Whether they love him or hate him, Blackhawks fans everywhere have at least some sort of opinion on defenseman Seth Jones. Chicago’s No. 1 blueliner (in ice time) does his team the service of playing the most minutes of any skater – before he hit IR last month, he was one of the league leaders and still ranks seventh with 25 minutes per game. On most nights, however, that’s about all he does. It’s clear he’s not worth $9.5 million per year, Chicago’s highest AAV at the moment.
While Jones’ ice time would certainly make him appear irreplaceable, it has become obvious that that’s no longer the case. The Blackhawks won their final three games before Jones’ return; they’ve gone 1-6 since. That’s not a direct effect of Jones coming back, but he hasn’t exactly passed the eye test.
Jones is starting to hurt his team more than help, but what can the Blackhawks do about it? Chicago is beginning to realize it has a bit of a problem – the defenseman hasn’t played well enough to be traded, especially with a $9.5 million AAV. But he can’t be moved at all because his contract includes one of Stan Bowman’s famous no-move clauses. The Blackhawks likely can’t trade him, waive him or otherwise, but they can still make his burden a bit lighter.
The Blackhawks have been excellent on the PK all year, boasting a mark that is now seventh-best in the league. But in the 16 games that Jones was out, the unit was the best in the entire NHL at over 93 percent. Since he came back, they’re all the way down at 21st in the league at 75 percent. That’s a pretty strong correlation. Players like Wyatt Kaiser, Nolan Allan and even Louis Crevier have better numbers on the PK this season, and he’s clearly hurting the team in that department.
Jones’ struggles would be easier to deal with if he was a strong leader working hard to build up the next generation of Blackhawks. But over the past few seasons, he’s earned a certain reputation in the locker room where he makes it clear that he doesn’t want to be in Chicago. He’s consistently the last guy on the ice and the first guy off it. The fact that he bailed on his media availability after the Winter Classic, sending Connor Bedard instead, only further cements his reputation as one of the most outspokenly negative players on the roster. It’s unclear why he still wears the “A”, but it couldn’t hurt to switch things up.
