Blue Jackets Season Preview

The Blue Jackets will return largely the same group that missed the playoffs by a hair last season, but hope that it yields a better result heading into the 2022-23 EHE regular season. In the team's introductory press conference to kick off training camp, GM Payeur said that he hopes improvement from within will lead the team to a better record and expects breakout seasons from the likes of Robert Thomas, Valeri Nichushkin and Timo Meier. He also mentioned that it will help to have last year's mid season additions for a full season, namely team captain Colton Parayko, Teuvo Teravainen as well as two-time All-Star Ryan Johansen, who is fresh off of a new 4 year contract to remain with the Jackets.

Payeur did not sit completely idle over the offseason and did make a couple of impact moves. He traded the franchise leader in Wins, Matt Murray to bring back former Blue Jacket Robin Lehner. Murray's career in Columbus was solid if unimpressive and saw him seemingly wilt often in high pressure situations, stumbling down the stretch in the regular season and posting a 0.883 save percentage in his only playoff run. Payeur felt that Lehner would be able to get them over the hump and be able to handle a larger work load during the regular season after Murray was able to start just 51 games in each of the past two seasons. 

Payeur's other major move was signing Unrestricted Free Agent Ryan Suter. The veteran defenceman signed a 3 year contract worth $5,625,000 per season last week at age 37. Many around the league questioned the move of signing a player until the age of 40 and risk writing a large cheque to the EHE league office if he retires early on a 35+ contract. Speaking to reporters as he entered the building Thursday, Suter said that he feels fresh and healthy and feels that he will be able to play out the entirety of the contract,adding "I wouldn't have signed here if I didn't think they had a shot of winning the Cup". Suter adds another stalwart defensive defenceman who can log major minutes, in similar molds to Jake Muzzin and Parayko. 

The last major change to the team happened behind the bench, as Bruce Cassidy moved on in a mutual parting of ways between himself and the team while Jay Woodcroft steps in as Head Coach. Woodcroft adds a more player friendly approach to the team after three seasons of the often surly Cassidy. Woodcroft should shift the team towards a more offense friendly style of play than in years past. Whether that style leads to more wins remains to be seen.

Projected opening night lineup:

Timo Meier - Mikael Granlund - Teuvo Teravainen

Jeff Skinner - Robert Thomas - Valeri Nichushkin

Jason Dickinson - Ryan Johansen - Craig Smith

Drake Caggiula - Barrett Hayton - Ondrej Kase

Ryan Suter - Jake Muzzin

Colton Parayko - Kevin Shattenkirk

Henri Jokiharju - Olli Maatta

Robin Lehner

Chris Dreidger