The Columbus Blue Jackets ended the 2025-26 season with one of the worst finishes in franchise history. They went 3-9-1 in their last 13 games including 0-5-1 in their last six at home.
The result? The Blue Jackets fell from as high as second in the Metropolitan Division to completely out of the playoffs. All it took was one bad three-week stretch to ruin their season.
As bad as that was, the cruel reality of the situation is that is not the biggest problem facing the Blue Jackets right now. They have a much bigger problem than falling short this past season. That started when they found themselves in last place before the coaching change from Dean Evason to Rick Bowness.
No, the bigger problem facing the Blue Jackets is actually where do they go from here. On the surface, it’s easy to surmise that they believe they can go up and knock on the playoff door. That’s completely fair and a reasonable expectation for next season given how close the team came.
But, we cannot look at the surface for this discussion. It’s a problem that requires going beneath the surface and one that doesn’t have an easy answer to it.
Today in Part 2 of our Blue Jackets’ season-ending column, we are going to discuss the dark reality of life in the NHL’s “mushy middle.” In case you missed Part 1, we discussed how many fans have started to reach a breaking point given how the 2025-26 season ended. If you think they reached a breaking point there, just wait until you see how awful a place NHL purgatory really is.
The Middling Blue Jackets
Let’s put the last two seasons into perspective for you. In 2024-25, the Blue Jackets finished just outside of the playoffs thanks to a late-season run. Their 89 points wasn’t enough to qualify as a wildcard. That was good enough for 4th in the Metropolitan Division and 20th in the NHL standings.
Now look at 2025-26. The Blue Jackets finished three points better with 92. But just like last season, it wasn’t good enough to make the playoffs in the Eastern Conference. They dropped from 4th to 5th in the Metro but did improve from 20th to 17th in the NHL standings.
Put another way. The three teams above the Blue Jackets in 2024-25 in the division who made the playoffs were the Capitals, Hurricanes and Devils. This season, it was the Hurricanes, Penguins and Flyers.
The Blue Jackets, along with the Rangers and Islanders, were jumped by the Penguins and Flyers into a playoff spot.
The lesson? Teams in the “mushy middle” are truly the ones left behind. Getting out of that situation is no easy task. But that’s exactly where the Blue Jackets find themselves as their 2026 offseason begins.
As much good, bad and ugly the 2025-26 season had for the Blue Jackets, the net result has them right in the middle of the league. They are once again clearly multiple steps below the true contenders. But they are also not bad enough to be able to draft the most elite talent.
The Blue Jackets do hold a mid first-round pick. While that is an important asset anyone would love to have, it’s not exactly the thing the team needs right now. They’re not drafting a Gavin McKenna or an elite player with that pick. They could get a good player if they use the pick. However, it could be years before we see them make an NHL impact.
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.
The Blue Jackets don’t have the luxury of a top-five pick. They’re also not a Stanley Cup contender yet. That’s why the need for a real plan becomes the top priority this offseason. Given what the team has to work with, there are three things they could do to finally get over the hump. Whether or not they can do these things remains to be seen.
First, the Blue Jackets need scoring help in their top-six. As we said earlier, with no forwards in the top-50 in scoring in 2025-26, their inability to finish became one of the reasons they fell short of the playoffs.
More specifically, they need to be able to deploy two threatening scoring lines to give opposing teams more to think about. Opponents targeted Fantilli and Kirill Marchenko all season. If they could shut them down, there was a good chance they could shut the Blue Jackets down too.
Fantilli and Marchenko are both shooters, although both have an ability to be a playmaker too. Is the answer keeping them on their own lines and then adding another playmaker to the team? Johnson is a playmaker at the core of his game. But the team elected to play him on the fourth line a lot.
No matter what is decided, scoring has to be addressed either by getting bounce-back years from the likes of Johnson and Sillinger or by going out and acquiring said help and making their first-round pick available as possible trade bait.
Sean Monahan played this season less than 100% and found himself on the fourth line towards the end of the season. Dmitri Voronkov was scratched a lot down the stretch before suffering an injury. If anything, the Blue Jackets need to utilize their skill players for the skill they have.
Second, the Blue Jackets need to address the defense. Will it be Severson playing with Werenski to start out 2026-27 or do they find someone else to play with Werenski and have Severson on the second pair?
Erik Gudbranson may or may not be back. The team alternated their 6th D down the stretch. Given their inability to hold leads and shut down opponents, Waddell needs to figure out something to bring another defensive presence on the team. As currently constructed, there are too many puck movers and not enough shutdown defensemen on the roster. That must change.
Third, the Blue Jackets need to figure out the plan in net. It appears it will be Greaves and Elvis Merzlikins to start 2026-27 based on exit interviews. But we’ll see.
Bowness said that Merzlikins told him he wanted to be a number-one goalie. Bowness told him to come to camp next season and prove it. Merzlikins has one-year left on his current deal.
The thing that Waddell needs to determine is if there is a need to bring in a veteran goalie. Greaves was very good this season and has earned a chance to run with the number-one job. The question will be if the team believes they’ve seen his best or if he has more to his game.
One of the better paths for teams in the middle to explore is solidifying their goaltending. If Connor Hellebuyck is truly unhappy in Winnipeg based on his exit interview comments, don’t the Blue Jackets have to at least explore that possibility this offseason?
In Conclusion
In the end, the Blue Jackets cannot afford to stay in the NHL’s “mushy middle.” The domino effect of residing there becomes dangerous for teams. Not only does it take prime years away from players, it allows teams below them to improve faster based on how things are currently setup.
The storyline to watch as this offseason unfolds for the Blue Jackets is what plan do they come up with to get out of the middle once and for all. All the 2025-26 season proved is that they are the very definition of a mediocre and middling team. No one in the organization should be happy about that in any way, shape or form.
Can the Blue Jackets make the playoffs next season? Yes they can. But that alone is not good enough. One playoff appearance won’t erase 25 years of misery. They have to make moves that will ensure they are an annual visitor to the playoffs with a real chance to lift the Stanley Cup.
The only way that happens is if the Blue Jackets say enough is enough and stop living life in the NHL’s “mushy middle.” It’s their only hope at this point in time.
Free Newsletter
Get Columbus Blue Jackets coverage delivered to your inbox
In-depth analysis, breaking news, and insider takes – free.
