Provorov ready to get started with the Blue Jackets

Ivan Provorov was in Hawaii recently, and the only place he wanted to be was Columbus.

OK, that might be a bit of a stretch, but Provorov and his significant other, Madison, were in the Aloha State on June 6 when he found out minutes before a flight from Oahu to Maui that he was being traded from the Philadelphia Flyers to the Blue Jackets.

That, of course, is a major life change, and while the defenseman certainly enjoyed the tropical vacation, he did want to get to his new city as soon as possible.

"I was excited to join Columbus and be a part of this team and the organization, but I still had five and a half days left on vacation," he said. "So it was nice to be there, but at the same time, I was eager to come here and see everything."

Provorov took care of that Wednesday, as the seven-year NHL veteran from Yaroslavl, Russia, made his initial visit to Nationwide Arena as a member of the Blue Jackets. Provorov toured the facilities, tried on the union blue jersey for the first time, met members of the front office and captain Boone Jenner, and just in general started to become comfortable with his new setting after spending his entire career to this point in Philadelphia.

And it's fair to say there's a level of excitement for Provorov, who views the move as an opportunity to turn the page and get a fresh start to his career.

"Any time you're joining a new group of guys, joining a new team, a different coaching staff, a different city, I think there's a lot of new, positive energy," he said. "To have that to help you play better and have the energy for the season is really nice. Just overall, I'm really excited about the players and the opportunity here to win some games and to keep getting better as a team.

"You never know, hopefully we can make the playoffs and go from there."

Provorov, 26, comes to Columbus with a reputation as a dependable, consistent defender who can play on both ends of the ice. He's posted a career line of 65-152-217 in 532 career contests, an average of 10-23-33 per 82 games, and had six goals among his 27 points a year ago. He posted a career-high 17 goals and 41 points in 2017-18 and was on a similar pace with 13 goals and 36 points during the COVID-shortened 2019-20 season.

The more important stats, though, might be three -- the number of games he's missed in his entire seven-year career -- and 24:05, the latter being his average time on ice per game in his career. In two of his seasons, Provorov topped the 25-minute mark of average ice time, meaning he's no stranger to eating minutes.

For Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen, who chose Zach Werenski one pick after Philadelphia took Provorov seventh overall in the 2015 draft, the acquisition brings in a player he's long been familiar with and had respect for.

"I think he's a solid top-four defenseman," Kekalainen said. "We've watched him since he was drafted in the same draft as Werenski. … I feel like we've known him ever since the draft year, and moving into the pros, he's been a real solid top-four defenseman, and he is still just coming into his prime. He maybe hasn't had the best two years of his career the last two years, but I think that he's going to have a big bounce back.

"Everything that we've found out about him with our research is that he's extremely hard-working, always in the gym, taking care of himself and wants to be better and has the drive and desire to get better. That's what we want with the character of our players. He's just 25 years old, so he should be getting better for the next three or four years."

To Provorov, some of the issues with production the past few seasons can be traced back to the Flyers' struggles as a team, as the squad went from perhaps the hottest in the NHL before the COVID pause to a franchise now in the midst of a deep rebuild. In Columbus, he sees a young, exciting team that fits his game right off the hop.

"We were down and behind and didn't play with the puck as much the last two years, so it's really hard to create something offensively when you don't have the puck, when you defend the whole time," he said. "So that's why I'm really excited to play on this team, because there are a lot of guys who can play with the puck and there's a lot of guys who can put the puck in the net. I'm really excited to be here. I can't wait for the season to start."