Time will tell if Jones lives up to big contract; Hawks fall 4-1 in Winnipeg
With big money comes big expectations.
The highest paid players in any sport are expected to outperform most of their peers every season.
In the Blackhawks' case, Patrick Kane has been worth every penny of his eight-year, $84 million contract. Since the deal began in 2015-16, Kane has 234 goals, 424 assists and 658 points.
Connor McDavid, Artemi Panarin, Auston Matthews, Erik Karlsson, John Tavares and Aleksander Barkov are six more $10 million men who can carry their team to victory on any given day.
This brings us to the case of Hawks defenseman Seth Jones, who is in the first year of an eight-year $76 million deal. Only Karlsson ($11.5M), Drew Doughty ($11M) and Zach Werenski ($9.583M) carry bigger cap hits among blue liners than Jones' $9.5 million.
So what kind of return are the Hawks getting?
In many ways, more should be expected out of Jones, whose 6 goals rank 33rd among defensemen and 24 points rank 39th. (He did miss 10 games due to injury).
Lately, however, the 28-year-old has found another gear by scoring five times in the last 15 games, and it hardly seems a coincidence that the Hawks are 8-6-1 over that time.
"He's playing well," coach Luke Richardson said after a 4-3 OT victory over Arizona at the United Center on Friday. "You don't see him exerting himself and scrambling, so he's really settling in to being a solid defenseman. He's hardly getting beat anywhere."
Jones and the Hawks looked to keep the victories coming Saturday in Winnipeg, but the Jets rattled off 3 second-period goals and cruised to a 4-1 victory.
After Winnipeg grabbed a 1-0 lead early in the second, Tyler Johnson (tripping) and Sam Lafferty (high stick double minor) took penalties 14 seconds apart. Connor Murphy, Jack Johnson and Jason Dickinson did a fabulous job of killing off a two-man advantage that lasted 104 seconds, but Blake Wheeler finally cashed in with a power-play goal at 7:33.
Johnson (6) scored the Hawks' lone goal early in the third period.
The Hawks (16-30-5) lost all four games to the Jets (33-19-1) this season, getting outscored 18-4.
As for Jones, who failed to register a shot on goal, it goes without saying that he must be one of the Hawks' best defenders. That's his primary role, pure and simple.
"You can't just be an offensive guy that gets points," Richardson said. "I know sometimes he probably thinks that with his contract. ...
"But you look at (the Lightning's) Victor Hedman - he's never out of control. ... He's up the ice (at) the right time and gets his points that way. ... I think that's what Seth ... (is) starting to become."
While Hedman has eight seasons of 10-plus goals and recorded his 500th assist in the final minute of Tampa Bay's 3-1 win over Dallas on Saturday, it's definitely true that many premier defensemen weren't exactly known for their offense.
Take former Hawks Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook for instance. Keith's best goal-scoring seasons were 14, 12 and 10, while Seabrook's were 14 and 9 (three times). Other than that, both were basically good for 4-8 goals per season.
Of course, Keith was known for his elite passing, which allowed him to rack up 540 assists in 1,256 games.
Having said all of this, it feels like Jones would produce more on a playoff-caliber squad. He scored 28 goals with Columbus from 2016-18 and produced a career-high 46 assists with the Hawks in 2021-22.
He's certainly looked like a different player of late, connecting on 5 of the last 37 shots heading into Saturday.
In the big picture, it's difficult to grade Jones' play during his time in Chicago.
Last season was a massive disappointment for everyone, and we all know GM Kyle Davidson assembled this roster with the intent of trying to land a top-3 pick.
It will be interesting to see how Jones leads as the rebuild continues and if he has the patience to stick with two-to-three more rough campaigns.
After all, constant losing gets old and can grate on anyone. Difficult as it will be, Jones needs to stay positive.
If he does, there's little doubt he can be a big reason the Hawks become a force again in the Western Conference down the road.
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