Advertise on podcast: Clear Breakaway

Bob McElligott answers your questions from X, YouTube and more following the Columbus Blue Jackets 1-1 start on the season. Also, Aaron Portzline and Jody Shelley stop by to honor the memory of Lyle Odelein. *Video coming late Monday evening for eligible platforms.

Bob McElligott and Aaron Portzline talk about the Columbus Blue Jackets opening night win over the Buffalo Sabres.

Norris Trophy. Vetoed trade. Camp holdout. Retiring president. A six-player blockbuster two days before the opener. And it might not be over. Bob McElligott opens the 2026-27 season with a roundtable: Aaron Portzline of The Athletic, Michael Arace of The Disrespected, and Jeff Svoboda, formerly the Jackets Insider and now a free agent. In this episode: • Why Arace calls the Marchenko trade a coup, and why the team that gets the best player doesn't always win the deal• Jeff on Marchenko's heel turn, and the press conference that made it easier for fans and teammates to let go• Should fans boo on October 20? Rick Nash got booed. So did Sergei Fedorov.• Merzlikins gets a timeline within 24 hours of leaving• Why Toronto moved Matthew Knies, and why getting out of that pressure cooker might be the best thing for him• Emil Andrae: 5-foot-9, 195 pounds and headed for the third pair• Fantilli's six-year deal and a September that may be a watershed moment in team history• A cycling team now: size, Lomberg's mouth, and who drives play without Marchenko• Kent Johnson, Connor Garland, Cole Sillinger and the bets this team is making• "First ballot" Denton Mateychuk, and why Waddell should be walking an extension down the hall• Jet Greaves, Cam Talbot and a drama-free goalie corner• Why picking Columbus last in the Metro is insane• Opening night against Buffalo, a shootout lineup, and Knies vs. Cutter Gauthier• Valeri Nichushkin, maybe the most underrated move of the NHL offseason• A 71-year-old coach on a one-year deal, and whether there will be a captain at all• The lightning round: points, playoffs, leading scorer, Greaves' save percentage and bold predictions The Blue Jackets open Thursday against the Buffalo Sabres. Bobby Mac & Porty are back Friday.

Bob McElligott heard the Blue Jackets might be making a deal with Toronto, so he did the only reasonable thing: drove to Canada. (He was already driving home from Watertown, N.Y., and his son wanted to see Niagara Falls. It counts.) Hours before the 5 p.m. roster deadline, Don Waddell pulled off the biggest swing this franchise has taken in years. Kirill Marchenko, Elvis Merzlikins and Miles Wood go to the Maple Leafs. Matthew Knies, Steven Lorentz, Emil Andrae and a second-round pick originally belonging to Seattle come to Columbus. Marchenko signs a six-year extension in Toronto at $12.5 million a year. In this special edition: • Why Bob loves the deal, and why a player who became a distraction had to go• Marchenko's 208 points against Knies' size and toughness, and why the numbers don't tell the whole story• Merzlikins: the rocky start, the Korpisalo contrast, the loss of Matiss Kivlenieks, and a genuine send-off from Bob• Getting it done without long-term injured reserve, with Columbus reportedly retaining part of Merzlikins' salary• Your chat questions: "does he like Columbus," will Mathieu Olivier hit him on Oct. 20, and can Marchenko survive the Toronto media?• Porty on how Waddell worked the phones, why Toronto got "a Ferrari" and Columbus got "a Range Rover," and a frank read on how Marchenko had checked out in camp• How Jody Shelley's career started, and why the old grudge games are gone• What Knies means for Adam Fantilli and Kent Johnson• Marchenko's WWE heel turn, and why Panarin and Bobrovsky never hated Columbus• Jack Williams to Cleveland, and Luca Del Bel Belluz's chance to stick Toronto visits Nationwide Arena on October 20. The Blue Jackets open Thursday against Buffalo. Join us tomorrow night at 7 for the preseason predictions roundtable.

Bob McElligott and Aaron Portzline react to the Columbus Jackets win over Pittsburgh in their third preseason game as well as Adam Fantilli's presser announcing his contract signing.

The Jacket got some Mo! Bob McElligott and Aaron Portzline of The Athletic react to the big news out of Columbus that Adam Fantilli signed a contract extension.

Bob McElligott and Aaron Portzline talk about the first Columbus Blue Jackets preseason game, Dante Fabbro's injury, possible trade scenarios and NHL expansion

Bob McElligott returns with the Monday Mailbag, a weekly show where he focuses on the audience's questions. Tune in live on Mondays to ask questions in the chat on the Clear Breakaway YouTube Channel.

Bob McElligott and Aaron Portzline discuss the first day of training camp for the Columbus Blue Jackets, including the latest on Kirill Marchenko, Adam Fantilli, and Denton Mateychuk.

Mike Priest is retiring as president of the Columbus Blue Jackets, effective September 30, staying on as a consultant through the end of the calendar year. John H. McConnell II takes over the role on an interim basis. The news landed after media luncheon day, and Bob McElligott got Aaron Portzline of The Athletic on the line to make sense of it. In this episode: • Who Mike Priest was to this franchise — the day-one employee who helped John H. McConnell land the team and wrote the $75 million expansion check• Whether this connects to the summer of turmoil, and why Porty won't pile the franchise's struggles on one man• Why the grandson stepping forward may be the most consequential thing here, and what a McConnell II era could look like• The open question of who becomes president next, and whether Don Waddell is a candidate to move up• Waddell at media day: another offer to Adam Fantilli "in the next 24 hours," and why a GM wouldn't telegraph that• Cutter Gauthier's 41 goals and new deal in Anaheim, and what it does to the Fantilli negotiation• Camp holdout history in Columbus: Kovalchuk in Atlanta, Josh Anderson in 2017, and the Ryan Johansen fallout nobody ever got over• Waddell setting the expectation at "make the playoffs" — and sounding tired of talking about it• Kirill Marchenko's sit-down with the GM, and why Porty wants to ask him the hard questions himself• Rick Bowness, no fitness testing allowed, and a first day of camp that's going to be nasty Plus two great ones from the road: the night the team plane turned around over Carolina, and the time Porty talked his way into a stranger's Ohio basement at 11 p.m. to file a story by flashlight. Camp opens tomorrow at Nationwide Arena. First preseason game is Monday against Detroit.

Welcome to the maiden voyage of Clear Breakaway. Bob McElligott kicks off the 2026-27 season with a guy who has been covering this team as long as he's been around it: Aaron Portzline, senior writer for The Athletic and a Blue Jackets beat writer since the franchise's first puck drop in 2000. First, Bob handles the elephant in the room, the end of his 17-year run calling games, the decision to eliminate the radio broadcast position in favor of a TV/radio simulcast, and why he didn't see it coming. Then it's hockey, with camp physicals hours away: • Kirill Marchenko's trade request — "one of the least effective trade requests I've ever seen" — and why Porty thinks a 30-to-40-goal scorer doesn't get moved right before the season• Adam Fantilli unsigned, and what the Leo Carlsson and Connor Bedard deals do to his number• Why the RFAs, not the GMs, are holding the hammer this summer — plus lost regional TV money, a new team plane, and Don Waddell's internal budget• The Ryan Johansen 2014 cautionary tale, and what a compacted camp and 84-game schedule mean for a late signing• Cam Talbot's incentive-laden deal, and why Elvis Merzlikins' shoulder may be more serious than anyone is saying• A prospect pipeline that now runs through college campuses instead of Cleveland• Carson Soucy's PTO and whether he's already better than Columbus' seventh defenseman• Kent Johnson on the top line, Cole Sillinger in the middle, and Rick Bowness' message: "We're not here to dick around." New episodes twice a week. Hit like and follow on the Clear Breakaway YouTube page, and send us your questions for the next show. (00:00) Open (00:12) Welcome to Clear Breakaway (01:31) The Elephant in the Room (03:30) Syracuse, the Clippers, a Changing Biz (04:59) Marchenko's Trade Request (09:20) Leverage and the Deadline Scenario (10:47) Fantilli Is Still Unsigned (12:16) Carlsson at 18, Bedard at 15 (13:51) Who Really Has the Hammer? (16:02) Lost TV Money and a New Team Plane (18:19) The Ryan Johansen Lesson (18:53) Short Camp, 84-Game Schedule (20:12) Cam Talbot Signs (22:58) The Pipeline Moved to College (27:20) Soucy's PTO and the Third Pair (30:19) Kent Johnson on the Top Line (33:30) Bowness Sets the Tone (36:03) A Tinderbox? The Mood Around the Team (38:30) Like, Follow, See You Next Time

After 17 years as an NHL broadcaster, Bob McElligott's team decided not to renew his contract. In this first episode, he says thank you ... what's next. Bob talks about the weeks since the news, the people who reached out, and the ones who told him they listened over the years driving an 18-wheeler, cleaning schools at night, working third shift at the plant, and tuning in to the Monday mailbag. Then he shares what he's been building: Clear Breakaway, an online platform that breaks from the way sports content usually gets made, usually with one announcer talking at the masses. He'll have opinions. He'd rather have a conversation. Hockey, baseball, football, basketball and sports in general are all on the table. He also announces the first piece: a twice-weekly podcast with Aaron Portzline of The Athletic, starting this week. Training camp is open, there's a big question at the top of the roster, and Bob says there's no one he'd rather work through it with. There's more coming in the next couple of weeks. For now what do you want to hear? Send your questions to [email protected], we look forward to reading them.