5 things to know about Caleb Jones
He’s the D-man the Blackhawks picked up in Duncan Keith trade
Caleb Jones shouldn’t worry about trying to fill the big skates left behind by Duncan Keith, the venerable and decorated Chicago Blackhawks defenseman with whom he swapped teams in Monday’s trade with the Edmonton Oilers.
Jones is just trying to find his own game again after a disappointing season.
The 24-year-old blue liner talked about getting a fresh start in Chicago and joining the team’s youth movement while sharing details about his game and background during an introductory news conference Tuesday.
Here are five things to know about Jones.
1. How did Jones learn about the trade?: In the deal, the Blackhawks sent Keith and Rockford IceHogs forward Tim Soderlund to the Oilers for Jones and a conditional 2022 third-round pick, which will become a secondround pick if Edmonton wins three playoff rounds next year and Keith ranks among the Oilers’ top four in ice time in those rounds.
That’s a lot to digest, and Jones was oblivious to it all when the news first broke.
“It was funny, I was playing ‘NBA 2K’ and I got a quick text from someone saying, ‘Whoa, is that true?’ And I didn’t know what they were talking about,” Jones said.
“I saw a few things popping up about rumors. I went on social media, and it happened just that quick and I started getting phone calls. It took a little bit to set in, but I’m really excited.”
2. Jones addressed the elephant in the room: Has brother Seth talked about playing in Chicago?: The announcement of the trade was followed almost immediately by speculation that the Hawks could be laying groundwork for acquiring Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Seth Jones, Caleb’s older brother.
According to several reports, Seth wants to leave Columbus, and the Blue Jackets seem inclined to oblige — that is, if a team can reach a contract extension with Seth and sway them with a hefty trade offer. Otherwise, the highly coveted defenseman will be an unrestricted free agent in 2022.
Caleb said the prospect of the brothers playing together has “popped up a few times.”
“I’ve actually never even played against him, so I’ve been looking for that day to come,” Caleb said. “But honestly, playing with him would be really fun.
“He’s kind of got his own situation going on over there, so we’ll see what happens throughout the summer with that,” he said. “But if it ever did happen, it would be really fun and we’d both enjoy it.”
3. How did the Jones brothers — Caleb, Seth and Justin — get into hockey when their dad played in the NBA?: Their dad is Popeye Jones, an assistant coach for the Philadelphia 76ers and a former power forward who played for six teams over 11 seasons, including four with the Dallas Mavericks.
But none of his sons followed in the old man’s basketball footsteps.
The eldest, 30-year-old Justin, played hockey for the University of Denver, the NAHL Texas Tornado and Salve Regina University. Twenty-six-year-old Seth, the
No. 4 pick in the 2013 NHL draft, has played for the Nashville Predators and the Blue Jackets over eight seasons. Caleb, 24, was drafted by the Oilers in the fourth round in 2015 and spent parts of the last three seasons with them, including 33 games last season.
As Caleb tells it, “We were living in Colorado, were all really young and the Colorado Avalanche won the Cup” in 2001.
Popeye Jones played for the Nuggets in 1999-2000, and “he ran into Joe Sakic down in the Pepsi Center, and Joe told him what he needed to do to get us into hockey because we kind of had gotten interested because the Avs were so big,” Caleb said.
“Being the youngest brother, I kind of just followed them into the sport and we never looked back. We all loved it.”
4. ‘My skating is my strongest asset.’: Stan Bowman, Blackhawks president of hockey operations and general manager, called Jones a smooth skater and versatile defenseman who brings some size at 6-foot-1 and 194 pounds.
Jones agreed with that assessment.
“My skating’s my strongest asset,” he said. “I just need to put a couple of things together in my game to really round it out and become a really good player, and I believe I can do that. Talking to Stan, they have a lot of great resources that you can use to reach your full potential.”
Jones considers himself a physical, two-way defenseman.
“I feel really good on the defensive side of the puck first,” he said, “but when I’m really playing well, I’m using my skating ability to get up in the play and create a little bit of offense that way too.”
He said he plans to talk to coach Jeremy Colliton soon.
Keith’s departure clears a path for the Hawks’ next wave of defensemen to earn meaningful ice time, but Jones will have to battle against other young players, such as Wyatt Kalynuk and Ian Mitchell, for his shot on the blue line.
“Every time you can have a healthy competition, it only makes you better, and it will make the team better,” Jones said. “I’m looking forward to meeting all those guys. Hopefully I’ll be able to grow with them too, and possibly playing with one of them and growing into a good partnership.”
5. Jones has a plan to bounce back from his struggles last season: Jones had a 19-game stretch from January to April in which he didn’t register a point. For the season, he had four assists in 33 games.
He harped on his lack of consistency, “making sure every night I’m ready to go and I play the same way every night.”
“Probably the biggest thing for me is mentally, if I make a mistake or something, just kind of flushing it away and getting back out there and continuing to play the same way I do,” he said. “That’s a growing process I had to go through last year, but I think I will be better for it in the future.”
Caleb and Seth have been training together in Dallas for about a month like they have for the last five or six summers.
When Caleb gets on the ice, he wants to continue fine-tuning his skating and working on his shot. He scored four goals on 48 shots in 2019-20 but missed all 23 attempts last season.
“Having my head up a lot more is a big thing for me this summer,” he said. “Seeing what plays I can make, making sure I always know what’s going on and what I’m trying to do with the puck is the biggest thing for me.”