The Columbus Blue Jackets begin season 26 after what some could call the most tumultuous off-season in the team's history.
The team's captain left via free agency and a second star was mired in an on-again, off-again trade saga.
Other organization changes included the removal of two fan-favorites.
Aaron Portzline covers the Blue Jackets for The Athletic and just published an article examining the discontent among the fanbase. He spoke with WOSU's Morning Edition Host Stu Osborne about the changes.
Stu Osborne: Let's start with the happenings on the ice. Longtime captain Boone Jenner left Columbus. He's now teaming up with Alex Ovechkin in Washington and current player Zach Werenski almost became former player Zach Werenski. Give us a rundown of the off-season moves.
Aaron Portzline: Yeah, it's been crazy. I don't think that Boone Jenner leaving was a huge surprise. He wanted term. It's probably the last full-length contract he's going to sign in his career, and he wasn't going to get that in Columbus where he'd been relegated to sort of a fourth-line role. They also wanted to change the dressing room up, and he's been the captain for almost 10 years now, one of the longest-serving captains in the franchise's history. Hard to change the culture if you don't really change the makeup of the room, so not putting all of it on on Boone Jenner, but it's time to turn the room over to some younger players.
The Werenski stuff, that saga I'm not even sure that it's fully behind us yet. He was in fact traded to the Dallas Stars appending his approval in he has a no-move clause in his contract, where he's able to shoot down trades if he doesn't want them to happen, and he did shoot that one down. So, I think he wants to be a Blue Jacket in the short term. He also wants to win. And so I think the message that's been delivered to ownership is in two years when his contract is up, if there's not clear progress here towards being a playoff team, and maybe even more than that, uh, that he may choose to not resign and may wish at that point to go somewhere else, but for now things with Werenski have settled down a bit.
Stu Osborne: Now, off the ice, the team also made some moves. They decided to merge their TV and radio broadcasts, so they said goodbye to longtime [radio announcer] Bob McElligott, and they also got rid of longtime Blue Jackets insider Jeff Svoboda. Fans are pretty upset about those moves as well.
Aaron Portzline: Yeah, they are. This is a different thing. This isn't even frustration with the on-ice product, which there's plenty of justification for that through the years and in the current time. This is the different kind of anger I feel like I feel right in saying that this franchise has largely gotten the pass from many, many fans here who have forgiven their struggles on the ice, because they see what a well-intended organization it is, how charitable they've been, how first-class they've handled themselves.
Listen, these fans have wept with these players and coaches and front office people through some awful tragedies, and they feel a real kinship with this organization where even if they don't win as much as people had wanted them to, they always felt as if the organization's heart was in the right place. These moves, I think, have forced several of their fans, or that portion of the fan base, to for the first time question that. To cut ties with the longtime broadcaster and forget that they're cheapening the radio product. It's not going to be as good. TV broadcasting is not the same as radio. To do it in late July, early August when most of the teams are ready to go with what's happening. The positions across the league are filled.
To cut ties with Svoboda, who's really an ambassador for the team this late in the summer is really seen as as cheap, callous...I think there's a lot of people here who are as disappointed with the franchise as they've ever been. And it's not just a win-loss proposition for them.
Stu Osborne: Now, back on the ice, let's look into the crystal ball. What do you think the Blue Jackets need to do to stop this streak and then get back into the playoffs?
Aaron Portzline: Honestly, I think the on-ice perspective is probably their better argument right now. They've got a young team, a very young team that has literally gotten better in each of the last four years and has flirted with the playoffs the last two (seasons, so it's) very reasonable for them to be a playoff team this year. They need a couple of things to fall into place for them for sure and it's a very competitive division. And the conference that they're in, but they added Valeri Nichushkin from the Colorado Avalanche. He's probably their best forward. He can breathe some life into Kirill Marchenko's game, and I think maybe help him become a 40-goal scorer.
But they need some big seasons from some young players that they've really entrusted a lot in. Kent Johnson, Cole Sillinger, Dmitri Voronkov. These are all players with them with a lot of promise in their game. They can't be prospects forever. It's time for those guys to deliver. I think that's a very, very competitive team. They added Ryan Lombard to who is going to be a real high-energy player for them. It's gonna be a fun team to watch and I think people now, fans especially, are excited to get to the regular season because frankly the off-season hasn't been much to celebrate.
