Seth Jones none too pleased with how the Hawks handled his brother's departure
Last season, the Chicago Blackhawks employed both of the Jones' brothers, Seth and Caleb. With another down season for the club and Connor Bedard now officially a Blackhawk, the tide is almost certainly preparing turn in Chicago. The Jones bros did fairly well all things considered, with Seth averaging a team-high 24:27 and Caleb coming in 6th at 19:13.
This off-season, Hawks general manager Kyle Davidson, decided not to qualify Caleb Jones, making him an unrestricted free agent. Analytically speaking, Caleb is a very dependable bottom pair defenseman and he was scooped up by the Carolina Hurricanes shortly after landing on the free agent market, joining a very loaded, but busy back-end.
As for older brother, Seth, he wasn't all too pleased with how things were handled regarding Caleb's release. He found out after the fact, instead of Davidson giving him a heads up before-hand, which is something he thought should've occurred:
"[We] had some good chemistry last year, and Chicago just wanted to go a different way... After the fact, Kyle called me, but not before. But I'm trying to control what I can control."
At the end of the day, the NHL is a business and the Blackhawks did what they felt was the right decision with all their incoming prospects and a rebuild on hand. Top prospect Kevin Korchinski has a great opportunity to crack the lineup and Caleb Jones would've been a road-block. They also have veterans in Nikita Zaitsev and Connor Murphy, which would've complicated things further.
When Seth Jones was traded and then subsequently signed his massive contract, I don't think he foresaw a full tear-down rebuild was on the horizon. With 7 years still remaining at an albatross AAV of $9.5 million and a full NMC, it's anyone's guess what both player and team do moving forward, especially after the team did him dirty with how they handled the dismissal of his brother. However, for the time being, he remains the Blackhawks anchor on the back-end after averaging 25:22 TOI in the last 2 seasons with 88 points through 150 games.
| POLL | ||
SEPTEMBRE 3 | 196 ANSWERS Seth Jones none too pleased with how the Hawks handled his brother's departure Should the Hawks have told Seth Jones before they decided to release his brother? | ||
| Yes | 96 | 49 % |
| No | 45 | 23 % |
| Don't care | 55 | 28.1 % |
| List of polls | ||
