Seth Jones Jersey Card

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Only weeks after Seth Jones let the Columbus Blue Jackets know that he wouldn't re-sign with them past this next season, the team found a taker for his services in the form of the Chicago Blackhawks, who are making a push for the playoffs for the 2021-22 season. The Hawks have also seemigly re-signed him for $9.5M per season (edit: confirmed, $76M over 8 seasons), hoping they get the Norris Trophy contender from 2019 instead of the sub-par performer from this past season - and I think they did.

Usually, defensemen already have hardware on their mantle before they start earning upwards of $100K per game, but this offseason is special, with the Seattle Kraken expansion draft and most GMs having prepared for it by having little over the minimum number of players to protect under contract and preferring to push their re-signings to between the amateur draft and the start of free agency; those that didn't traded away fairly big names (such as Ryan Ellis), at times for a decent return, but sometimes for literally nothing. I believe the top tier defensemen will all sign around $8-9M, one of them might fall to half that, which is where the good shut-down defenders will also range, and there will be an awful lot of $1M deals with lower-tier guys and veterans aiming for that elusive Stanley Cup betting on themselves on a short contract. That's what a flat-cap world mixed with a lot of buyouts coupled with players not getting qualified will do - it creates a perceived elite class, the middle ground disappears and those who wait too long end up on bad teams or with bad deals out of sheer lack of cap space.

Jones comes in as a household name to replace the departed Duncan Keith, who was 11 years older. The Hawks now have cost certainty for that top spot on D until he turns 35, which is when defensemen start regressing - a perfect time for a contract of this magnitude to end; perhaps the salary cap will even have increased a bit starting in the middle of the deal. Chicago will also be able to build around him, using players that will complement his skills for the duration of his prime, and their cap situation is clear (and healthy) after the Keith trade and Brent Seabrook's cap hit on Long Term Injured Reserve.

Here he is as a rookie, freshly drafted by the Nashville Predators - fourth overall, behind Nathan MacKinnon, Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Drouin - and wearing their terrible white (away) Reebok uniform on card #RM-SJ from Upper Deck's 2013-14 Series 2 collection and Rookie Materials sub-set:

It features a blue jersey swatch from a rookie photo shoot.

Seth Jones Jersey Card

I boldly predicted the Columbus Blue Jackets would beat and eliminate the Tampa Bay Lightning late last night, and Seth Jones' powerplay game winner continued his clutch play for his team as the first of four steps in in that direction.

It'll be a long and hard-fought series, but the Bolts - who this year tied the NHL record with 62 regular-season wins - have never faced an adversary like this. Don't get me wrong, they've played against great teams - last year's Stanley Cup-winning Washington Capitals, for one, and the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2014-15 Final - but this team is a different beast altogether.

You've got no less than five key players (star winger Artemi Panarin, star center Matt Duchene, skilled winger Ryan Dzingel, defenseman Adam McQuaid, and the only active two-time Vezina-winning goalie Sergei Bobrovsky) performing to earn their career-defining contracts on July 1st; a top-quality defense that nearly matches Tampa's, with Jones as the centerpiece, accompanied by McQuaid, 2012 second-overall pick Ryan Murray, All-Star Zach Werenski, Team Canada alumnus David Savard, and as depth pieces, former second-rounders Adam Clendening and Scott Harrington; also a forward corps that includes legitimate first-liners Pierre-Luc Dubois and (captain) Nick Foligno, heart-and-soul checker Brandon Dubinsky, 40-goal man Cam Atkinson, rising star Oliver Bjorkstrand, tough rookie Alexandre Texier, and a bunch of solid soldiers; and last but not least, head coach John Tortorella.

There is simply no other coach like Torts. Oh, there are far better tacticians, but no better motivator when he actually has enough time to get to know his players. It's not just manipulation on his part (like, say, Guy Boucher), nor tough-for-toughness'-sake like Claude Julien or Ken Hitchcock; no, Torts has his players' trust that he will defend them if he senses a will to sacrifice towards the team's goals, and he rewards effort. And he makes speeches like these:

🔊 VOLUME UP 🔊

Think this fiery Torts pep talk had anything to do with the @BlueJacketsNHL comeback??? #CBJ pic.twitter.com/gmhAAyVXz1

— FOX Sports Ohio (@FOXSportsOH) April 11, 2019

That's after the first period, which saw Tampa build a 3-0 lead. Full disclosure: I stopped watching the game live at that point.

Again, he's a different beast.

And when Jones plays like the guy who finished fourth in Norris Trophy voting last season, the Jackets know any game's within hand.

Here he is wearing the magnificent Blue Jackets' alternate uniform, on card #GJ-SJ from Upper Deck's 2017-18 Series 1 set and UD Game Jersey sub-set:

It features a white game-worn jersey swatch. I found this card so pretty that I paid $5 for it on Ebay (plus shipping).

Seth Jones Jersey Card

The Seth Jones trade that sent him from the Nashville Predators to the Columbus Blue Jackets in exchange for Ryan Johansen really got the ball rolling this year as far as pre-deadline moves. It was a "hockey trade", one that was immediately good for both teams, with Nashville sacrificing one of the best young defenders in the game to acquire potentially the cornerstone of their offense for the next decade.

However, Johansen had already proven to be difficult when it came to how he perceived himself to be worth in terms of salary demands and contract negotiations, while Jones, who for a long time was viewed as the top prospect in his draft class and unexpectedly fell to #4 as three teams decided they'd rather fill offensive needs than go through the growing pains that usually come with young defensemen making their way into the NHL, has been a team player from day one.

First-overall pick Nathan MacKinnon won the Calder as the best rookie in 2013-14, while Jones finished 11th in voting, behind other defensemen Torey Krug (4th), Olli Maata (5th), Jacob Trouba (6th), and Hampus Lindholm (7th).

So far in 2015-16, though, he's a +2 on the Jackets' blue line (and a -3 on the year, considering he was a -5 with the Preds), and while he's yet to score a goal in Columbus, he's got 19 points in 55 games on the season. He now plays over 24 minutes per game under head coach John Tortorella, who can be credited with helping Ryan McDonagh reach his full potential with the New York Rangers.

Here is my first "pull" of that 2013 draft class (save for the MacKinnon Young Guns card I traded as soon as I got it), a Jones jersey card featuring a nice dark blue game-worn jersey swatch, from Upper Deck's 2015-16 Series 1 set (and UD Game Jersey subset), card #GJ-SJ in the series:

It shows him wearing the Predators' white uniform, with all that useless blue piping and misplaced and disparate golden patches. I really miss their alternate (blue) jersey from a few years ago, which they should have kept as their home uniforms, and I wouldn't mind their yellow/gold current one as much if it was their road jersey, i.e. if they didn't wear it against teams playing in white.

Jones will look better in blue anyway.