theathleticuk
COLUMBUS, Ohio A collection of notes, insights, ruminations and did-you-knows gathered throughout the week that was for the Columbus Blue Jackets: Item No.
1: The lineup Theres still plenty of summer to go.
Theres still time for trades, an offer sheet involving the Blue Jackets or a Blue Jackets player and theres still time to sign a straggler on the free-agent market.
Advertisement But theres also a strong chance that the Blue Jackets lineup is currently settled, once they get all of their restricted free agents signed.
The new faces are top-six forward Valeri Nichushkin and fourth-line rabble-rouser Ryan Lomberg.
The Blue Jackets learned this week that theyll be without fourth-line center Isac Lundestrom for the first couple months of the season.
In other words, two new wingers and one less center, which gives coach Rick Bowness a big opportunity to mix and match his wingers not to mention the competition he craves but it also gives a bevy of young prospects a chance to make the squad out of camp.
With two-plus months to go before the start of training camp, heres an educated guess at what the Blue Jackets lineup could look like, with a plus and minus for each line, plus a wrinkle to consider.
Enjoy! Kent Johnson-Adam Fantilli-Kirill Marchenko Plus: Fantilli and Marchenko spent most of last season playing together, so theres familiarity and a history of production.
Minus: Johnson is the top playmaker on the roster, so he could help elevate Fantilli and Marchenko, and vice versa.
But hes coming off a poor season and has a lot to prove.
Wrinkle: It might be hard to keep Nichushkin on the second line, as he might be the most talented forward on the roster.
Expect some mixing and matching here, as the new player shows coaches where he best fits.
Valeri Nichushkin-Sean Monahan-Connor Garland Plus: Nichushkin is an upgrade over Marchment, Monahan is back to health after fighting injuries all last season and Garland is now settled in Columbus.
Minus: The Blue Jackets No.
2 line was a vacuum all last season, mostly due to Monahans struggles.
Garland has yet to really click with any of the centers.
Wrinkle: Weve got Dmitri Voronkov in the bottom six, but it might be tempting to put him and Nichuskin twin Russian towers on either side of Monahan for a heavy, heavy line.
Advertisement F3: Cole Sillinger Charlie Coyle Mathieu Olivier Plus: Familiarity.
These three formed the Blue Jackets most consistent line last season.
On many nights, they played more like a No.
1 or 2 line.
Minus: When is the last time the Blue Jackets have had a line actually stick together? The summer is long.
Can these three recreate the magic? Wrinkle: If Garland or Johnson cant hang in the top six like last season, it might be hard to keep this line together.
Bowness has so much faith in these three that they are top candidates to spot in on a line.
Dmitri Voronkov-Luca Del Bel Belluz-Ryan Lomberg Plus: Its a mix of speed (Lomberg), size (Voronkov) and skill (Del Bel Belluz) that could chip in offensively in addition to providing energy.
Minus: Voronkov is an odd part here.
Del Bel Belluz hasnt defined himself yet at the NHL, much less earned the job.
This line has been a pieces/parts line for the past few years, and thats not good.
Wrinkle: Keep an eye on Jack Williams, Oiva Keskinen, Owen Sillinger and Del Bel Belluz for that fourth-line center spot left open by Lundestroms injury.
Cole Sillinger could slot here, too.
And dont forget Miles Wood as a winger.
We have him listed as an extra.
Zach Werenski-Damon Severson Plus: It looked last season like Severson had really found a home next to Werenski, especially at the end of the season.
The puck-moving was quick and crisp and simple.
Minus: Only fair to wonder what kind of reception Werenski will get after the offseason drama.
And only fair to wonder if Severson has truly cast aside his first two seasons of struggle in Columbus.
Wrinkle: Both Ivan Provorov and Dante Fabbro have spent considerable time with Werenski the past two seasons.
Bowness is dialed in defensively this season, so he might reconsider everything in camp.
Advertisement Denton Mateychuk-Ivan Provorov Plus: Mateychuk (13 goals) was quietly one of the best rookies in the league last season.
Provorov was steady as ever.
Together, they form a solid second pair, one that draws most of the tough defensive assignments.
Minus: Bowness is known to favor left-right combinations on his pairing, and both of these guys are lefties.
The only people not bothered by it are Mateychuk and Provorov, it seems.
Wrinkle: Mateychuk played an entire season of junior on the right side, and says he doesnt mind it at all.
The Jackets were reluctant to give him that challenge as a rookie last season, but maybe thats changed.
Dante Fabbro-Erik Gudbranson Plus: Gudbranson has battled fluke injuries the past two seasons, but hes back to health and working hard in Columbus this summer.
Theres a lot to prove here for both players.
Minus: Much like the second pair, this one is both righties.
General manager Don Waddell tried to change the mix via free agency, but circled back to Gudbranson when the market dried up of physical veterans.
Wrinkle: We have Jake Christiansen listed as an extra, but he could unseat either of these players with a good camp.
It would be hard for him to replicate Gudbransons physicality, however.
Jet Greaves, Elvis Merzlikins Plus: Greaves proved (to many) last season that hes a No.
1 goaltender, and it was a season of tremendous learning for him.
He expects to be better.
Minus: Merzlikins struggled again last season, with a save percentage (.883) that was once again one of the worst in the league.
The Jackets sorely need a reliable backup.
Wrinkle: Pheonix Copley was signed as a free agent.
He might seem destined for AHL Cleveland even though hes on a one-way contract but Bowness would love if he challenged Greaves and Merzlikins with a tremendous camp.
Advertisement Item No.
2: RFA update Last Friday, the Philadelphia Flyers sent a shiver down the spine of the NHL when they signed Anaheims 21-year-old restricted free agent center, Leo Carlsson, to a five-year, $90 million offer sheet.
The Ducks have until this Friday to match.
The shiver was felt at 200 W.
Nationwide Blvd, to be sure.
The Blue Jackets, of course, have their own 21-year-old restricted free agent, Adam Fantilli, who remains unsigned and vulnerable to an offer sheet.
The Blue Jackets are continuing to talk with Fantilli and are hopeful of getting a deal struck before another club steps into the fray, like the Flyers did with Carlsson.
If the Flyers are blocked by the Ducks, whos to say they wont turn their sights toward Fantilli? If an offer sheet comes along, were in a situation where weve got lots of cap space, Waddell said.
If it happened, were able to match anything.
I dont expect it, but you never know in this business.
He said that the day before the Flyers offer sheet with Carlsson was announced.
On Sunday, the Blue Jackets two other RFAs Greaves and Sillinger both filed for arbitration.
The Blue Jackets will continue to negotiate with them and hope to settle before each players yet-to-be-schedule arbitration hearing, but the fact that they filed for arbitration rules out the possibility of an offer sheet and assures that theyll have a contract for next season.
Because this is player-elected arbitration, the Blue Jackets have the right to request a one- or a two-year ruling from the arbitrator.
Theyll almost certainly request a one-year contract, as a two-year ruling would bring both players into their unrestricted free agency years.
With Greaves, Fantilli and Sillinger unsigned, the Blue Jackets payroll sits at roughly $80 million.
Waddell said he expects it to reach $100 million once theyre signed, or about $4 million under this seasons NHL salary cap.
Advertisement Even if Fantilli signed an offer sheet the size of Carlssons $18 million per season the Blue Jackets would be able to match it.
Theyd rather reach a contract through the more typical process, of course.
Item No.
3: Fare thee well As expected, the longest-tenured Blue Jackets player in franchise history found a new home last week.
Boone Jenner, drafted by Columbus in 2011, a Blue Jacket since the 2013-14 season, and captain since 2021, signed as a free agent with Washington.
Jenner, who has been part of the organization for 15 of its 26 years, signed a four-year, $23 million contract that included a $5 million signing bonus and a modified no-trade clause in all four years of the deal.
The Blue Jackets werent willing to go beyond a one- or two-year deal with Jenner, who turned 33 last month.
Its been a very special place in my heart, a great organization, Jenner, speaking of Columbus, told reporters in Washington.
The people I met, playing for the fans there, being part of the community ..
For myself ..
for both sides, maybe ..
it was time to go try something new.
Ive never been in this spot (free agency), and when I got the call from Washington, it excited me.
It felt like it was the right move.
Jenners name dots the franchise record book.
He departs as the all time leader in games played (808), hits (1,809) and faceoff wins (4,560), ranks second in power-play goals (44) and shots on goal (1,992), third in goals (212), game-winning goals (31), assists (209) and points (421), and fourth in blocked shots (783) and short-handed points (nine).
Item No.
4: Snacks The long-awaited announcement that Trent Vogelhuber had been promoted from AHL Cleveland to join Bowness staff as an assistant came last week.
Vogelhuber was tremendous talking about the imprint some of the coaches hes played under (Jon Cooper, Jared Bednar) and worked with in Columbus (John Tortorella) have helped shape him as a coach.
Its not just the coaches, Vogelhuber noted, but everybody around him, including and especially his family.
But with those coaches, and others, hes seen what a dressing room should look like and how a coaching staff should work.
Advertisement Heres Vogelhuber: You can tell as a player when things are done the right way, and once you see that, you crave it ..
the structure, the discipline, the order in the room.
When youre not around it anymore, you know that its not right.
Those are the things I took from those coaches.
My guys are not going to be saying that this is not done properly.
Whether we carry a trophy at the end of the year or we miss the playoffs, things are going to be done the right way.
Guys want that.
You can feel it when youre in that on a day-to-day basis, the way you go about your business, the way the coaches prepare and talk to you.
Ive been lucky to be around a really good blueprint of that, and thats something youre trying to build in your room.
It has been suggested, by Waddell and others, that Vogelhuber is being groomed to replace Bowness when he decides to hang up the whistle for good.
That has not been articulated to Vogelhuber, he said, and I wouldnt let that conversation go anywhere if it did happen.
And it hasnt.
My job is to help this staff, to help the players to be the best they can be.
Thats my only concern.
Vogelhubers promotion left a vacancy in Cleveland that will be filled by Nick Bootland, who has spent the past four seasons as an assistant coach with AHL Hershey, the top affiliate of the Washington Capitals.
Hershey won two Calder Cup championships (2023, 2024) while he was on the Bears staff.
Before that, Bootland spent 13 seasons as head coach and director of hockey operations with the ECHLs Kalamazoo K-Wings.
This will be Bootlands fourth tour of Ohio.
During a lengthy minor-league career, he played for teams in Cincinnati (ECHL), Cleveland (AHL) and Columbus (UHL).
He was part of the 2003-04 Columbus Stars franchise that folded in mid-January of the franchises only season.
Waddell doesnt seem too worried about Marchenko, even after multiple recent reports that Marchenko doesnt plan to sign a new contract with Columbus when his current one expires after this season.
Marchenko is an RFA next summer, meaning the Blue Jackets still hold his rights.
Ive had discussions with his agent, which I wont discuss right now, Waddell said.
Marchenko is going to be a Blue Jacket when the season starts.
Hes one of the goals on my plate right now.
Weve got three more pressing ones (the current RFAs) right now in front of us.
Theres lots of time to work on that before the season starts, for sure.
The Jackets are hopeful that Lundestrom can return by late November or December after he ruptured his right Achilles during an early summer workout.
Three years ago, he ruptured his left Achilles.
I knew right away what had happened, Lundestrom told Norrbottens-Kuriren, a daily newspaper in Lulea, Sweden.
I hardly know any other hockey players who have gone through this.
The odds of it happening twice are slim.
It felt like a nightmare, and Ive felt both sad and angry.
The typical recovery time is six months.
Waddell said this week that the Blue Jackets next captain will be decided after the club convenes for training camp in mid-September.
We did some polling this week on X, which has a margin of error of roughly 100 percent.
(Ha!) Anyway, among 3,080 responses, Werenski led the way with 42.3 percent (1,303), followed by Coyle (1,103), Olivier (616) and Gudbranson (58).
Those were the only four choices provided.
The longest-tenured Blue Jackets player now that Jenner is gone is Werenski, followed by Merzlikins.
After that, its a three-way tie between Sillinger, Johnson and Christiansen, who arrived during the 2021-22 season.
Advertisement The wave of top prospects pouring into NCAA programs continued this summer.
Of the seven players drafted by the Blue Jackets last month, three are headed to U.S.
colleges No.
14 overall pick Oscar Hemming will be a sophomore at Boston College, fourth-round pick Evan Jardine is headed to Ohio State and sixth-round pick Jonas Woo will attend Arizona State while only two players will remain in Canadas junior ranks and two will remain in Europe.
That gives the Blue Jackets 13 prospects who will play for 12 different NCAA programs this season.
Heres development coach Tommy Cross on how the NCAA boom has helped NHL teams by giving prospects a bigger challenge, in most cases, than simply remaining with their junior clubs or the European minor leagues: The age of the players (theyre opposing), it prepares our guys for the battle-level grind of the pro game, Cross said.
Its up to the players to take advantage of the resources these schools have, too, because they arent playing as many games.
That time has to be used wisely, and we tell our college kids that.
But from our standpoint, we have so much confidence in every program our prospects are in.