Since signing in Columbus, the Blue Jackets have been looking for Johnny Gaudreau to be the player he was with the Calgary Flames. The problem was he was missing something. Enter Sean Monahan.
On July 1, Monahan signed a five-year deal with the Blue Jackets with an annual average value of $5.5 million. Monahan and Gaudreau are reunited, and the Blue Jackets hope this will turn Gaudreau into the player they expected him to be when he signed there a couple of years ago to his seven-year, $68.25 million deal.
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Monahan and Gaudreau were together with the Flames from the 2013-14 season through 2021-22. They where a dynamic duo on the top line in Calgary for most of those years. They were the main reason the Flames went to the Stanley Cup Playoffs five times. Though the Flames only made the second round twice, there was hope in Calgary that these two young pieces would be there for a while.
Along the way, that core split up, as players either chose to go elsewhere or the team decided to move on players. We ended up here with Monahan and Gaudreau reuniting in Columbus.
The Gaudreau signing in Columbus was a bit of a head-scratcher when it happened, and some are saying the same thing about the Monahan signing. However, new GM Don Waddell has seen what these two players can do firsthand, and it made sense to get a number one center with an elite winger.
If you go back to their time in Calgary, Gaudreau and Monahan played eight-plus seasons together. According to Natural Stat Trick, Sean Monahan and Johnny Gaudreau played more than 5,500 five-on-five minutes together from 2015 to 2021. The pair outscored their opponents 271-226.
In addition, the pair combined for 351 goals and 574 assists for a total of 925 points total over those eight seasons. Just imagine if they can rekindle any magic again; they could be one of the better duos in the league.
Gaudreau hit 74 and 60 points in the last two seasons, respectively. Maybe he can inch back into the 80 to 90-point range with Monahan back on his line. While it is a gamble to sign Sean Monahan, given his injury history, you cannot deny what the two players have done together.
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Not to mention, being in a different situation in life and having a good friend and linemate there for you will undoubtedly help. But the Columbus Blue Jackets still have an uphill climb in the Metro Division.
However, adding a player like Sean Monahan will allow the younger players to play roles more suited for them. The depth now down the middle has Monahan at the number one center position positioning Adam Fantilli in the second position, followed by Cole Sillinger in the three-hole.
Most importantly, Boone Jenner could shift to the wing with the arrival of Monahan. But the biggest thing for the Blue Jackets is that offensively, they may have found the spark needed for Johnny Gaudreau to get going by bringing in his familiar face from his past in Sean Monahan.