Offseason Checklist: Columbus Blue Jackets

Goaltender Jet Greaves also happens to be up for a new deal.  While he wasn’t going to come close to sustaining his late-season hot streak in 2024-25 over a full season, he locked down the starting job.  He played the seventh-most minutes in the NHL while posting the 12th-best SV and 13th-best GAA on a non-playoff team.  Traditional stats are still dominant in arbitration filings and the 25-year-old is arbitration-eligible for the first time.  However, the small sample size makes this one a little harder to peg.  The comparables here would be players like Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen ($4.75MM) and $5MM but the financial market is a little different now.  The comparable now would be four or five years around the $5.75MM range.  But if one or both sides want to see one more year before making that commitment, they can get away with it as he’s two seasons away from UFA eligibility.  The price tag would be more in the $4.25MM territory in that scenario.

The other RFA of note is Cole Sillinger.  His bridge deal has now come to an end and if nothing else, he has been consistent.  Over the past three seasons, his lowest point total is 32 and his highest is 33.  He has two years of club control left and is arbitration-eligible as well.  It’s doubtful either side would want to do a long-term agreement so the options are more likely a one-year deal that allows for a bit more evaluation, or a three-or-four-year pact that buys up a bit of UFA eligibility.  The former would be in the $3.5MM range and the latter more likely around double his current $2.25MM price tag.

Add Offensive Forward

One of the challenges this season for Columbus was primary scoring.  They only had two players surpass the 60-point mark and one of those was Werenski, who led the team in points once again.  The other was Kirill Marchenko, with 67.  Fantilli and Coyle were just shy of 60 which doesn’t sound too bad.  However, they’re also the only four players to reach 40 points on the campaign.

The silver lining is that their secondary scoring was fine.  Eight additional players had between 30 and 40 points, including Mason Marchment, who had 32 in just 39 games after being acquired.  He’s a pending unrestricted free agent and is set for a big payday on the open market.  The Blue Jackets would undoubtedly want to keep him around but even if so, that’s only maintaining the status quo, not improving the roster.

While there is a young nucleus of players that they’re hoping for continued development from (with a bounce-back from Kent Johnson being first in that regard), it’s also quite evident that the Blue Jackets have a win-now mindset.  While contention might not be realistic just yet, getting to the postseason should be the next step for this group.

That makes it more important for them to add an impact scorer to deepen the attack and take some pressure off the younger players (which might ultimately help them offensively).  Of course, this is not a particularly deep UFA class – Marchment is one of the top forwards available – so this is something Waddell may have to accomplish on the trade front.  But if Columbus wants to take that next step forward, more primary firepower will be needed.

Add A Shutdown Defender

With Werenski anchoring the back end, the emergence of Denton Mateychuk, and Ivan Provorov showing flashes of above-average offensive ability at times, the Blue Jackets quietly have one of the more talented back ends in the East from an offensive perspective.  But their other regulars – Damon Severson and Dante Fabbro – aren’t known necessarily for being shutdown players.  They can certainly contribute but aren’t necessarily defensive anchors.

One of their top-used defensemen shorthanded this season was Erik Gudbranson, at least when healthy.  However, he’s also a pending unrestricted free agent and at this point, it would be somewhat surprising to see him return.  That’s a spot in the lineup that needs to be filled.  Ideally, that one isn’t filled internally, either by Jake Christiansen or a prospect like Corson Ceulemans.  Again, if the goal is getting to the playoffs, they need to aim higher.

In a perfect world, the goal would be to get someone capable of playing on the top two pairings, logging over 20 minutes per game with primary penalty kill time.  That player would also be matched up against top lines from other teams.  It’s the type of player that a lot of teams could use although, again, there aren’t many unrestricted free agents who fit the bill.  This is another spot they may have to try to acquire in a trade instead.

But this one is of particular importance from a culture standpoint as well.  As Bowness wants to reshape things there, getting that gritty defender willing to go the extra mile to contain top players from other teams would be an anchor of that reshaped culture.  A lot of good teams have a true shutdown piece on the back end and if they want to take the next step, the Blue Jackets need to get one too.