Michael Lepore and Anthony Bruno give their thoughts on why Johnny Gaudreau left the Calgary Flames to sign with the Columbus Blue Jackets in free agency.
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19 Comments
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Give us your thoughts on Johnny Gaudreau signing with the Columbus Blue Jackets in free agency! âŹïž
Not sure how the Calgary Flames are going to recover from this. Especially if this is going to lead to the departure of Matthew Tkachuk as well.
His wife is about to have a son
Leafs fans have such short memories I suppose. To boldly claim the blue jackets wonât win any time soon is ridiculous
Itâs very tough especially as a flames fan and even for the organization in general. Calgary was really starting to build something, and we were really starting to become contenders, and now with Gaudreau leaving it just diminishes all of that. On top of that the BOA (Battle of Alberta) was really starting to get good, and Calgary and Edmonton where just starting to meet in the playoffs. But now with Gaudreau gone, everything just went to shambles and the whole team feels like itâs falling apart
His wife is a dr in ohio, he ruined the rest of his career in CBJ
The way I see it and I'm from Calgary, Johnny doesn't want to be in the spotlight, he can play hockey and do his life. He wouldn't get simplicity with Calgary New Jersey, Philly threw out a team friendly contract I bet and Islanders. All big hockey market's.
People are selling Columbus short. Lower taxes in Ohio. Nice city. Ohio State University and football. Metropolitan Division with much less travel. He gets to play Philly, Pittsburgh, NJ, NYR, NYI, Washington and Carolina all the time. Short flight times for him and his wife to visit family in southern NJ. Relatively milder winters. Columbus had a nearly .500 record last season which is much better than the Flyers or Devils. Blue Jackets can get better in a hurry.
Watch Johnnyâs interview on SportsnetâŠmakes it pretty clear why Columbus.
Johnny: Hey Honey I miss you. Meredith: I miss you too. J: What's going on back there? M: It's getting super cold here tonight. Dropping into the 30's. J: It was cold here last week but it warmed up this week. M: How warm did it get? J: It's up to 8 below zero with another foot of snow. M: (Click) J: Babe, you there? Hello. Hello.
As a Flames fan , itâs not surprising at all that Johnny didnât re-sign. He wasnât thrilled being drafted by a Canadian team , especially one so far from home , because he is very close with his family. But initially , things went a lot better than he was expecting. He found out that the Canadian fans and media that he feared , will take it somewhat easy on a team going through a youth oriented re-build. He started an intensely good friendship with Sean Monahan , and the two quickly made up 2/3 of the first line. Theyâre both great guys , and the fans loved them. They were young , single , and adored by a hockey crazy city. Things were great. They even had some unexpected decent success in their second year , but that raised expectations. But things slowly changed. They werenât able to build on early success , and Johnny took a lot of the blame and was labelled as not being built for playoff success. His best friend (Sean Monahan) , started having injury issues , and along with other reasons , was dropped from the first line. He fell so far out of favour with the team , he was actually a healthy scratch once this past year. Iâm sure Johnny wasnât happy that they werenât sharing success as the dynamic duo anymore (which was bad enough) , Seanâs benching probably infuriated him. In addition , the pressure to succeed at this point is high , and backlash is strong with every failure. He now has a wife from the same area heâs from , so thereâs twice the reason to go back east. She is (or was) a nurse at the Philadelphia childrenâs hospital. He grew up cheering for the Flyers , his dad teaches hockey skills to a Flyers junior aged team , he posts news on Twitter about the Eagles football team. He wanted to sign with the Flyers , but they werenât in a position to sign him right now. But you watch , I bet you he chose Columbus as a stepping stone , and I bet you he asks for a trade in a year or two. He couldnât put this plan into place by signing with Jersey or a New York team. The fans would crucify him when he asks to be traded to Philly in a couple years. Blue Jackets are a temporary stop over until Philly can make room for him. Heâs proven with his current decision that loyalty to his current team isnât important to him. Getting where he wants to go , is.
I think Aaron Portzline summed it up best on the Steve Dangle Podcast
ââWhy did Johnny Gaudreau pick Columbus?â Well he thought it looked like a nice place to raise his family. âYeah but why did he pick Columbus?â Um there are guys there he knows whoâve played there and theyâve said nothing but good things about it. âYeah, but why did he pick Columbus?â He thinks the Blue Jackets have good talent, maybe theyâre gonna be a good team soon. âNo, but so really nobody knows why he picked the Blue Jackets do they?â Like no matter what he says or what anybody says, itâs just there is a sense of disbeliefâŠ.â Why canât the Canadian media just take the guy at his word? Heâs given several reasons why Columbus.
Also itâs clear you guys know nothing about the Jackets. They have one of the best prospect pools in the league, and a great young core, and letâs not forget you act like the Devils are so much better when they finished 18 points behind the Jackets in the standings last season. The Devils are a complete disaster I wouldnât want to go play there either
Lower tax rate, great place to raise a family, good schools, both private and public, as his wife is pregnant, and a city where he can be a dad and a husband and just a guy, along with being a star hockey player.
CBJ fan here. I am just as shocked as everyone else…absolutely THRILLED, but when I saw the news, I was like…. "WHAT?!?!? wow. Wow. WOW. Oh WOW, Oh WOW, Oh WOW!!!"
Johnny left for one reason. Trudeau.
Oilers fan here. Battle of Alberta just got destroyed. As much as I like to hate Calgary this sucks.
The Bluejackets OMG… How could he do that to us. We didn't even know they had a team. Where is Columbus anyway? This is terrible.
Because it isnât Calgary thatâs whyđ