving GM in the entire history of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

6. He has amassed a solid track record of signings, trades and top draft picks in his 11 year tenure as GM of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

7. He strikes me as someone that would not make any rash or catastrophic decisions as GM, unlike ... say ... Peter Chiarelli.

8. He has made some trades with Ottawa that were beneficial to both teams (i.e. Matt Duchene, Ryan Dzingel, Ian Cole)

9. He has what it takes to manage a struggling NHL team in a small hockey market and turn it into a success.

10. IMO, there aren't any better options out there for who should be Ottawa's next GM.

Trades

OTT

Samoskevich, Mackie
2024 3rd round pick (FLA)

FLA

Tarasenko, Vladimir ($2,500,000 retained)

OTT

2024 5th round pick (DAL)

DAL

Kubalik, Dominik ($1,250,000 retained)

OTT

Forfeited

VGK

2026 1st round pick (OTT)

Buyouts

Bobby Ryan: $1,833,333
Colin White: $875,000
Michael Del Zotto: $750,000

Retained Salary Transactions

Matt Murray: $1,562,500 (25%)
Vladimir Tarasenko: $2,500,000 (100%)
Dominik Kubalik: $1,250,000 (50%)

Draft	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7
2024
2025
2026

ROSTER

LONG-TERM OUTLOOK

EMBED

TEXT-EMBED

ROSTER SIZE	SALARY CAP	CAP HIT	OVERAGES	BONUSES	CAP SPACE
23	$83,500,000	$83,005,713	$0	$1,850,000	$494,287

Left Wing	Centre	Right Wing
Tkachuk, Brady $8,205,714$8,205,714 LW UFA - 5	Norris, Joshua $7,950,000$7,950,000 C UFA - 7	Batherson, Drake $4,975,000$4,975,000 RW, LW UFA - 4
Joseph, Mathieu $2,950,000$2,950,000 LW, RW UFA - 3	Stützle, Tim $8,350,000$8,350,000 C UFA - 8	Giroux, Claude $6,500,000$6,500,000 RW, C NMC UFA - 2
Greig, Ridly $863,333$863,333 C, LW RFA - 2	Pinto, Shane $775,000$775,000 C RFA - 1	Samoskevich, Mackie $925,000$925,000 RW RFA - 2
Kelly, Parker $762,500$762,500 LW RFA - 1	Kastelic, Mark $835,000$835,000 C, RW RFA - 2	MacEwen, Zack $775,000$775,000 RW, C UFA - 3

Left Defense	Right Defense	Goaltender
Sanderson, Jake $925,000$925,000 ($1,850,000$2M) LD UFA - 1	Zub, Artem $4,600,000$4,600,000 RD M-NTC UFA - 4	Korpisalo, Joonas $4,000,000$4,000,000 G M-NTC UFA - 5
Chabot, Thomas $8,000,000$8,000,000 LD UFA - 5	Chychrun, Jakob $4,600,000$4,600,000 LD/RD M-NTC UFA - 2	Forsberg, Anton $2,750,000$2,750,000 G UFA - 2
Brännström, Erik $2,000,000$2,000,000 LD/RD, LW RFA - 1	Bernard-Docker, Jacob $805,000$805,000 RD RFA - 2

Scratches	Injured Reserve (IR)	Long Term IR (LTIR)
Hamonic, Travis $1,100,000$1,100,000 RD NMC UFA - 2
Guénette, Maxence $813,333$813,333 RD RFA - 1
Chartier, Rourke $775,000$775,000 C UFA - 1

Feb. 15 at 2:20 p.m.

Herb_Brooks

Joined: Feb. 2023

Posts: 2,458

Likes: 1,020

he's used to being on a team that everybody wants to leave and nobody wants to come to so the fit is there

sensonfire and mokumboi liked this.

Feb. 15 at 2:21 p.m.

DFinn91

Joined: May 2021

Posts: 511

Likes: 190

Wanting to hire a guy who was the GM of a team for 11 years and won 1 playoff series is a bold take.

sensonfire, SociallyHawkward, mokumboi and 1 other person liked this.

Feb. 15 at 2:26 p.m.

squashmaple

not a he )

Joined: Apr. 2022

Posts: 3,171

Likes: 4,290

He'll have a new job by summer. His time was up in Columbus (arguably three years overdue) but we've forgotten the highs with how **** the past couple years have been. He's not perfect, but he's a solid GM, and a good PoHO and ownership group should be able to surround him with assistants and staff that can mitigate his weaknesses. You could do worse.

sensonfire liked this.

Feb. 15 at 2:27 p.m.

mokumboi

Joined: Apr. 2019

Posts: 29,272

Likes: 11,348

Jarmo might be the best scouting director around. He's uber-elite in that job.

As a GM? Ehhhhhhh...

sensonfire, JacketsComrade and Green4D4 liked this.

Feb. 15 at 2:33 p.m.

JacketsComrade

Joined: Jan. 2024

Posts: 299

Likes: 244

Quoting: mokumboi

Jarmo might be the best scouting director around. He's uber-elite in that job.

As a GM? Ehhhhhhh...

the jarmo kekalainen - ville siren combo is hard to beat. if there were banners to raise for mid-late round value they'd be raising them. edit to add: if you have a russian you need to get over to north america, jarmo has a very good track record at getting prospects out of russia.

mokumboi, squashmaple, Green4D4 and 1 other person liked this.

Feb. 15 at 2:39 p.m.

mokumboi

Joined: Apr. 2019

Posts: 29,272

Likes: 11,348

Edited Feb. 15 at 2:47 p.m.

Quoting: JacketsComrade

He drafted a huge chunk of the heart of the Blues Cup team, despite having left the organization nearly a decade earlier. Perron, Petro, Tarasenko and Schwartz were all his picks. And he kinda set the standard and the structure and the methods of the Blues scouting department that has continued to largely kill it at the draft since he left. And before Jarmo, the Blues were one of the worst drafting teams in the league. A tire fire in a dumpster floating down a flooded street.

JacketsComrade, squashmaple, Green4D4 and 1 other person liked this.

Feb. 15 at 2:47 p.m.

athrin

Joined: May 2017

Posts: 5,778

Likes: 1,503

the last few years he has been very bad, signing Gaudreau was a colossal mistake, 9.750M and on pace for 55 points, ouch

sensonfire liked this.

Feb. 15 at 2:49 p.m.

Green4D4

... We're a "Team"..

Joined: Jul. 2017

Posts: 2,434

Likes: 1,144

Quoting: mokumboi

Jarmo might be the best scouting director around. He's uber-elite in that job.

As a GM? Ehhhhhhh...

That's Pierre Dorion music... we've seen this episode before!

mokumboi and sensonfire liked this.

Feb. 15 at 2:51 p.m.

JacketsComrade

Joined: Jan. 2024

Posts: 299

Likes: 244

Quoting: athrin

the last few years he has been very bad, signing Gaudreau was a colossal mistake, 9.750M and on pace for 55 points, ouch

this is so hindsight-oriented and also ignores that he had a fantastic first season while the team around him was in and out of the hospital. he's already top-5 in CBJ single season points lol

signing gaudreau was never gonna be a mistake. its one of those things you just do and figure out later.

sensonfire liked this.

Feb. 15 at 2:52 p.m.

#10

athrin

Joined: May 2017

Posts: 5,778

Likes: 1,503

Quoting: JacketsComrade

a mistake is a mistake even if you put sugar on it

sensonfire liked this.

Feb. 15 at 2:52 p.m.

#11

squashmaple

not a he )

Joined: Apr. 2022

Posts: 3,171

Likes: 4,290

Quoting: JacketsComrade

And they have thus far failed the second part of that. Agree the signing itself was a mistake, but man, have they fumbled it since.

JacketsComrade and sensonfire liked this.

Feb. 15 at 2:54 p.m.

#12

NHLfan10506

Joined: May 2019

Posts: 40,172

Likes: 18,355

They phased out pick compensation for staff hires a few years ago.

sensonfire liked this.

Feb. 15 at 2:56 p.m.

#13

JacketsComrade

Joined: Jan. 2024

Posts: 299

Likes: 244

Quoting: squashmaple

And they have thus far failed the second part of that. Agree the signing itself was a mistake, but man, have they fumbled it since.

its so classic blue jackets. they've both fumbled and had the hand of god work against them. its exhausting.

sensonfire liked this.

Feb. 15 at 2:57 p.m.

#14

sensonfire

Thread Starter

sensonfire

Joined: Feb. 2021

Posts: 11,818

Likes: 4,451

Quoting: athrin

the last few years he has been very bad, signing Gaudreau was a colossal mistake, 9.750M and on pace for 55 points, ouch

He's way way way way better than Peter Chiarelli.

That should be worth something.

Feb. 15 at 3:00 p.m.

#15

athrin

Joined: May 2017

Posts: 5,778

Likes: 1,503

Quoting: sensonfire

He's way way way way better than Peter Chiarelli.

That should be worth something.

true, if he learned from his mistakes, chiarelli never did

sensonfire liked this.

Feb. 15 at 3:01 p.m.

#16

Trevor31lv

Joined: Mar. 2019

Posts: 976

Likes: 835

Sorry....I can't get past this.
You're calling the Dzingel trade win/win????
Dude was atrocious for Columbus. So bad he ended up getting scratched in the playoffs.

sensonfire liked this.

Feb. 15 at 3:07 p.m.

#17

sensonfire

Thread Starter

sensonfire

Joined: Feb. 2021

Posts: 11,818

Likes: 4,451

Quoting: Trevor31lv

Sorry....I can't get past this.
You're calling the Dzingel trade win/win????
Dude was atrocious for Columbus. So bad he ended up getting scratched in the playoffs.

He played for the Ohio State Buckeyes and he was a 20-25 goal scorer in back to back seasons for Ottawa.

It just didn't work out.

Feb. 15 at 3:36 p.m.

#18

Timmah007

Joined: Jun. 2020

Posts: 8,634

Likes: 3,931

5. What success?
6. The team construction is a complete mess so where’s the solid track record?
7. Doesn’t strike you as a guy that makes rash decisions? Babcock I’d call a rash dumb choice.
9. If this was true he wouldn’t be unemployed today….
10. Throw a rock into a crowd of hockey fans and you’ll hit a better candidate. Betting they wouldn’t have hired Babcock that’s already a huge improvement.

Feb. 15 at 3:40 p.m.

#19

Trevor31lv

Joined: Mar. 2019

Posts: 976

Likes: 835

Quoting: sensonfire

He played for the Ohio State Buckeyes and he was a 20-25 goal scorer in back to back seasons for Ottawa.

It just didn't work out.

So it's not win/win then....

Feb. 15 at 3:44 p.m.

#20

sensonfire

Thread Starter

sensonfire

Joined: Feb. 2021

Posts: 11,818

Likes: 4,451

Quoting: Trevor31lv

So it's not win/win then....

Hindsight is 20/20

Feb. 15 at 3:53 p.m.

#21

sensonfire

Thread Starter

sensonfire

Joined: Feb. 2021

Posts: 11,818

Likes: 4,451

Quoting: Timmah007

5. The success of making the playoffs + winning a playoff round against the President's Trophy winning Tampa Bay Lightning in a 4 game sweep + Holding a GM job in the NHL for over a decade.

6. The solid track record is in the # of individual signings, trades and draft picks that he's made in 11 years. Looking at each move he's made in 11 years in isolation, there's not much to complain about.

7. Hiring Babcock was probably John Davidson's idea and hiring Jarmo as GM is way way way way better than hiring Peter Chiarelli.

9. When you don't win enough games, you get fired. It's just the nature of the beast.

10. Give me the name of just 1 person that Ottawa should hire as GM and I might believe you ...

SadSensFan14 liked this.

Feb. 15 at 5:07 p.m.

#22

SadSensFan14

MOVE THE COYOTES

Joined: Oct. 2020

Posts: 4,442

Likes: 1,549

Quoting: sensonfire

I comepletely agree that Jarmo should be hired as Sens GM. The only this is, that Staios already made himself the permanent GM, so I can't see him hiring someone else to take on the job that he gave himself.

sensonfire and Who_is_Jimmy_Stu liked this.

Feb. 15 at 5:52 p.m.

#23

Timmah007

Joined: Jun. 2020

Posts: 8,634

Likes: 3,931

Quoting: sensonfire

I’d say Ottawa is currently in better more capable hands.

Feb. 15 at 5:56 p.m.

#24

Who_is_Jimmy_Stu

Rest is a weapon

Joined: Apr. 2023

Posts: 683

Likes: 275

isn't Staios official

AnonymousSensFan liked this.

Feb. 15 at 6:49 p.m.

#25

AnonymousSensFan

Joined: May 2023

Posts: 500

Likes: 433

Quoting: Who_is_Jimmy_Stu

isn't Staios official

He is. Andlauer wanted Staios to be the GM permanently, and hired Poulin to be part of the "two headed monster" he wanted to emulate from MTL.

Not sure why OP is focused on Chiarelli as a benchmark.

Edit: if anything, if Staios goes back to being POHO-only, it's likely Bonis is elevated. They upgraded his title and kept him around when Staios became perma GM, so they like him

Who_is_Jimmy_Stu liked this.

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