2025-26 season preview: Blue Jackets look to take the next step

Boasting excellent leadership and a bevy of young stars, Columbus was motivated this offseason after falling just short of the playoffs a year ago

The Blue Jackets begin the season Thursday night at Nashville. With training camp now complete, if you’ve missed anything this offseason and want to get caught up, scroll down for what’s new, what’s old, stats to know, key questions facing the team and much more.

Dean Evason is seemingly never at a loss for words, but he’s happy to say a lot less of them these days than a year ago.

As the Blue Jackets began Evason's first season at the helm last autumn, the head coach and his staff were in full teaching mode, having to install a new system and a new mentality into a team that had finished last in the Eastern Conference two straight seasons.

Fast-forward to 2025 and the Blue Jackets are in a much different place. Columbus jumped up the standings a year ago, riding a wave of young talent, impressive veteran leadership and the steadying hand of Evason’s staff to the brink of a playoff bid.

Now, expectations are higher, both from inside and out. As the season dawns, Blue Jackets players haven’t shied from embracing the belief that they have a playoff team in the locker room.

One reason Evason feels confident the Blue Jackets can live up to the billing is the fact he’s a lot quieter than a year ago. Coaches in any sport are fond of saying that the best teams are led by the men in uniform and not suits, and Evason believes his group has progressed to that point over the past 365 days.

“The quicker coaches can not give the team but have the team take charge and take control and feel that they can speak up and they can teach and coach and help guys, (the better),” Evason said. “It’s not only learning systems but how we want to play as an organization and how we want to play as this team.

“To see (Zach Werenski) talking to guys on the ice and to see Boone (Jenner) and (Erik Gudbranson), our three captains, speaking to people on the ice, it’s fantastic. ... Z speaking has a lot more weight than us speaking. Whenever that can be a reflection on the coaching staff, it’s wonderful.”

When it comes to preparing for the 2025-26 season, which begins tomorrow night in Nashville, that process started in the late hours of April 17. The Blue Jackets were treated to a standing ovation by the Columbus faithful as they left the Nationwide Arena ice after closing out a 6-1 win over the New York Islanders to end the campaign, but the pain of falling two points short of a playoff bid stuck with CBJ players.

If there was ever a moment in the summer where they felt one more set of reps in the gym, one more lap of the ice would be too much, all they had to do was think back to how they felt leaving Columbus last spring for the motivation they needed.

The Blue Jackets knew they made major strides a season ago, jumping 23 points in the standings and four places in the Metropolitan Division, but they still weren’t where they wanted to be. It provided a fuel for the players that lasted the entire offseason.

“It was a step in the right direction,” Mathieu Olivier said of last season. “You could say it was a big one, but it really felt like everyone left with a bad taste in their mouth just missing out by that much and knowing how we played and what occurred throughout the year and all that. Everyone gave us props, and obviously we were proud of the step we took, but it felt like everyone knew the step was a little too short and we didn’t accomplish what we wanted to.

“It puts a chip on your shoulder and you show up to camp this year ready to roll.”

Now, the time is here for this group of Blue Jackets to show what they’re all about. The 82-game, seven-month journey that is the NHL season is sure to include highs and lows, stretches where everything seems to go right and times where character must shine through adversity.

The Blue Jackets believe they’ve built a team that can handle what’s to come and will come out the other side having snapped a five-year playoff drought. And it all starts with the 22 players that all in their own ways lead the way.

“We like to think we hold a high standard in that room now, and it’s because of last year and the way we work for each other and battled for each other and set that,” Jenner said. “This year, it’s that, but another notch up. I think that’s what we have in that room is guys push each other. We want to be better, individually but as a team as well.”

“We took steps last year and set a benchmark for ourselves that we’re trying to blow out of the water this year," Gudbranson added.

What’s New For 2025

There are just three players on the season-opening roster who weren’t part of the CBJ organization a year ago, and all three play up front.

The Blue Jackets retooled the bottom six of the forward group this offseason, saying goodbye to veteran free agents Sean Kuraly, James van Riemsdyk and Justin Danforth while bringing in Charlie Coyle and Miles Wood via trade and signing Isac Lundeström.

A 13-year NHL veteran, Coyle is expected to start the year as the third-line center, while Wood brings 10 years of experience and is lining up on the wing beside Lundeström, who spent the previous seven years in Anaheim. Coyle is a dependable option in any situation and gives the Blue Jackets a right-handed faceoff option, while Wood is one of the fastest players in the NHL and brings some grit. Lundeström, meanwhile, can kill penalties, and general manager Don Waddell believes he can add some scoring like he did in 2021-22 when he had seven goals with the Ducks.

There’s also a familiar face in a new role. Goaltender Jet Greaves has made 21 spot starts over the past three seasons – including last season’s memorable run of five wins in the last five games to nearly push Columbus into the playoffs – but the 24-year-old begins the season on the opening-night roster for the first time.

What’s Back

We’ve mentioned this before, but the Blue Jackets have rarely returned so much of their roster from the previous campaign.

The 19 players on the opening roster who are back from last year's squad provided 84 percent of the points and 78 percent of the goaltending minutes a season ago, and CBJ fans won’t need a program to identify the top players.

Up front, Sean Monahan is coming off an impressive debut season for the Jackets in which the veteran center fit seamlessly into the squad, and he’ll center a top line that features breakout wing Kirill Marchenko and the towering presence of Dmitri Voronkov. Adam Fantilli was the youngest NHL player to top 30 goals a season ago, and he’ll start the year centering captain Jenner and Cole Sillinger, who has a bevy of experience already as he enters his fifth season at age 22.

Coming off career highs in goals and points a season ago, Kent Johnson is expected to line up on one side of Coyle; the other belongs to Mathieu Olivier, who earned a six-year contract extension after scoring 18 goals and leading the NHL in fighting majors a season ago. Zach Aston-Reese brings speed and versatility to the fourth line with Lundeström and Wood, while the talented Yegor Chinakhov hopes to make an impact after injury short-circuited his 2024-25 season.

On the blue line, things start and end with Werenski, the Norris Trophy runner-up who jumped from perennial All-Star to one of the NHL’s truly elite players a season ago thanks to his all-around brilliance. Dante Fabbro joined the squad in November and quickly became a perfect running mate to Werenski on what turned into one of the NHL’s best defensive pairs.

Ivan Provorov and Damon Severson have skated as a pair throughout camp, and the two veterans have played some good hockey together over the years and can move the puck. A year ago, Denton Mateychuk made the NHL’s all-rookie team and hopes to be even better in year two, while alternate captain Gudbranson returns from an injury-shortened season to bring some mettle to the defensive corps. Jake Christiansen also had a strong camp after his first full NHL season ago.

And between the pipes, Elvis Merzlikins enters the season as just the third CBJ goalie to play seven campaigns with the team. Now 31 years old, Merzlikins won 26 games a year ago, just shy of a career high.

Breaking Down The Units

Offense: The Blue Jackets blew past the franchise record for goals a season ago, lighting the lamp 267 times, good for a tie for seventh in the NHL. The goal cannon at Nationwide Arena was particularly busy, as the Jackets’ 161 home goals led the entire league. Players who scored 87.3 percent of those goals return to the organization, so offense should be a strength. One area the team will strive for is consistency, though – while the Jackets scored at least six goals a franchise-record 16 times, they were shut out nine times, tied for the second-most in the NHL.

Defense: Columbus welcomes back its top seven defensemen from a season ago, and the team is banking on continuity to lead to improvement. The Blue Jackets finished 25th in the NHL in team defense a year ago – the fifth straight season in which Columbus placed in the bottom quarter of the NHL – but the additions of Fabbro and Mateychuk and return of Gudbranson steadied things on the blue line. Over the last 41 games of the season from Jan. 9 onward, Columbus allowed 2.90 goals per game, 14th in the NHL.

Special Teams: Columbus placed 22nd in the NHL in power-play success last year at 19.5 percent, but injuries to Jenner and Monahan didn’t help the cause; at midseason, the Blue Jackets were in the NHL’s top 10. The belief is the top unit could be one of the best in the NHL with Jenner manning the netfront, Monahan pulling the strings in the middle, Werenski running the point, Marchenko’s shot on the left wing and Johnson’s creativity on the right. The penalty kill also must improve – at 77.0 percent, it also was 22nd in the NHL – but Coyle, Wood and Lundeström all bring experience there.

Goaltending: The Blue Jackets will have a new look in the crease, with Greaves graduating from the NHL to join Merzlikins between the pipes to start the campaign. The team will likely split starts to begin the season, and both netminders have something to prove. For Merzlikins, it’s consistency – he allowed two goals or less in 19 starts, going 15-2-2 in those games; but he gave up five or more 12 times, going 2-9-1. For Greaves, it’s how he handles spending a whole season at the top level, though his .920 save percentage in the AHL a year ago and .938 mark at the NHL level provides excitement.

3 Big Questions

1. Will the defensive continuity lead to improved results? It’s no secret – you have to keep the puck out of your net to consistently win in the NHL. Want proof? The top 15 teams in team defense made the 16-team Stanley Cup Playoffs a season ago. The Blue Jackets feel that bringing back Provorov and Fabbro and getting full seasons from Mateychuk and Gudbranson will solidify their back end, and chemistry can go a long way with a defensive corps. Another year in Evason’s system should help, as well, but tangible improvement will be needed for the team to get where it wants to go.

2. Will the young players keep on their upward trajectory? To describe such players as Fantilli, Johnson, Marchenko, Voronkov, Sillinger and Mateychuk “up-and-comers" would be a misnomer at this point, as all have proved they are players to be reckoned with at the NHL level. All stepped into bigger roles and produced a season ago, but often in the NHL, the track to the top has a few potholes. The trick is to avoid as many as possible. All have spoken of having a bigger leadership role on the team and working hard in the offseason to not just match what they did a year ago but exceed it; they have to for the Blue Jackets to be a contender.

3. Can the Blue Jackets be more consistent? We've mentioned that word a few times, and it will be an important one for the Jackets this season. Over the course of an 82-game campaign, smoothing out the low points is important if you’re going to make the playoffs, and that’s something the Jackets can improve on. A pair of six-game losing skids a season ago, plus a stretch of nine losses in eight games, proved in the end to be too much to overcome when it came to securing a playoff spot. That often happens with young teams, and if the Blue Jackets can take the lessons from that experience and apply them, they’ll put themselves in a much better position this year.

Stats To Know

• A season ago, Werenski became just the ninth NHL defenseman since 1996-97 to finish a season with at least 80 points. His 82 points finished tied for second in team history with Artemi Panarin, while his 59 assists tied Panarin’s CBJ record set in 2018-19. His 23 goals also set a franchise record for defensemen. Werenski led the NHL in average ice time (26:45) and miles skated (320.25).
• Columbus tied a franchise record (2016-17) with 57 standings points earned on the season in home games.
• The Blue Jackets tied a franchise record a season ago with five players with 20-plus goals (Marchenko, 31; Fantilli 31; Johnson, 24; Werenski, 23; Voronkov, 23).
• Marchenko and Fantilli were just the second pair of CBJ teammates to score 30 goals in the same season (Brandon Saad and Jenner, 2015-16) a year ago.
• Monahan notched 57 points a year ago (19 goals, 38 assists) in 54 games; he has the most points in team history for a player in their first 54 contests with the franchise.
• Marchenko's 74 points tied for sixth all-time in team history, and he is just one of two players to post at least 30 goals and 40 assists in the same season, joining Nick Foligno (2014-15).
• Notes on the new guys: Coyle is the only active NHL player to have played at least 13 seasons and made the Stanley Cup Playoffs every year of his career. He is one of only 37 NHL players in league history to start their career with such a streak. ... Wood’s fastest skating speed of 24.82 mph was the best in the NHL a season ago. He has five seasons of double digits in goals and has averaged 15 tallies per 82 games in his career. ... Lundestrom has just 22 penalty minutes the past four seasons, the lowest total among any of the 365 NHL players to skate in at least 250 games in that time.
• Milestones on tap: Jenner is one goal shy of reaching 200 goals. He would become just the third CBJ player (Rick Nash with 289, Cam Atkinson with 213) to do so. ... Werenski (384 points) and Jenner (383) are third and fourth in franchise history in points and are nearing the 400-point mark. ... Coyle is 50 games away from 1,000 in his NHL career, 11 goals from 200, four assists shy of 300 and 15 points away from 500. ... With 244 games played, Merzlikins is 22 away from tying Marc Denis for the second-most in team history. ... Provorov is four games from 700 in his NHL career.