The Columbus Blue Jackets (40-30-12) looked dead in the water at the beginning of the season. They were 17-16-6 entering January. As a result, they fired head coach Dean Evason, replacing him with long-tenured head coach Rick Bowness.
That resulted in an insane interim bump. The Blue Jackets surged to a 35-25-12 record by the start of April, with a seven-game winning streak sandwiched in between. Unfortunately, they slumped in April, with a 2-5-0 record that ended their playoff chances.
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Head coach Rick Bowness sounded off on the effort of the team after the season. Still, with the stretch of momentum he gave the Blue Jackets, the brass decided to retain him for the 2026-27 season. Columbus has a very busy offseason ahead, hoping to keep the momentum going and secure a playoff spot next season.
The Blue Jackets’ surge to relevance was, in a way, more damaging than good. They had several pending free agents, like Charlie Coyle, Boone Jenner, and Erik Gudbranson that they could’ve sold off at the deadline.
Instead, they bought at the deadline, acquiring Conor Garland, Mason Marchment, and Danton Heinen to aid their playoff push. Garland signed an extension with the Vancouver Canucks before his trade to Columbus, but Marchment and Heinen are free agents this season, along with Coyle, Jenner, and Gudbranson.
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The Blue Jackets have a lot of cap space to work with next season, potentially enough to re-sign the majority of these players. However, they’ve had struggles attracting players to either sign or re-sign in Columbus for a while.
Coyle had a nice season in Columbus, with 58 points in 82 games. Captain Boone Jenner looked slower after his major injury last season, but he still produced 38 points through 67 games while also providing leadership. Marchment averaged nearly a point per game since his mid-season trade from the Seattle Kraken, with 32 points in 39 games in a Blue Jackets uniform.
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The top priority might be to resign Marchment, considering the Blue Jackets’ wing depth and what Marchment does defensively as well (plus-21 plus/minus in Columbus). However, Columbus should aim to retain them all, because replacing them could be harder.
The Blue Jackets also have three major RFA decisions to deal with, two in the forward core. One of them comes from Adam Fantilli.
The 21-year-old center was drafted No. 3 overall in the 2023 NHL draft, but he hasn’t quite performed like some of his draft-class mates (Connor Bedard, Leo Carlsson).
However, he’s still a quality player in the offensive zone, despite being shaky in his own zone. He had 24 goals and 59 points through 82 games, but a rough minus-13 plus/minus. He’s been steadily improving his offensive confidence, but the time has come to decide a value on Fantilli.
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Baseline talks might start with a seven-year, $49 million deal, similar to what Dylan Cozens earned in the 2023 offseason, but Fantilli could earn more than that. AFP Analytics suggests he could make around $9-10 million per year on his new deal.
Secondly, there’s Cole Sillinger. The 2020 first-round pick has seemingly plateaued to a 30-35 point player. He’s scored over 30 points in four of his five seasons in the NHL, including 33 this season. However, he’s never cracked the 40-point mark.
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Sillinger is a decent scoring option on the bottom six, so there’d be value in him staying. However, he’s due for a significant improvement in his payday, with AFP Analytics surmising it could be up to $6.3 million if he were to sign a long-term deal in Columbus. That’s due to him being arbitration-eligible as well.
For this reason, I think Columbus should consider dangling him for a bigger piece in the offseason. Columbus has a rich amount of prospects to trade, and another elite winger alongside Kirill Marchenko would go a long way to breaking them out of this mid-tier.