Tidd Talk

            The Columbus Blue Jackets’ 2024-25 Season was one of the more memorable Blue Jackets seasons since the 2018-19 season when they swept the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round. This team played meaningful hockey late in the year for the first time in years. Game 81. That is how long they went with playoff hopes, being the last team eliminated by the Montreal Canadiens, who controlled their fate. The Blue Jackets did what they needed to do down the stretch, winning their last 6 games, one regulation loss to Montreal was all they needed. Unfortunately, Carolina did not want to risk getting guys hurt in garbage time and played a squad of bottom-six guys.

Johnny

            Despite not making the postseason, this season was super successful for the club. With the tragedy of Johnny Gaudreau, this team has every excuse to be a bottom-three team in the league, and nobody would have blamed them. This team coped with the loss of their best friend through hockey. It was a constant theme throughout the season that Johnny would want these guys to play hockey, bringing this group closer together than any group in the league. The team fed off of one another, and they bought into playing for Johnny. Sean Monohan, who signed here in the summer to play with his best friend Johnny, was such a key guy in all of this. He had the closest relationship to Johnny on the team, and being able to see a guy like that compete the way he did night in and night out, up until his injury, fueled this Jackets team even more. It made for quite a story and has set the Jackets up well for the future.

Highs

            Let’s take a look at some of the highs of the season to kick off today’s special feature on Tidd Talk. The Blue Jackets finished with a 40-33-9 record, finishing with 89 points, which would be good for 4^th in the Metro and the first team eliminated from the wildcard. This marks the first time the Blue Jackets finished with 40 wins since that magical 2018-19 season and proves to be a massive step for the team. Something that is overlooked is that this team almost caught the New Jersey Devils, who finished with 91 points. Had the 2-1 defeat on March 17^th ended in a victory, the Blue Jackets would be facing the Hurricanes right now as a top-three team in the division.

            This team was the best even-strength scoring team in the NHL, at 201 goals for, outscoring the Washington Capitals by 11 goals. This season was also the highest scoring season for the club, as they managed to score 267 goals, which was good for 8^th in the entire league. Continuing on the topic of goals, this team had two 30-goal scorers in Kirill Marchenko and Adam Fantilli for the first time since 2015-16, where Brandon Saad and Boone Jenner tallied 31 and 30, respectively. They also had 3 guys eclipse 20, as well as the 2 above 30. Kent Johnson, Dmitri Voronkov, and Zach Werenski managed to tally 24, 23, and 23, respectively, where Werenski set the record for goals by defensemen for the Blue Jackets.

            The team saw so much individual growth as well. The young guys took a massive step forward and truly showed that they are the future of this club, and guys like Werenski and Mathieu Olivier had seasons that put the league on notice, both in their ways. Werenski finished the season with 23 goals and 59 assists for 82 points, which was good for first place amongst all three categories for defensemen in franchise history. Werenski quickly inserted himself into the Norris trophy mix as well, finishing just second in points for defensemen behind Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche. Werenski was a big part of the success of this team as he made everyone he played with better. Olivier quickly became one of the best-skilled tough guys in the league. In my opinion, the toughest guy in the league, there were nights this season where you could just tell he was going to fight. When you know you know, and there were a lot of times you just knew. As well as this, Olivier was good for 18 goals and 14 assists for 32 points, which, for a certified tough guy, is all you need.

            Our last high has to be the performance of the younger guys. I have already touched on this a tad prior, but I feel it is important to touch on the play of Jet Greaves down the stretch of the season. Jet won 5 straight for the jackets in their final 6-game win streak to end the season, and was a big part of this team being in the mix late. He let in only 4 goals in this span and posted 2 shutouts. I am never one to jump the gun on goalies, as I am a believer that we need to see 100 games before determining how good a goalie is, but this kid is showing some great potential to be the future for the Jackets. The forward core and possibly the goaltending are there, and it was exciting to finally see some growth in this team.

Lows

            As with every season, no matter how high, there are going to be some lows. To start off, I want to comment on the defense and the goaltending. As previously stated, this team scored a lot of goals. The only problem? They let in just as many goals. They had an even 0 goal differential, and a big part has to do with the defense and the inconsistency of goaltender Elvis Merzlikins, who had 26 wins with a 3.18 goals against average and a .892 save percentage in 53 games. There were games this season where the difference maker was Elvis, both positively and negatively. Obviously, a positive was his play in the outdoor game, but he also tried his best at times to lose games for us, like in the 7-3 loss to Colorado on April 3^rd. Now, with this being said, this is not entirely on Elvis. The defense was lackluster past our top pair, as other than Provorov, we really struggled to solidify a bottom-four defensemen group which costed us deeply throughout the entire year.

            Consistency is the biggest low this team has had this year when it comes to their play on the ice. There were games where the forwards were playing well but were getting no help from their defense, and then games where the goalie would play well but receive no help from his skaters. This is to be expected from such a young team, but there is no question that there are holes for this team to fill, both on the back end and in the net. The forward group will continue to grow, but they need to figure something out with the defense, as they are young and inexperienced, or just a burden like Jack Johnson, Damon Severson, or Erik Gudbransson.

Where to Now?

            Don Waddell is in no way going to squander what he has here. This offseason will be one of the most important ones for the Blue Jackets, as it will allow for Waddell to solidify his core moving forward. I believe defense and goaltending will be the main focus around this offseason, and I believe we will see a blockbuster trade for one or the other. The free agency market is not the strongest, but I do believe Don will want to make a splash for a star to alert the NHL that the Jackets are here to stay and are only going to get better from here. Some names I wonder about in free agency are Brock Boeser, Mitch Marner, and Nikolaj Ehlers. The Jackets have a lot of cap space to spare this summer, and I do not think it hurts to make a pitch to any of these guys. The most likely one for the Jackets to land, however, is Boeser, as he has been rumored to come to Columbus for quite some time now. I think Fantilli centering Marchenko and one of the three guys above could be the Jackets’ top line for years to come and could be the line that leads them to a deep playoff run, along with the depth of their other young guys and vets.

            In terms of trades, I do not have anyone in mind as of right now for the Jackets to target. It is quite early in the offseason, and I believe it would be wise to wait for after the playoffs to do more of an offseason deep dive of the team, but they do have assets to give. They have two first-round picks in this year’s draft and some younger pieces who could still fetch value in a Yegor Chinkhov or a Cole Sillinger. While I do not think the Jackets will trade both of their picks, I think if an offer is there that Don deems to be a major step forward, like a trade for a superstar, then he will do it. Defense and goaltending are the key here, and I do think Don will make a splash in this sense for sure. Another thing to consider is the rise of the cap in the coming years. It is likely Waddell will want to get some deals done now to look a lot better on the cap later when it rises by 25 million in the next 3 years. Anyways, I will do a deeper dive in the Jackets’ offseason post-playoffs, but this is where I stand now as a full deep-dive would be too long to include here.

Final Thoughts

            This season was quite the ride. I believe I was one of the few fans who did not stop believing till the end, and the belief almost got us there. Game 81! My favorite part of the year was how much fun these guys were able to have in the wake of such a difficult tragedy. This team has grown so much closer, and for people to say this is a one-off is just wrong. Tragedies bring people together, and this Columbus Blue Jackets team is just another example of it. If they were a tad more consistent and had a .900 goalie all season, this team would be in the playoffs, and they probably would not be doing too badly. I look forward to seeing where this team goes moving forward, as I think they will be one of the hottest and most fun teams next season and could make a deep playoff run, depending on the pieces acquired in the offseason. The core is there for the first time in a long time, and this time it feels different.