The early returns on the Seth Jones era are in, and while they haven’t been great in the win column or in the box score, there is ample room for hope.
I was able to check out Jones’ first game as a Blue Jacket live, and rewatched both that game, and Saturday’s match on Sunday morning to take a deeper dive on what Jones offers the Jackets now, and could offer in the future.
Through two games against fellow Metro division cellar dweller Carolina (in which the Jackets went 0-1-1), Jones has 0 goals, 0 assists, 2 shots on goal, and has averaged 22:39 time on ice. That ice time is up from his time in Nashville, and includes a total of 4:53 of powerplay time, and 4:50 on the penalty kill. Per War-On-Ice, the possession stats are a litte more positive than the traditional ones, as Jones’ Corsi over the two games is at a very nice 54.1%. That would easily rank tops among Jackets defenders for the season, and 25th among all defensemen (minimum 300 minutes). It’s a very small sample size, but Jones is actually at 57.7% on the season, good for fourth in the entire NHL. While we can’t take too much from the stats so far, we do have an idea of what Jones looks like on the ice with the CBJ.
What jumps out when watching Seth Jones is his skating. He is a tall guy with a long stride, and a very upright posture. It might come up less because he’s a defenseman, but guys who skate like Jones often get unfairly labeled as “lazy” because it never looks like they are skating very hard.
But man can he move. That quick clip is demonstrative of something we saw quite a bit in game number two. Jones jumps up into the play so quickly, and comes from so far back in the play that the Hurricanes are completely unprepared. Jones turns a broken play in the neutral zone into an odd man rush very quickly.
This is a similar play from later in the game. Jones reads the play and jumps into the rush off the breakout. If you just watch Jones, it doesn’t look like he is moving very fast. However, he gains so much ground on Saad (who is pretty quick) and just leaves Andrej Nestrasil in his dust.
While Jones is a very dynamic skater, we haven’t seen him make many creative plays with the puck. When you watch what he does with it, it’s very straightforward. His skating ability allows him to push the play, and turn non-threatening rushes into dangerous ones, but he doesn’t tend to look up ice for passes very much. While it’s only been two games, and as he gets more comfortable with his teammates this could pick up, he hasn’t even attempted a stretch pass or anything up ice…yet. He passes d-to-d far more often than most guys do, relying on Ryan Murray to look up ice for the pass. He’s made a few good first passes on the breakout, but always targeted the closest possible forward. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There are plenty of very good defenseman who play this way. This could change with time and comfort of course.
Speaking of the the pairing with Murray, I think it will be very good for both of them. When Murray was paired with James Wisniewski, he had to be the steady, reliable guy. This season, he’s been trying to be more aggressive with the puck, but has not had the support from his partner necessary to be successful. Jones is the perfect complement, as he is so positionally sound, can cover a lot of ground with his speed and reach, and can be the steady hand that allows Murray to indulge his creativity. Here’s a good example of it from Saturday’s game.
Murray jumps up into the play and creates a scoring chance, while Jones is in position to keep the puck in at the blueline, having covered for Murray, moving across the blueline to the left side. Having someone like Jones, and not the risk-taking Wisniewski, or someone with shakier positioning and/or decision-making is going to be fantastic for Murray’s development.
While I loved the pairing of Murray and Jones, there really isn’t anyone who Jones won’t work with. He’s a guy who can cover for a weaker partner. We’ve covered his skating, but he’s also nearly impossible to give a bad pass to. He’s quick for a tall guy, has a gigantic reach, and pretty decent hands. So if a pass is a little off the mark, he’s able to corral it and still make a play.
That’s an underrated little play right there, just in how quickly he’s able to pick up the puck from an awkward angle, get himself turned around, and put the puck right where Cam Atkinson needs it to be to exit the zone.
This play would have ended up deep in the Jackets end for most players, and even if it was picked up. Jones is able to grab the pass, spin, and hit Gregory Campbell with the puck in one swift motion. Were it not for Rene Bourque being slow out of the zone, this would have been a scoring chance.
He can also go the other way with his decision-making if the situation calls for it. Sometimes you will see players who can make the quick play, but aren’t comfortable being pressured with the puck on their stick, or (more commonly) guys who are good with some time, but don’t have the awareness for the quick play. I think most players would have just dumped the puck in here, which is the “safer” play, but I would rather have a guy smart enough to know when he’s able to hang onto it.
Just for fun, here’s one more play that could have been worse that it was, but he’s able to reel in the pass with control and diffuse any possible danger.
His skating and reach can be pretty useful defensively as well. His gap control is phenomenal for such a young player. Check out his work on this play:
That is just fantastic work. His ability to move laterally in both directions, and his monstrous reach turn what could have been a more dangerous 3-on-2 situation into a fairly harmless shot, from a poor angle, that Joonas Korpisalo stops easily. Here’s another play he just shut down completely in the neutral zone with his reach.
I really liked this play from Friday night’s game as well.
His read and instincts to jump up on that right away, and the quickness to get there are really impressive. There are a lot of tall guys with long strides who are fast once they get going, but Jones is better than a lot of them in tight spaces and when moving from a standstill.
With two games in the books, hopefully Jones continues to get more comfortable. He was noticeably more aggressive on Saturday night versus Friday night, so hopefully that trend continues, while not detracting from the positioning and decision-making that has been on display.
Jones is only 21 years old, and he’s on a new team, so there is still plenty of room for him to grow. He’s still fairly skinny, so filling out physically would be good to see. He wasn’t very physical either night, and with his size and skating, he could be a scary player to opposing forwards once he fills out more.
Between Jones and Murray, I still can’t decide who has the higher upside. Murray is a little more creative, but Jones has such a rare and impressive combination of size and skating. While it was dispiriting to see Ryan Johansen start off hot with the Nashville Predators, the package Jones brings to the table (size, skating, puck skills, right hand shot) may be more rare among defensemen than what Johansen brings to the center spot. Even if Jones doesn’t improve by much (which is highly unlikely), he still has the ability right now to be a successful, top pair, all situations defenseman.
So yes, the Jackets gave up one thing they spent a long time looking for (a #1 center) but it looks like they acquired something else they have been longing for since their very first draft pick. Rostislav Klesla, Jones is not (no offense Rusty).
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