Jarmo Kekäläinen

Last night, the Columbus Blue Jackets fired General  Manager Scott Howson. Scott Howson had been in Columbus for five years and gave the fans an emotional roller coaster. Howson was able bring talent to the team like Jeff Carter, R. J. Umberger, James Wisniewski, Antoine Vermette, Sami Lepistö, and Scottie Upshall. A lot of these moves did not materialize though. Carter was traded to the Los Angeles Kings for current Blue Jacket Jack Johnson and this year's first round pick. Vermette was traded to Phoenix for Upshall and Lepistö. The following off-season, Upshall signed with the Florida Panthers and Lepistö signed with the Chicago Blackhawks. Wisniewski and Umberger are still with the team. Howson also made the move to fire head coach Ken Hitchcock, who was then hired by the St. Louis Blues the following season. At that time, John Davidson was in St. Louis as the president of hockey operations. He is now filling the same role in Columbus.

With the decision to fire the Howson, Davidson was faced with hiring a new one. He looked to Jarmo Kekäläinan to fill the position of General Manager. As per Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch, Kekäläinen was Davidson's first choice.

1995-99: Served as General Manager of IFK Helsinki in the Finnish league SM-Liiga. There, he was able to help guide the team to four playoff appearances, two appearances in the finals, and one championship. He was also working with the Ottawa Senators in the time. In that time span, the Senators drafted players like Chris Phillips, Sami Salo, Marian Hossa, Mike Fisher, Chris Neil, and Martin Havlat. At the end of the 1998-99 season, he left Helsinki to be the Senators director of player personnel.

1999-2002: After being hired full-time by the Senators, he was able to help build the team more than before. During this time, he was able to draft Anton Volchenkov, Antoine Vermette, Greg Zanon, Jason Spezza, Tim Gleason, Ray Emery, and Brooks Laich. Of all the players that he was able to draft when in Ottawa, seven of them were playing on the team when they made their first appearance in the Stanley Cup Final in 2007.

2002-2010: In 2002, Kekäläinen was hired by the St. Louis Blues. Here he was able to start building the team that is seen today. Here, he met up with Davidson. During his time in St. Louis, the Blues drafted big name players like now team captain David Backes, Lee Stempniak, Roman Polak, T. J. Oshie, Erik Johnson, Patrik Berglund, Ian Cole, David Perron, Alex Pietrangelo, and Vladimir Tarasenko. The team in 2011-12 finished second in the Western Conference.

2010-2012: After being turned down for the GM position in St. Louis, Kekäläinen went back to Finland to become the GM at Jokerit. In his two seasons there, the team made it to the playoffs both times and won the bronze medal match in his second year. Jokerit is currently at the top of the league standings this season. Jokerit has players in the the top five in scoring, goals, assists, points by defensemen, and goals against average. The team leads the league in attendance.