John McConnell: "No Guarantees" on Blue Jackets Staying in Columbus

In case you missed, it the Dispatch had a Q&A session with the Jackets' new majority owner, John P. McConnell.

There were the typical break-the-ice questions on how the team is progressing, what kind of owner he will be, and how he has been dealing with the loss of his dad and business pioneer John H. McConnell.

After that, though, Portzline hits the good stuff—is he going to sell this franchise or not?

Q: What assurances can you offer fans that the club won't be moved or sold?

A: I can tell them that we bought the team to have it here in Columbus. We're dedicated to keeping it in Columbus. But I can't offer guarantees. I am reasonably comfortable that we'll be here for a long time. Certainly, every fiber of what we try to do is to fulfill that original thought. My father worked on various sports commissions for probably 35 years to get a pro team for this town. It was one of his dreams. Now, sometimes in life you have to do what you have to do, but I would consider it a personal defeat if we ended up in that situation.

Q: Did you make any promises to your father that the club wouldn't be moved?

A: No. For one, he would never do such a thing. Over the last year, we never got into any discussion with the club other than "what do we do to get this team to the other level?"

I give John P. a lot of credit for being frank and not blowing smoke. As a fan, it's not exactly what I wanted to hear—but I do appreciate the honesty.

From an outside point of view, I think the big difference here is going to be that John H. viewed this team as a gift to the city of Columbus—a way to give back to a city that had given so much to him. John P., on the other hand, is going to view this team as a business—and if the team continues to hemorrhage millions, then he may get out.

Whether or not that means he and the other owners would just sell it to an investor(s) who would keep the team here or relocate it is a very good question.

The bottom line right now though is I think everyone, including the owners, want to see what kind of support a winning hockey team generates in this market. I don't care if you're the Ohio State Buckeyes football team—if you have seven straight losing seasons, fan interest is going to collapse.

As I've stated before, if this team starts winning and fans support continues to dwindle, then that is the point I really begin to worry about the viability of pro hockey in this market.

That was another fantastic read by the boys at the Dispatch though. Nice work again fellas!

CNNSI.com's Allan Muir thinks Mike Commodore will be one of the UFAs most likely to bust this offseason:

4. Mike Commodore (five years, $18.75 million)

Go ahead. Roll those numbers around a bit, see if you can figure out exactly what the Blue Jackets hope to get from a deal that essentially makes a No. 1 blueliner out a guy who's better known for a wheels-off hairdo and wearing housecoats than for anything he's done on the ice. It's not just the nearly $4 million per year -- the fourth-highest salary on the team -- but the term. This is the sort of deal that will hamstring Columbus GM Scott Howson when he gets serious about building a playoff-worthy defense.

We get it Allan—the Jackets overpaid for Commodore. Oddly enough, four out of his top five selections are D-men. Translation—there is a huge premium that is paid for D-men in unrestricted free agency.

The Jackets did overpay—I don't think anyone questions that. Heck, Commodore has even admitted he got a very nice contract.

If he's looking for Commodore to put up great offensive numbers, QB a power play and eat 30 minutes playing in all situations—then yes, he will be a bust in his eyes.

However, if you're looking for Commodore to be a shutdown D-man, play tough minutes against the opponent's best players, chip in a little offensively, be a leader on and off the ice, and stand up for teammates—which exactly the role I see Hitch using him i—then the Jackets will get what they expected when they dished out that contract.

For the record, both Ron Hainsey and the Jackets No. 1 target Wade Redden were ranked higher than Commodore.

And where in the heck is Jeff Finger? Are you kidding me?  This guy has played one year of pro hockey and doesn't make this list with the contract he got? Erroneous!

I love Nikita's blog (I mean, who doesn't like bloggers *har har*) but I think the latest development of Howson pulling the plug on him playing exhibition games for CSKA-2 was a direct result of the Jackets' blue chipper posting that he was playing on his blog.

"We knew (Filatov) was working out with the (Russian) team, but we were not aware he was playing," Howson said. "When we became aware of it (last week), we asked him to stop and he said he would."

If you recall last season the news that Alexander Svitov was "working out" with a Russian team also came out around this time. Unfortunately for the Jackets he ended up staying in Russia despite signing a two year contract extension with the team.

The good news is that Filatov didn't seem to have a problem with the request.

I know we've all heard time and time again that Filatov has every intention of coming stateside—but until his butt is over here I will continue to have some doubt. Burn me once...

USAToday's Kevin Allen picks his preseason top 16 in his blog—and unfortunately, the Jackets aren't in it. His West picks are led by the usual suspects in Detroit, San Jose, Dallas, and Anaheim. He's also got Calgary and Chicago in the mix.

The good news is that eight teams go to the playoffs in each conference and he only ranked six in his top 16. That tells me one thing—after the top three or four teams in the west, it's going to be a dogfight the entire year for those remaining spots/ I think both Calgary and Chicago are far from locks this season.

Eric over at Hockeybuzz.com has a great Q&A session with Jackets Vice President of Marketing Marc Gregory.

A couple of interesting tidbits here.  He learned that the Jackets would retain the "Carry the Flag," and that there would be no third jersey introduced this season, as the Jackets would like their new jersey to continue to build in identification—which makes sense.

He also had this to say about a Mr. Mac tribute:

"Yes, we will. We will be having a tribute on opening night before the start of the game. There will also be a commemorative patch that will be worn on the jersey this year as well as the same design of the patch will be put into the ice this year. We are doing the patch and the design in the ice to honor Mr. McConnell all year long."

Something else he learned was that the cannon would be featured on the season tickets this year.