Jarmo Kekalainen has been a great general manager for the Columbus Blue Jackets, and even though he traded away a big part of the future to go all in this season it’s not his fault it hasn’t worked.
Kekalainen isn’t a coach, he can’t control how well players mesh into the lineup or even how the current players perform. All he can do is put the team in a position to contend, which he did with his trade deadline acquisitions. He knew that he needed to take advantage of having Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky while he could.