Davidson ready to get to work after return to Columbus

Nine years after he committed to building the Blue Jackets brick-by-brick, John Davidson has another construction-based message as steps into his old-yet-new role as the team's president of hockey operations.
"We are going to go to work," Davidson said Thursday after Columbus announced his return to his post after two years with the New York Rangers. "We are going to go north. I just want to go north. The strong message from myself would be to our players and our staff -- it doesn't matter if it's the training staff or the scouting staff, the development staff, whatever it is -- put your work boots on and get your hard hat on.
"We're going to work."

And with that, the second coming of the Davidson era in Columbus is born, and the hope is it not just mimics but surpasses the success of the first. Davidson returns to the place he spent seven seasons at the head of the hockey operations department, turning what had been a woebegone franchise with just one playoff appearance in more than a decade into a consistent winner.
His teams had a .570 point percentage in his tenure, standout players were acquired and drafted, and the Blue Jackets became a fixture in the postseason, making appearances in 2014 and from 2017-19. Davidson went out on top, with the last team he oversaw stunningly sweeping a Tampa Bay team that had tied the NHL wins record and was overwhelmingly expected to make quick work of the Blue Jackets, with Columbus romping to its first-ever playoff series win over the Lightning before falling in a tight series vs. Boston.
But the call in May 2019 to return to head the New York Rangers' hockey operations was strong considering he not just spent two decades as a broadcaster for the team but also was a goaltender for the franchise for eight seasons. Davidson spent the last two seasons overseeing the Rangers rebuild but went his separate ways from the team earlier this month in a decision that shocked the hockey world.
Blue Jackets president/alternate governor Mike Priest was among those surprised, but it didn't take him very long to get together with general manager Jarmo Kekalainen and discuss the potential return of Davidson.
"Jarmo and I just chatted about it, reminisced a little bit and talked about how it worked and how well it worked and the relationships, how everybody stayed in touch with one another," Priest said. "It was immediate. The moment I heard (Davidson was available), it was something where I wondered if we could put something together."
In Priest's eyes, the move reunites the power structure that has led to the greatest success in franchise history, with Davidson first joining the team in October 2012 and then hiring Kekalainen in February 2013.
As discussed above, that led to the most successful era in Blue Jackets annals, particularly after the October 2015 hiring of head coach John Tortorella, but the most recent season leaves the CBJ in a position where the franchise has to "reload," as Kekalainen has labeled it.
Columbus struggled to just 18 wins in 56 games and tied Detroit for last place in the revamped Central Division, a turbulent campaign that included the early-season trade of Pierre-Luc Dubois, the trade deadline deals that saw team mainstays Nick Foligno and David Savard dealt, and Tortorella and the team parting ways the day after the season ended.
But there is hope as well, starting with the three first-round picks -- one a lottery choice -- the team has in the upcoming draft as well as the fact the Jackets retain such building blocks as Oliver Bjorkstrand, Cam Atkinson, Patrik Laine, Max Domi, Seth Jones, Zach Werenski and goalies Elvis Merzlikins and Joonas Korpisalo. But there
will be a laundry list of items
to attack this offseason, starting with the move to hire Tortorella's replacement.
Now, Davidson will be involved in that strategic planning.
"I think we just continue," said Kekalainen, who signed an extension to his contract that runs through 2024-25. "We've had several conversations already about each topic that we need to catch up on. (Davidson is) well-informed already, and we'll keep those conversations going every day. We're on the phone several times a day in the last two-three days just going through every decision we have to make, where we're at, where we want to go. That's just going to continue."
For his part, Davidson -- who signed a five-year contract of his own -- sees a team much more equipped to win than the one he inherited in 2012. It didn't take long then for Columbus to see a turnaround -- the Jackets finished a tiebreaker short of the playoffs in 2013 and made it in 2014 -- but this squad in Davidson's eyes has learned a lot from the four-year playoff run from 2017-20 that made the Jackets one of the most consistent teams in the league.
"Several years ago it was different," Davidson said. "This is a much more established franchise than what it was then. I look at the number of core players that we have, and I like them for sure. I see young players that are here that have great futures, and I know in the upcoming draft when you have three picks in the first round, that's a lot of good stuff to jump into to get it going."
So the tough stuff starts now, but there's nowhere else Davidson would rather be. From his familiarity to the city to the staff he'll be working with, the 68-year-old is ready to get back to work in a place he loves.
"When we got back into Columbus today and started driving down 315 and things, it was like we haven't left," he said. "It's a very easy feeling to get back into the chair. … I've always said what a great city this is, and I mean it.
"It was an easy decision once I was free to go places. I will say that the phone did ring (with offers) and it rang quite a bit, actually. My choice and my wife and my family's choice is right here in Columbus."