Can the Columbus Blue Jackets overcome the offseason coaching drama?

The Columbus Blue Jackets had plenty of optimism going into the 2023-24 NHL season.

After finishing near the bottom of the league last season with a record of 25-48-9 (their worst record over an 82-game campaign since 2001-02), they secured the third overall pick in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft and selected University of Michigan forward Adam Fantilli.

Hiring Mike Babcock as head coach raised some eyebrows, but many around the game felt the Stanley Cup-winning coach had changed his ways and could help lead a young Blue Jackets lineup out of the NHL basement.

But following a storm of controversy, accusations and denials about his alleged invasion of his players’ privacy, Babcock resigned less than a month before the regular season would begin. Now assistant Pascal Vincent takes over as head coach.

On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk discussed how the Blue Jackets can bounce back from all the drama both on and off the ice.

Tyler Yaremchuk: There was legit optimism heading into this year, a full season of Zach Werenski, as he’s back and healthy. The youth movement up front with guys like Cole Sillinger and Kent Johnson and now Adam Fantilli as well. That quickly got overshadowed by the drama surrounding Mike Babcock.

Can the Blue Jackets overcome that drama? With clear heads, can they take a step forward and crack the 70-point mark?

Frank Seravalli: Seventy points should be the minimum. If they don’t clear 70, heads should be rolling. I made the point a week ago that they should be rolling already after getting this coaching hire so wrong when it needed to go so right. But that’s obviously a story for another day.

Will this Blue Jackets team be better? They should be. They’ve improved in a significant way on the back end. You mentioned a healthy Werenski, but Damon Severson and Ivan Provorov should really boost that group. I already like their forward group, I think they need to find a way to score more, but Fantilli should help.

Does the coaching part matter? I would think in an odd way it’s probably helpful. Don’t you think that every Blue Jackets player walked into the first day of training camp thinking “Oh, we just dodged a serious bullet. You mean we don’t have to play for Babcock this year?”

You can watch the full show here…