Show Notes
Mike Priest is retiring as president of the Columbus Blue Jackets, effective September 30, staying on as a consultant through the end of the calendar year. John H. McConnell II takes over the role on an interim basis. The news landed after media luncheon day, and Bob McElligott got Aaron Portzline of The Athletic on the line to make sense of it. In this episode: • Who Mike Priest was to this franchise — the day-one employee who helped John H. McConnell land the team and wrote the $75 million expansion check• Whether this connects to the summer of turmoil, and why Porty won't pile the franchise's struggles on one man• Why the grandson stepping forward may be the most consequential thing here, and what a McConnell II era could look like• The open question of who becomes president next, and whether Don Waddell is a candidate to move up• Waddell at media day: another offer to Adam Fantilli "in the next 24 hours," and why a GM wouldn't telegraph that• Cutter Gauthier's 41 goals and new deal in Anaheim, and what it does to the Fantilli negotiation• Camp holdout history in Columbus: Kovalchuk in Atlanta, Josh Anderson in 2017, and the Ryan Johansen fallout nobody ever got over• Waddell setting the expectation at "make the playoffs" — and sounding tired of talking about it• Kirill Marchenko's sit-down with the GM, and why Porty wants to ask him the hard questions himself• Rick Bowness, no fitness testing allowed, and a first day of camp that's going to be nasty Plus two great ones from the road: the night the team plane turned around over Carolina, and the time Porty talked his way into a stranger's Ohio basement at 11 p.m. to file a story by flashlight. Camp opens tomorrow at Nationwide Arena. First preseason game is Monday against Detroit.
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