Unless something changes soon, the Blue Jackets are poised to let their unsigned veteran free agents explore the open market.
If so, they could lose Boone Jenner, Mason Marchment, Erik Gudbranson and Danton Heinen to other teams while creating sizable voids in their own lineup. That’s three versatile forwards in Jenner, Marchment and Heinen, not to mention Jenner as the team’s captain , and Gudbranson is a stout defenseman with a right-handed shot and imposing size.
All are north of 30, which makes NHL GMs anxious about doling out contract extensions longer than three years, but there’s always a risk to parting with the kind of predictable, experienced leaders in veterans that coaches always want in their lineups. It’s a trade-off that Blue Jackets president/general manager Don Waddell is poised to make with his unsigned vets.
If so, here’s how the resulting holes can be patched:
Columbus Blue Jackets counting on Kent Johnson, Dmitri Voronkov
Two years ago, nearly every young Blue Jackets player excelled.
Adam Fantilli scored 31 goals, Kent Johnson looked like a developing Mitch Marner, Dmitri Voronkov topped 20 goals as a power forward, Denton Mateychuk impressed as a rookie on the blue line and Cole Sillinger remained a model of consistency with 33 points.
Odds were slim, however, that each would meet or exceed those contributions in 2025-26, and only Mateychuk did with 13 goals, 18 assists and 31 points in his first full season. Fantilli, Johnson and Voronkov all had dips in production while Sillinger finished with another 33-point effort despite his goals dropping from 11 to eight.
Faced with the potential exits of Jenner and Marchment, who combined to add 60 points, the Jackets need bounce-backs from the bulk of their young core. Specifically, Johnson and Voronkov must rebound after finishing the past season with only seven and 17 goals, respectively.
Recent trade speculation puts the Blue Jackets in the market to add an experienced NHL forward or two, including Jake DeBrusk of the Vancouver Canucks, but they’re aiming for self-improvement, too.
“We’ve got to give these guys a chance,” Waddell said. “You know, you don’t score 24 goals by fluke one year as a 22-year-old player [Johnson], and it’s the same with Voronkov. We’ve got to count on these guys. That’s our future. If they’d never done it before, it’d be one thing. You’d be hoping. They’ve both done it before.”
Columbus Blue Jackets exploring trade options
Asked recently about the trade market, based on his conversations with opposing GMs, Waddell pointed to one position group that’s dominating talks going into the draft.
“I’ve talked to everybody,” he said. “It’s the same thing. Everybody’s looking for forwards.”
That includes the Blue Jackets, and those discussions are dominated by the kind of swaps Waddell isn’t interested in making.
“I can’t afford to trade a forward for [just] draft picks and prospects,” he said. “Then I’m going to have a couple holes. So, we’re talking, and there’s going to be some trades for sure. There’s a lot of talk going on, but nobody’s in urgency mode right now. I think you’ll see some things starting to happen toward the end of [the] week.”
DeBrusk, 29, is one forward to keep in mind for the Blue Jackets, along with Jared McCann, 30.
DeBrusk has five years left on a seven-year contract he signed with the Canucks in 2024 that costs $5.5 million against the NHL’s salary cap, while McCann has one year left on a deal with the Seattle Kraken that carries a $5 million cap charge.
DeBrusk ended last season playing left wing on the Canucks’ third line and McCann skated at left wing on Seattle’s second line, both on teams that missed the playoffs.
On the flip side, Waddell knows he must tread carefully into any trade offers that include shipping Johnson or Voronkov away. Trading either after stepback seasons carries a high risk of not getting enough in return while selling low, which the Blue Jackets can’t afford.
On the back end, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Blue Jackets acquire a veteran defenseman through trade to take Gudbranson’s role on the third pairing.
Columbus Blue Jackets can still re-sign pending UFAs
Executives across the NHL have sized up the pending pool of unrestricted forwards who might be available when free agency opens July 1, and their assessment isn’t pretty.
It’s a thin crop that continues to weaken as teams re-sign pending UFAs under the league’s latest cap ceiling rise, which is why Marchment, 31, and Jenner, 33, appear bound for the open market. Gudbranson and Heinen, meanwhile, could return if suitable replacements aren’t available.
Jenner and Marchment want longer terms on their next contracts than Waddell is willing to offer at this point. That’s likely five years for Jenner and somewhere in the range of 5-7 years for Marchment, but perspectives can shift on both sides leading into free agency.
That happened last year with defensemen Ivan Provorov and Dante Fabbro, who each agreed to multi-year extensions with the Blue Jackets to avoid the UFA market in the last few days before it opened.
Will Jenner, the Blue Jackets’ captain who’s played his entire 13-year NHL career in Columbus, take less term to avoid uprooting everything he’s built here? Will Marchment take a step or two toward the Blue Jackets? Will Waddell bend in the last moments to re-sign Jenner and/or Marchment rather than engage in crazy bidding wars for a rapidly thinning crop of UFAs?
The answers will be known soon.
Dispatch Blue Jackets reporter Brian Hedger can be reached at bhedger@dispatch.com and @BrianHedger.bsky.social
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Blue Jackets leaning on young core with free agency looming
Reporting by Brian Hedger, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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By Brian Hedger, Columbus Dispatch | USA TODAY Network
