Key Areas the Columbus Blue Jackets Must Address This Summer

For a team that spent most of the year carrying a weight no roster should ever have to carry, the Columbus Blue Jackets didn't just survive their 2024-25 season — they showed up. They played with edge. They played with purpose. And for long stretches, they looked like a team that genuinely belonged in the Eastern Conference playoff conversation.

But belonging in the conversation and actually breaking through are two very different things. The Blue Jackets fell short of the postseason, and now general manager Don Waddell faces the kind of summer that defines franchises. The young core is real. The identity is forming. The fan base is reengaged. What Columbus does over the next few months will determine whether this team takes the leap in 2025-26 or settles back into the murky middle of the Metro.

Here are the key areas the Blue Jackets must address this offseason.

Find a Legitimate Top-Six Winger for Adam Fantilli

Adam Fantilli took a real step this year, and at times he looked like the No. 1 center this organization has been chasing since the Rick Nash era. He's fast, physical, and increasingly comfortable bullying defenders in the dirty areas. The problem? He often looked like he was doing it alone.

The Blue Jackets need to give Fantilli a winger who can actually finish the chances he creates — not just keep up with him. Columbus has middle-six pieces in spades. What they don't have is a true complementary scoring threat to ride shotgun on the second line behind Sean Monahan's group with Kirill Marchenko and Dmitri Voronkov.

The free agent market this summer isn't loaded with elite wingers, but names like Brock Boeser (if Vancouver lets him walk), Mikael Granlund, or even a swing at a trade for a disgruntled scorer make sense. Waddell has the cap space. He has the prospect capital. The question is whether he's willing to spend it on a player who pushes the timeline forward right now.

Solidify the Goaltending Picture — For Real This Time

Elvis Merzlikins has been the subject of trade rumors for what feels like five consecutive summers. Daniil Tarasov flashed potential but never seized the job. And Jet Greaves, after a stretch of brilliant play down the stretch, deserves a long, honest look at being part of the future.

The Blue Jackets cannot enter another season hoping the goaltending sorts itself out. It hasn't. Not for years. Columbus has been near the bottom of the league in team save percentage in three of the last four seasons, and no amount of forward depth fixes that.

Waddell has a few paths here. He can commit to a Greaves-Merzlikins tandem and hope the kid keeps trending up. He can move Merzlikins for a depth piece and bring in a veteran 1B. Or he can swing big and target someone like Linus Ullmark on the trade market if Ottawa pivots its goaltending plans. Whatever the decision, indecision is no longer an option. This roster is too talented to be sabotaged by inconsistent netminding again.

Address the Right Side of the Defense

Zach Werenski had a Norris-caliber season. Full stop. He logged minutes that would break most defensemen, drove play at an elite rate, and quietly emerged as one of the best blueliners in hockey. The problem is that he was a one-man show for far too many nights.

The right side of the Blue Jackets' defense remains a question mark. Damon Severson hasn't lived up to his contract, and the depth behind him gets thin fast. Columbus needs a legitimate top-four right-shot defenseman to take pressure off Werenski and give head coach Dean Evason a more balanced top four.

Denton Mateychuk is coming. David Jiricek's future remains a fascinating subplot. But neither solves the problem in 2025-26. This is the area where Waddell may need to get creative on the trade market — possibly using one of those young defensemen as the centerpiece of a deal for an established top-four piece.

Decide What to Do With the Cap Space

Here's the wild card: Columbus has money. Real money. The Blue Jackets are projected to enter the offseason with one of the largest cap space figures in the league, and in a year where the cap is finally rising meaningfully, that's a significant competitive advantage.

But cap space is only as valuable as how you spend it. The Blue Jackets have historically struggled to attract premium free agents, and overpaying mid-tier players just to hit the cap floor would be a disastrous misuse of resources. The smart play is leveraging that flexibility to absorb a bad contract attached to a real player — the kind of move contenders have to make to dump salary.

If a team like Vegas, Toronto, or Tampa needs to shed money to re-sign a star? Columbus should be on the phone. That's how you turn cap space into actual hockey players who move the needle.

Lock Up the Young Core

Kirill Marchenko is a restricted free agent. So is Dmitri Voronkov. Kent Johnson's bridge deal will need addressing soon enough. The Blue Jackets are entering the part of the cycle where their cost-controlled stars start getting paid — and how Waddell structures those deals will shape the team's flexibility for years.

Marchenko, in particular, is the priority. He's emerged as a legitimate top-line scoring threat with sneaky-good defensive instincts, and locking him into a long-term deal before he hits another gear could be one of the most important contracts of Waddell's tenure. The Blue Jackets cannot afford to do what so many small-market teams do and let their best young players walk into walk years with leverage.

Honor the Season Without Being Defined By It

This last one isn't a roster move. It's a tone.

The loss of Johnny Gaudreau shadowed this entire season, and the way the Blue Jackets responded — playing inspired hockey, leaning on each other, refusing to let the year become a write-off — was one of the most remarkable stories in sports. But the franchise now faces a delicate balance heading into next year. Honor what happened. Carry it forward. But don't let it become the ceiling.

The best way to celebrate the brotherhood this team built in the wake of unimaginable loss is to keep pushing. To keep getting better. To turn this scrappy, overachieving group into a legitimate threat in the Metropolitan Division.

The Bottom Line

Columbus has more talent, more cap space, and more momentum than at any point in recent memory. The pieces are there. The window is opening. But windows don't stay open on their own — they require aggressive, decisive, occasionally bold front-office work.

Don Waddell didn't come to Columbus to manage a feel-good story. He came to build a winner. This summer is his first real chance to prove it. And if he gets it right, the Blue Jackets won't just be playing meaningful hockey in March next year — they'll be playing it in April, May, and beyond.