Blue Jackets’ signee no stranger to new home

Like a lot of NHL players, Sean Kuraly signed with a new team Wednesday and met with reporters during a video conference.

Unlike many of his peers, the new Blue Jackets center didn’t do it from his home, but from a building that’s been like a second home, Nationwide Arena. That’s where he’ll be spending quite a bit of his time after signing a four-year contract with the Jackets worth $10 million.

It was quite a homecoming for the Dublin native, who grew up cheering the Blue Jackets and spent a couple formative years in his teens playing for the Ohio AAA Blue Jackets developmental program.

Kuraly, who played at Miami University from 201216, recalls playing on the Ohio AAA Blue Jackets, idolizing Rick Nash

“Yeah, well ... Ed Gingher (former Dayton Bombers GM) just let me in the door,” Kuraly said at the outset of his introductory press conference, referring to his former coach with the Ohio AAA

Blue Jackets. “That speaks for itself right there. This was circled on my places to be and the place I wanted to be, and to be here now is awesome. It feels like it has come full circle, so I’m just excited to get going.”

He’s not the only one. The Blue Jackets are shifting their focus away from a core group of players who led them to the playoffs four straight years and spearheaded a shocking sweep of the Tampa Lightning in 2019 — a postseason run that ended with a six-game loss to Kuraly and the Boston Bruins in the second round.

Now, it’s time for a new crop to see what they can do in Columbus, led by a smattering of familiar mugs still around to provide leadership, hustle and invaluable experience.

Boone Jenner is one of those stalwarts, signing a four-year contract extension Wednesday, and now Kuraly is coming in from Boston with many of the same qualities.

“First and foremost, you lead by example,” Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen said. “It’s pretty hard for young guys not to follow up on that standard when you have two leaders like that working their butts off every day.”

It’s a dream scenario for Kuraly, who grew up idolizing Nash and then played a few weeks with him in Boston after the trade deadline in February 2018.

Both are with the Blue Jackets now. Nash joined the management group in 2019 and eventually helped in recruiting Kuraly.

Kuraly centered the Bruins’ fourth line almost exclusively, but this is a new team and there just isn’t a lot of experienced depth at center. Should he earn a spot anchoring a strong forechecking third line or play top-six minutes, his offensive numbers could spike.

Last season, Kuraly won a career-best 57.4% of his faceoffs and he’s twice topped 20 points, despite playing roughly 13 minutes a game in both years. He’s also motivated after finishing with four goals, five assists and nine points last season (47 games) — low totals by Kuraly’s standards, even given his emphasis on contributing at both ends of the ice.