COLUMBUS, Ohio — Seth Jones and Zach Werenski, friends and former Columbus Blue Jackets defensive partners, couldn’t be on more disparate trajectories this month.
Werenski just returned from stealing the show at the 4 Nations Face-Off with a tournament-high six points but falling a Connor McDavid overtime goal short of helping the Americans bring home the championship.
Jones, meanwhile, has a foot of the door with the Chicago Blackhawks, announcing late this week his desire to be traded to a playoff contender.
It’s a high-stakes move to telegraph your exit, but for now Jones is letting it marinate — not unlike the steak he dined on Friday night at Basi Italia with Werenski and Boone Jenner, another former Jackets teammate.
Both Jones and Werenski said they didn’t discuss a possible reunion, but Werenski told reporters Saturday, “Obviously, I’d be open to it. I loved playing with him, and as a friend. Most importantly we’re close. … I hope whatever he’s dealing with it works itself out.”
Jones was receptive as well.
“Yeah, for sure,” said Jones, who played in Columbus for 5½ seasons before the Blue Jackets traded him to the Hawks in July 2021. “It was obviously very special when I played with Zach. We were partners for the most part of 5½ years and we had chemistry as soon as we started playing together, right when he came out of college.”
Jones certainly has a fondness for Werenski. He brings him up randomly in interviews, texts with him and plans to attend Werenski’s wedding to Odette Peters this summer.
That fondness applies to Columbus as well.
“Good memories,” he replied when asked what comes to mind whenever he returns to the city.
“Playoff hockey. The playoffs,” he added, perhaps not by accident.
Jones and the Hawks have found themselves at a crossroads. Time has run out on the defenseman’s appetite for the rebuild.
“Your prime’s only so long,” he told the Tribune. “You’re only going to play your best hockey for so long. To me, it was something to think about. Obviously I got advice from my agent (Pat Brisson) and things like that too. This is kind of the solution I came up with.”
By Jones going public two weeks before the March 7 trade deadline, it puts pressure on Hawks general manager Kyle Davidson to move him.
“I probably could have kept it quiet, but with the deadline, there’s no point to it at the end of the day,” Jones said.
Just last month, when asked about the Hawks, Jones told the Tribune, “I feel like we’re on the right path, and I’m trying to do what I can to make the team better every night. I’m not worried about next year and year after and all that stuff. I can’t really afford that. I’ve had some ups and downs and just trying to be consistent.”
So what changed?
Perhaps moving on always has been growing in the back of Jones’ mind this season — which saw the Hawks get off to another rough start and bring about the firing of coach Luke Richardson.
But Jones also took a step back and took stock of the big picture.
Four seasons ago, then-Hawks general manager Stan Bowman signed Jones and other free agents to reignite the roster and extended Patrick Kane’s and Jonathan Toews’ championship window.
It failed miserably.
Bowman was fired (for reasons beyond just hockey), then-coach Jeremy Colliton was fired (for strictly hockey reasons) and Davidson launched a rebuild.
By the time the dust on Davidson’s first phase of reconstruction settled, Kane, Toews and key players such Alex DeBrincat were gone, and Jones faced a completely different landscape.
“Not my plan,” Jones said late last month.
Still, he was hopeful that if he remained patient, he’d see improvement after two more seasons.
That didn’t happen.
The Hawks were expected to show at least modest gains in the win column after Davidson brought in some proven veterans.
It still failed to move the needle.
“It’s obviously an unfortunate situation because I came to Chicago to compete in the playoffs, and I thought that out of every team I could’ve signed with four years ago, that this was the one,” Jones said Saturday. “You know, things change and sometimes you’ve just got to roll with what you’re given.”
After four seasons in Chicago, and with the Hawks still facing a steep climb from the bottom of the standings, Jones — who turns 31 shortly before next season — realized he had a choice to make. He received advice from his dad, Popeye Jones, a Denver Nuggets assistant coach and former NBA power forward.
“He just says — and I agree this is kind of the reason the situation is — I think when I look back on my career 10 or 15 years (later), when I’m sitting on the couch, I might regret not trying, just trying to win,” Jones said. “I haven’t won a Stanley Cup. I haven’t been to the conference finals.
“I’m 30 years old. I think you’re looking at a lot of things.”
As far as destinations he’s eyeing, Jones, who has a no-movement clause, wouldn’t name teams.
“We don’t really have a list,” he said. “It’s just about competing in the playoffs. It doesn’t have to be a Stanley Cup team. It doesn’t have to be a team like that, just a team that has a great core, that’s ready to win now, that wants to win now.
“I just want to make moves to make that happen.”
At least Jones doesn’t have to worry about offending the fan base — he has been a punching bag since not long after his arrival in Chicago. An eight-year, $76 million contract did him no favors with the Hawks faithful who feel he hasn’t lived up to his end of the bargain.
“You know what?” Jones said. “I think early on, I was just a guy that takes blame for a situation where we’re not winning.
“When you make this much money, it comes with it. That’s part of pro sports. I’m not the first guy, I sure as hell won’t be the last guy. So it’s not my fault (the amount) I signed, that’s what I was offered.
“Honestly I could’ve gotten more from other places, but I wanted to play in Chicago, for what that’s worth.”
Still, he harbors “no regrets.”
Werenski chimed in, reluctantly.
“I don’t want to speak on the situation there in Chicago or what he’s going through, but he’s a guy that I know can be a difference-maker in this league,” Werenski said. “He knows it. The league knows it. I think he’s actually played really well this last stretch here.”
Nick Foligno, Jones’ teammate in Columbus and now Chicago, also spoke highly of Jones despite the awkward atmosphere that has been created by the trade request.
“I’ve played long enough where there’s always self interest for every player and whatever they feel,” Foligno said. “Whether he feels a certain way, I can’t control that, right? It’s his own life. It’s his own career. You support him.
“Obviously you wish he felt differently, but you know he has his reasons, and rightfully so. … One thing, though, is that it’s never going to bleed into his game. I know that for a fact.”
Hawks interim coach Anders Sorensen echoed those sentiments. He said Jones’ still comes to the rink with the right mindset, and “we talk about things.”
Jones, and any other Hawks who might be traded soon, “they’re human beings,” Sorensen said. “There’s some noise outside, there’s some thought process on their end, but just trying to be a good human being and talk to them about things and be as real as possible, right? It’s the reality of it.
“So let’s not hide from it. Let’s go from there.”
Jones said there is no animosity with management.
“They’ve been responsive,” he said. “Everything’s been fine. Obviously this is not something that happens overnight.”
Jones also understands his contract could be hard to move, either at the deadline or even this summer.
“Chicago can retain money, that’s between GMs, right?” Jones said. “(If) they want Chicago to retain, obviously any team wants (you) to give something up for that. It’s give and take.”
He also understands Davidson works on his own timeline, not the players’. Or Davidson could choose to keep him indefinitely.
However it pans out, Jones insists he’s not checked out.
“Like I said, I’m here.”