Werenski's consistent greatness led to Norris conversation

It started right from the beginning, with goals in each of the first two games. It ended with a bang, with points in six straight.

And in between, Zach Werenski’s performance rarely if ever dipped. He did everything for the Blue Jackets, serving as a driving force from the back end as the team pushed for the playoffs; a standout whose numbers took not an eraser but a blowtorch to the team record book; and a leader who impressively stepped up and served as the team’s acting captain for much of the season.

Now, Werenski can add one more line to his résumé for the 2024-25 season – Norris Trophy finalist.

The 27-year-old is the first Blue Jacket ever to be named a finalist for the award given to the NHL’s top defenseman, joining Colorado’s Cale Makar and Vancouver’s Quinn Hughes, and it’s nothing short of a well-deserved honor.

Werenski led NHL players with 26:45 minutes per game, led all defensemen with 298 shots on goal and finished second among league blueliners with 23 goals and 82 points. He became just the ninth NHL defenseman since 1997 to reach 80 points, tied Artemi Panarin’s all-time CBJ record with 59 assists and also equaled Panarin for second all-time in scoring in team history.

But mere numbers, as impressive as they are, don’t capture everything Werenski brought to the game. The ninth-year veteran often willed the Blue Jackets to victories, putting the team on his shoulders and taking over games in a way that only the best of the best can do at the NHL level.

“He’s got an aura around him when he steps on the ice,” fellow defenseman Erik Gudbranson said. “Certain guys in the league have that where you’re like, when that guy is on the ice, you can tell he’s controlling the other nine guys. Everything is kind of running through him, and he had that this year.

“That’s maturity. That’s confidence. That’s work ethic. That’s poise. It’s been a pleasure to watch and be a part of for sure.”

And for a player whose biggest concern was the team, Werenski's performance took the Blue Jackets all the way to the cusp of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Though Columbus finished just short of a return to the postseason, Werenski was perhaps the biggest reason they were in the race until the season’s final days, both with his play and his ability to help the Blue Jackets navigate through tremendously difficult times.

Werenski didn’t wear the “C” on his chest, but with captain Boone Jenner and fellow veterans Gudbranson and Sean Monahan out for much of the season with injuries, it felt for a good portion of the season like he did.

“As we know, Zach was a very crucial part of our start of the season, how he took the team on his shoulders and ran with it,” general manager Don Waddell said. “I had previous experience with him with the U.S. teams and the junior teams where I’ve seen him before. When you’re not with the team and watch him when we play him or on TV, you see some good things, but when you witness it this year, I believe this is his best pro season.

“He was determined at the start of the year – you could see it in game one. He was going to be the guy that was going to make this team roll, and certainly he didn’t let us down.”

Catching Eyes

As the point totals climbed and the Blue Jackets defied all projections to stay in the postseason race, pundits around the NHL world couldn’t help but take notice of both the team and Werenski’s performance.

Leading the charge in some ways was Elliotte Friedman, the SportsNet insider and co-host of perhaps hockey’s most influential podcast, “32 Thoughts.” Friedman is equally known for his reporting chops and his takes on the sport, and he made headlines in mid-March when he said on 32 Thoughts that he’d consider voting for Werenski for not just the Norris Trophy but the Hart, which is given to the league MVP, if he could help push the Blue Jackets into the playoffs.

Speaking with BlueJackets.com when the Blue Jackets visited Toronto in April, Friedman echoed those thoughts.

“This year, everyone has been reminded he’s a cornerstone of this organization and he’s one of the best players in the league,” Friedman said. “He deserves to be discussed in the Norris Trophy race with Quinn Hughes and Cale Makar, and as far as I’m concerned, he deserves to be mentioned in the Hart Trophy race with the (Leon) Draisaitls, the (Connor) Hellebuycks, the (Nathan) MacKinnons, the (Nikita) Kucherovs. He deserves to be in that conversation.”

While Werenski shined consistently for the Blue Jackets throughout the 82-game season, it helped that he also brought his best in the NHL’s spotlight events as well. Werenski was the tournament’s leading scorer while playing for Team USA at the 4 Nations Face-Off that featured the best players in the league in their country’s colors, and he had a pair of assists and skated nearly 30 minutes in the Jackets’ win over Detroit in the NHL Stadium Series game at Ohio Stadium.

Shining on the brightest of stages with the most eyeballs on them – the 4 Nations was the biggest story in sports in February, while the Stadium Series was the second largest crowd in league history plus ESPN’s largest audience for a regular-season game since getting NHL TV rights in 2021 – has a way of making people take notice.

“They say you make your money during the regular season, you make your name during the playoffs,” ESPN’s Mark Messier said while in Columbus to call the Stadium Series game. “We saw Zach Werenski in the 4 Nations tournament. He stood out, and it’s not easy to stand out with that much talent on the ice. What a hockey player, what a story he’s become. What a leader he’s become.

“His game is just so beautiful to watch. He’s an effortless skater. He reminds me a lot of a mix of Nick Lidstrom and (Scott) Neidermayer, for comparisons. What a great hockey player he is.”

It's also not like Werenski's play took the hockey world by surprise. A standout with Team USA in the junior ranks, he was the eighth overall selection in the 2015 draft, then built a reputation as one of the top offensive defensemen in the league. He’s a two-time All-Star and led all NHL defensemen in goals in 2019-20, so Werenski has always received notice around the league.

But given his performance this season, the way Columbus garnered headlines around the sport and his efforts on the biggest stages, the season was a perfect storm to elevate him from the conversation of NHL All-Star to elite player.

“I think we’ve been reminded, right?” Friedman said. “I don’t think that it was simply that people forgot that Zach Werenski was a great player, it’s just that he didn’t have a stage recently where he could show that as much. I think now this year, the way that he’s played both in the 4 Nations and for the Blue Jackets in the race, people have been like, ‘Ahh, I’m reminded of how good he is.’”

A Quiet Star

As you may have noticed, we’ve gotten this far into a story about Werenski without hearing from, well, Werenski. Questions about his performance were natural given how good and how consistent it was throughout the season, but rarely did Werenski embrace talking about it, focusing his efforts squarely on his quest to help the Blue Jackets return to the postseason.

The 2020 season was the last time Werenski experienced the battle for the Stanley Cup, and his stated goal for the campaign was to get back into the competition for sport’s greatest trophy. If his performance could help the Blue Jackets do that, that was all that mattered.

“It’s one of those things where we’re in a great spot as a team right now, and I feel like a lot of the success and the numbers are coming from other guys’ success as well,” Werenski said late in the season. “I feel like it all goes hand in hand. I think I always felt like I had it in me – maybe not 80 points or 20-something goals, but I think I could be an impact player every night.

“It’s definitely cool to have the points and goals or whatever, but at the end of the day, it’s all about making the playoffs. I’m just trying to do my part.”

And that he did. Whether it was in the room, on the ice or in the community, Werenski brought his best every night.

Asked at the end of the season what that said about Werenski, head coach Dean Evason had a quick answer.

“Pretty much everything, right?” Evason said. “I actually talked to (assistant coach Scott Ford) on the bench. (Zach) is up in the play, in front of the net and you’re looking that way, and then you look back into our zone and he’s standing in front of our net. He’s one of the guys that we talk about is committed to playing both ends of the rink.

“It’s wonderful he scores points. No question we need points, we need goals, we need offense to win hockey games. But you have to keep it out of your net, too, and he’s committed to that. He’s been a big part of our team, obviously. He’s been a leader and will be for a long time.”