As camp begins, Blue Jackets have eyes on taking the next step

Welcome to the happiest time of the NHL calendar.

The legs aren’t heavy yet from training camp. The weather remains tantalizingly sunny and warm. There's a first day of school vibe, as players are excited to spend time with one another after having gone their separate ways for the summer months.

And, perhaps most importantly, the dream of hoisting the Stanley Cup in nine months’ time feels equally real for all 32 teams.

After all, everyone is 0-0, and optimism reigns supreme whether you won it all a year ago or finished dead last in the league.

Smack in the middle of that range are the Blue Jackets, who made a massive jump in the standings in 2024-25 only to fall two points short of a return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The 13 wins and 23 points added in the standings portend an exciting future in Columbus, but the end of last season was a source of massive disappointment as the Blue Jackets fell agonizingly short of playing postseason hockey.

Fast-forward a few months and the Blue Jackets feel they’re ready for that next step. Eleven of the team’s top 12 point scorers as well as 14 of the 17 players to skate in at least 50 games return, the team’s young standouts appear ready to keep growing in their roles, the veteran leadership core is strong and the Blue Jackets added a few key veterans at important spots.

The result is that the Blue Jackets get ready to start training camp on Wednesday believing they will be a postseason contender.

“I couldn’t be more excited,” center Adam Fantilli said Monday at the team’s annual media day luncheon. “I don’t even know the best way to put it into words, but we’re a confident team now. We expect to make the playoffs, and if we don’t, it’s going to feel like a failure. That does change a little bit of the way you go into the season. You go in with a little bit more swagger, just expecting to win games.”

And lest you think that’s just the bravado of a younger player, alternate captain Zach Werenski struck a similar tone Monday.

“Some of the questions that get answered throughout camp, we already have them answered, which is a big advantage for us,” Werenski said. “It's the same rhetoric every year, but this year I genuinely feel like if we’re not a playoff team, it’s a failure for this group. I think everyone believes that in our locker room, so I’m excited to get to work with guys in a couple of days."

What are some of those questions and answers? First off, the Blue Jackets feel they have the roster to compete, with a bevy of emerging young players – Fantilli, Kirill Marchenko, Kent Johnson, Denton Mateychuk and Jet Greaves, to name a few – coming into their own a season ago. They’re led by a veteran core that includes Werenski, captain Boone Jenner, alternate captain Erik Gudbranson, Sean Monahan, Mathieu Olivier and Ivan Provorov, while the additions of Charlie Coyle, Miles Wood and Isac Lundestrom should add depth to the forward group.

And perhaps most importantly, the Blue Jackets grew and bonded as a team a season ago, learning from the frustrations of the previous two disappointing seasons and figuring out how to win tight games. It’s a team that determined its identity and culture in the first season under head coach Dean Evason, who pushed the right buttons to get the Blue Jackets to overcome a bevy of adversity and reach the cusp of playoff hockey.

Evason’s mantra of being prepared to play each and every night no matter the opponent or the situation was embraced by players a season ago, and the head coach is bringing a similar step-by-step ethos into the upcoming campaign.

“The Stanley Cup is our expectation,” Evason said. “That’s what we want, right? We have to make steps in order to get there, and that first step is obviously to make the playoffs and then each round after that. Our expectations are to have a great season, make the playoffs, and then we want to win the first round and then move forward.

“You guys put expectations. We want to see the guys compete every night, and then we’ll see where we sit.”

Time will tell if the Blue Jackets will be able to reach those goals this season, but for now, they remain all smiles. They built a tight-knit group a season ago, and most of the components are back together in Columbus to begin the long journey full of ups and downs that comprise the NHL season.

They wouldn’t have it any other way.

"I think it’s just excitement, if I was to think of one word,” Jenner said. “Being back here with the guys, I’m just really getting excited to get going here. It’s been a fun couple of weeks having everyone (come) back into town, skating together and getting ready to go, so that’s what I’m most looking forward to is getting back and competing with that group.

“We're excited to get going. For it to finally be here feels good, and we’re pumped.”

Media Day Notes

• General manager Don Waddell acknowledged that wing Yegor Chinakhov submitted a trade request over the summer. The 2020 first-round pick is coming off a season that started strong but was derailed by injury, and he was a healthy scratch for all but one of the last 13 games. Waddell on the situation: “I said (to Chinakhov) if there’s true value out there and something we feel like makes sense for our hockey club, I certainly will look at it. But I told him six weeks ago, eight weeks ago when we talked, ‘If it doesn’t happen, you gotta come here and prove to the coaches and your teammates that you’re capable of being a good player for this hockey club.’ I've met with him, Dean’s met with him. Obviously he got here early, which is a good sign. He came in great shape. So far, there’s no signs of it. I told him and his agent that right now, consider he’s a Blue Jacket, and let’s make the best of it.”
• Forward Dmitri Voronkov is coming off a 23-goal, 47-point campaign that set personal bests in both statistical categories, but the Blue Jackets pushed him to improve his conditioning this summer after the big Russian wing scored just four goals in the last 29 games. Early indications are he took the task to heart. “He looks fantastic,” Evason said. “He came into the office right away and we had a chat, because you know when he left, we challenged him to be in fantastic shape when he gets back. He is.”
• The Blue Jackets’ training camp roster lists 56 players (30 forwards, 20 defensemen and six goaltenders), though some will be limited at the start of camp, Waddell said. Defenseman prospect Luca Marrelli is out until likely January after surgery, while veteran forward Owen Sillinger (knee surgery last season) is expected to be held out of contact this camp. Forwards Jordan Dumais and Max McCue as well as defenseman Denton Mateychuk are day-to-day.