Why The Flyers Should Be Jumping At The Chance To Acquire The Latest Player To Want Out Of Columbus

By now, most of you have heard that the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-time All Star 26-year-old right-hand-shot defenseman Seth Jones has let his team know that he does not intend to sign back with them after next season (after his contract is set to expire). 

News of this hopefully sparked the interest of the Philadelphia Flyers’ general manager (GM) Chuck Fletcher seeing that the Flyers (who went deep into the playoffs last season up in the bubble in Toronto) seemed to fall apart and looked to be but a shell of their former selves this season after losing veteran defenseman Matt Niskanen this past off season. 

To prove just how much of a change there was between last season and this one, not only did the Flyers not make the playoffs they finished this season with the worst combined goals against average of any team in the entire league with a 3.52. They also allowed more goals to be scored on them than any other in the NHL this year- 197. A big part of this was because the team ranked 30^th in the league in penalty killing where they were only able to stop the opposing team from scoring during a power play on them 73.1% of the time this year. 

Seeing these atrocious stats, Fletcher knows something drastic has to be done to fix this defense- FAST! And what better way to do so than to bring in a top pairing right-hand-shot defenseman in his prime who plays over 25 minutes a night? Jones could conceivably step in for game one next season and assume the role as Provorov’s partner, a role that has been a revolving door of inadequate players since Niskanen’s early departure. 

Seth, who is now 6’4 and 213 pounds, was drafted back in 2013 in the 1^st round- fourth overall- by the Nashville Predators and has just finished his 8^th season in the NHL. The last six of those seasons he played as a member of the Blue Jackets. In that time, Jones has seen a multitude of the team’s stars leave the team via free agency like Artemi Panarin, Matt Duchene, and Vezina Trophy-winner Sergei Bobrovsky did after the 2018-2019 campaign; ones that demanded to be traded like Pierre-Luc Dubois did this season; or ones that were sent packing by the team’s GM Jarmo Kekalainen like Nick Foligno, David Savard, Ryan Murray, Josh Anderson, and Anthony Duclair- just to name a few. 

The reason for the mass exodus of the team’s top players (to hear them tell it) is Kekalainen’s unwillingness to pay up when a player’s contract is set to expire and they are deserving of a raise combined with the harsh coaching tactics of the recently-canned head coach John Tortorella. 

For these reasons it should come as no surprise that Seth Jones (who is in the last year of a contract that is paying him 5.4 million a season) wants no part of signing back with the Blue Jackets who will perpetually be in the middle of, yet another rebuild. 

What might it cost the Flyers to obtain Seth Jones’ services, you might be asking? Well, if I were a betting man, the Blue Jackets would start by asking for a player like Travis Sanheim and a 1^st round pick. In itself this wouldn’t be that bad considering Sanheim is a RFA this season who could be easily replaced next season by a much better (and cheaper) Cameron York, but I think the Flyers should try and work a deal that would send a conditional 2^nd round pick instead that could turn into a 1^st if and when Seth were to re-sign with the Flyers. 

A couple of contributing factors that may make Seth willing to do so if acquired is the fact that his dad- former NBA Star Popeye Jones- is currently a member of the Philadelphia 76ers’ coaching staff under Doc Rivers. Another would be Philadelphia’s awe-inspiring food scene, which would no doubt spark Seth’s fascination with the culinary arts. But the most influential person, place, or thing in Jones’ life that could convince Seth to re-sign in Philly is his mother. With his father always on the road (playing in the NBA) during Jones’ childhood, his mother Amy was left to take her sons to the rink every day and because of this they have formed an extremely close bond to one another. To the point that if this hockey mom cannot make a game, she will leave Seth text messages on his phone containing feedback and advice thinking he will see it during a game, and it’ll make a difference in that moment.

Therefore, if Chuck does decide finally to put his seal on the team by bringing in this still-youthful star of the NHL with the intent to re-sign him, he’d better be willing to sweeten the pot with a nice new condo that is located close to the rink for Seth’s mom. If momma Jones is taken care of, she would be sure to sway Jones’ opinion, helping to make negotiations go much smoother.