This is the cost of just missing out on the playoffs. Teasing the fans with “almost made it” might give them some hope in season. But once the bill is due, the harsh reality sets in that not only is there no playoffs, but the teams below them in the standings get higher priority access to top prospects.
The Blue Jackets live dead, square in the middle. If they hope to achieve their goal of becoming an annual playoff visitor and a Stanley Cup contender, they must use the 2026-27 offseason to formulate a real plan to get out of the “mushy middle.”
Good, Bad & Ugly of 2025-26
This past season was a true roller-coaster ride for the Blue Jackets. They were in last place in the East at midseason. They were also second in the Metro in March. Then reality came crashing down on them.
To have that kind of roller-coaster ride means there was a lot of good, bad and ugly the Blue Jackets had to juggle.
Starting with some of the good, Zach Werenski was the team’s leading scorer as a defenseman. He finished second in the Norris voting last season. He has a real chance to win it this season. His team got to 92 points with him as the leading scorer and no forwards in the top-50 in scoring. That encapsulates the good, bad and ugly all in one situation.
Damon Severson had a great season before it ended prematurely due to injury. He and Werenski found chemistry together. After a tough first couple seasons with the Blue Jackets, Severson found his groove and was one of their most important players all season. Assuming all goes well with his recovery, he should be ready for camp in the fall.
Adam Fantilli set new career highs in assists, points, shots on goal and time on ice in 2025-26. He was leaned on as the team’s number-one center playing against tough competition nightly.
Jet Greaves was one of the best goalies in the NHL in goals saved above expected. His calm presence gave his team a chance to win games they didn’t deserve to win on some nights.
Bowness came in and instituted his more structured style. It resulted in a massive drop in goals against per game. At one point in the season, it was almost a full goal per game difference. It allowed the team to be in most every game even when they had trouble scoring goals themselves.
The 2025-26 season had more than its fair share of good for the Blue Jackets. Now we look at the bad and ugly. That’s where some serious questions need to be asked.
We have to start with the third periods. Look at these staggering goal differentials for the season. The Blue Jackets were +20 in the first period. They were +11 in the second period. But that third period. Holy. They were a -31 in the third to erase everything they did in the first and second. The cherry on top was the -5 they were in overtime. They finished -5 on the season overall as a result.
How can a team with playoff aspirations have such a wild variance between the first 40 minutes and the last 20 minutes? It’s simple really. They let teams trailing dictate the pace and didn’t have an answer to stop them consistently enough.
The Blue Jackets held multiple three-goal leads only to eventually lose the game. It’s bad to blow leads. It’s ugly to blow multiple-goal leads multiple times. It was enough to wreck any good they did this season.
Another area of bad and ugly? The Blue Jackets’ special teams. They couldn’t kill penalties early. The PK clicked at just 50% to start the season. By the end, they finished 28th in the NHL at just 76%. They were the second-worst team at home on the PK killing just 70.9% of opposition power plays. That’s 30 goals allowed in 103 chances against. Ugly.
Let’s flip to the power play. The Blue Jackets finished below 19% on the season. That’s bad. Even worse. They scored just 16 power-play goals at home in 100 chances. Their 16% home conversion rate was 29th in the NHL. They also drew the fewest power-play chances at home of anyone. That’s ugly.
At exit interviews, Bowness immediately pointed to special teams as an area of focus this offseason.
“Your specialty teams have to get a lot better,” Bowness said. “They can’t be where they are. We have to improve those and we can. We’ll spend a lot of time in training camp on those.”
Couple those struggles with the down seasons for core players Cole Sillinger and Kent Johnson and you have a team stuck in the middle. Can the Blue Jackets get out of the middle? Yes. But only if they have a targeted plan of attack to make that happen.
Need for Real Plan to Escape Middle
This is where GM Don Waddell will be put to the ultimate test. Not only does he have to make key decisions on his free agents, he has to evaluate all aspects of the team from top to bottom to see what’s working and what’s not.
At the center of this evaluation is a clear plan of attack for how to get out of the “mushy middle.” Over the last two seasons, the Blue Jackets showed they were good enough to compete for a playoff spot. But they haven’t been good enough to clinch a playoff spot.
With the salary cap going up for everyone, that will allow teams an easier time to keep their own players. Free agency just isn’t what it used to be. It’s much harder than ever to find a true, impact player that way.
Then you look at the state of the prospect pool. Thanks to recent graduates as well as draft performance, the Blue Jackets’ pool has taken a hit in recent seasons. With Cayden Lindstrom and Jackson Smith appearing each to return to college next season, the team doesn’t have that major impact prospect about to break through to the NHL similar to the way James Hagens and Porter Martone have debuted for their teams.
Luca Del Bel Belluz has been in the NHL and is very close to a full-time NHL role. The Cleveland Monsters will open a five-game series Friday against the Syracuse Crunch in the AHL Playoffs. Rookies Luca Pinelli and Jack Williams have had solid seasons. Corson Ceulemans took another step while Guillaume Richard was very solid with a +20 rating in his AHL rookie season on the blue line. That series will show where in their development these prospects are at.
The question will be how much in reinforcements can the Blue Jackets eventually count on in the coming years? While Del Bel Belluz will get his chance in training camp to show he’s ready, it appears most everyone else needs more time.
That puts the onus on Waddell to find and execute a real plan to make sure 2026-27 and beyond position the Blue Jackets to make the playoffs. He was interested in trading his first-round picks in the 2025 NHL Draft. Nothing came to pass. It’ll be interesting to see if that happens again or if he can find a trade for now help. It might take some creativity to pull something like this off.