COLUMBUS, Ohio — A collection of notes, insights, ruminations and did-you-knows gathered throughout the week for the Columbus Blue Jackets:
Item No. 1: New forwards
Charlie Coyle’s last season with the Minnesota Wild was Dean Evason’s first season as a Wild assistant coach. Coyle was sent to Boston at the NHL trade deadline that season (2018-19), while Evason was elevated two seasons later to head coach in Minnesota.
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But Coyle made a mark on Evason.
The Blue Jackets were hoping to upgrade their forwards this offseason, and GM Don Waddell took a big step in that direction with a trade on Friday that brought Coyle and Miles Wood from the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for prospect winger Gavin Brindley and two draft picks.
Coyle is a right-handed center who will likely anchor the Blue Jackets’ third line, making Cole Sillinger a likely candidate to move to the wing. Wood will be a fourth-line regular, tasked with forechecking, finishing checks and playing hard every game.
“We got better,” Evason said. “Oh, we got better.”
Coyle figures to play a prominent role, both on and off the ice. Evason remembered that much from their time together with the Wild.
“We all know him as a player. We all know what he became in Boston and what he’s settled into as a pretty fantastic career,” Evason said. “What stands out to me is what an incredible human being he is. Just a quality, quality guy who will fit fantastically into our room.
“You combine that with his size (6-foot-3, 215 pounds), the strength, the fact that he’s a right shot, his faceoff ability, the penalty killer he is, his ability as a two-way versatile player … yeah, I’m pretty happy.”
Coyle, 33, has been one of the NHL’s most consistent players during his career. This upcoming season in Columbus, he’s likely to play his 1,000 game (he’s at 950), score his 200th goal (189), get his 300th assist (296) and his 500th point (485).
If you’ve followed the Blue Jackets since their origin in 2000, you know what a struggle the center ice position has been. But it’s never been stronger than today, with Sean Monahan and 20-year-old Adam Fantilli entrenched in the middle of the top two lines.
Both Sillinger and Coyle are strong third-line centers, but, as Evason noted, Boone Jenner, Dmitri Voronkov, Justin Danforth and others can play in the middle, too.
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“Everybody thinks you have to build from the goalie out, and I get that,” Evason said. “But I would say the center ice position is the hardest to fill, and we’ve had that since I’ve been here. We’ve moved centers to the wall while other teams are trying to find enough centers.
“It’s exciting that we have that versatility. If you’re asking right now where I have Coyle on the magnet board (in the coaches office), it’s in the middle.”
The Blue Jackets were 27th in face-offs last season (47.8 percent), but the long injury absences of Jenner and Monahan led to that struggle. With Coyle joining those two, and with an improving Fantilli, the Blue Jackets should start with the puck more next season.
Coyle should also help them on the penalty kill, which was hot and cold all season, finishing 22nd in the NHL (77 percent).
The Blue Jackets may not be done reshaping their forwards, either.
Waddell has said he wants to acquire a top-six winger, either by trade or free agency. If Toronto’s Mitch Marner smiles in Columbus’ general direction — and isn’t already halfway to Vegas — the Blue Jackets would make a major offer. Winnipeg’s Nikolaj Ehlers is expected to hit the market, too.
First, Waddell has to decide what to do with his own unrestricted free-agent forwards, and you can correctly assume that the acquisition of Coyle and Wood will mean some of those UFAs are moving along.
Danforth, James van Riemsdyk, Sean Kuraly, Luke Kunin, Chistian Fischer, and Kevin Labanc are all pending UFAs as of Tuesday.
Item No. 2: Now what?
The Blue Jackets were deep into talks with the New York Islanders for defenseman Noah Dobson, but the price tag — both in what they’d have to give the Islanders and in what they’d have to pay Dobson — was too high to justify, Waddell said.
Meanwhile, on Saturday, the Anaheim Ducks traded John Gibson to the Detroit Red Wings, taking perhaps the top available goaltender off the trade market. A team source told The Athletic that the Blue Jackets were not involved in the trade discussions for Gibson.
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So where do the Blue Jackets turn now for upgrades? And, perhaps just as important, what do the next 48 hours hold for Waddell’s plans to push the franchise further out of its rebuilding process.
First to the defense …
The Blue Jackets may now have to press hard to sign pending unrestricted free agents Ivan Provorov and/or Dante Fabbro, who may have picked up some leverage as the draft has now passed and the clock ticks closer to the start of free agency on Tuesday.
Unless Waddell can swing a trade — is Calgary’s Rasmus Andersson the best option? — or knows he can land a right-side, top-four defender via free agency, Provorov and/or Fabbro may be the Blue Jackets’ best bet. Fabbro worked well with Zach Werenski and Provorov, playing his off side, looked good at times next to rookie Denton Mateychuk.
Now to goaltending …
The Blue Jackets said goodbye to Daniil Tarasov last week, trading him to the Florida Panthers for a fifth-round draft pick. But what about Elvis Merzlikins?
Waddell has said all along that Merzlikins could return next season, and the free-agent market for goaltenders doesn’t provide a lot of options. Jake Allen will likely be the most sought-after target, while others like Vitek Vanecek, Ilya Samsonov, and Alex Lyon are available.
The buyout window closes Monday, so if the Blue Jackets have plans to buy out the final two years on Merzlikins’ contract, they’d have to be certain that they could land a replacement for Merzlikins via trade or via free agency.
Item No. 3: Let’s go back
The NHL’s attempt at a decentralized draft this weekend — while well intended — turned out to be the best argument for going back to the typical format, where the entire league, draft-eligible players, fans and media take over one host city.
The awkward interviews between club executives and drafted players; the lack of easy, organic conversations among GMs, which often spurs trades; the slow pace of the proceedings, especially during the second and third rounds on Saturday.
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The only person who seemed to like it is Detroit Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman, who acknowledged such in an interview with NHL Network. Otherwise, it seemed overwhelmingly true that most favor a return to the annual convention-style format.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is always an easy target, but you can’t blame him on this one. He responded to what his member clubs requested, and the vote was 26-6 two years ago when this decision was made.
NHL clubs were bothered by the tight turn-around from the end of the draft to the start of free agency, especially when travel woes two years ago getting out of Nashville severely hampered a few clubs’ post-draft preparation and set-up back in their home offices.
Waddell was one of the 26 “yes” votes, he said. But he’d vote differently now, he said.
“I’m not embarrassed about how I voted,” Waddell said. “Last year we were in Vegas on a Saturday for the draft and free agency started on a Monday. The preparation for free agency was a little tight. A year before, we were in Nashville … and everybody was scrambling to get home a day before free agency. That’s when it was on everybody’s mind.
“I voted to decentralize. I was one of the 26 people. As we got to the GM meetings this year, in March, the next conversation we had … it would have been almost completely the opposite. We looked at the calendar, too, and next year the draft is on the 26th and 27th of June. So you can travel back and still have 3-4 days to get ready.”
Item No. 4: Snacks
- NHL clubs must extend qualifying offers to their restricted free agents by 5 p.m. Monday to maintain their rights to the player. The Blue Jackets have two players at the NHL level who fit that criteria: forward Dmitri Voronkov and defenseman Jordan Harris. The AHL Cleveland players who need QOs are defensemen Ole Julian Bjorgvik-Holm, Cole Clayton, Daemon Hunt and Samuel Knazko. Both Harris and Voronkov have arbitration rights, as does Clayton. Forward Mikael Pyyhtiä, who played 47 games in Columbus last season, was already qualified back in May so he could obtain insurance to play for Finland in the IIHF World Championships.
- It was a good week for AHL Cleveland, starting with a trade that sent forward Cameron Butler to Minnesota for Brendan Gaunce, who spent three seasons in Cleveland and was the Monsters captain in 2023-24 before signing with the Wild last summer. The Blue Jackets over the weekend extended center Hunter McKown and goaltender Zach Sawchenko with one-year, two-way contracts. Both of them had expiring contracts.
- You know about the NHL UFAs. Here are the AHL Cleveland players who, barring a contract extension between now at Tuesday, will be UFAs: Trey Fix-Wolansky, Dylan Gambrell, Joe LaBate, and Owen Sillinger. Fix-Wolansky, a seventh-round pick (No. 204) by the Blue Jackets in 2018, is hitting UFA status a year early because he’s played so few games (26) at the NHL level. He’s AHL Cleveland’s all-time record holder in goals, assists and points. He’s third in games played (289) behind Justin Scott (336) and Brett Gallant (307).
- The Blue Jackets will play a seven-game preseason schedule beginning Sept. 21 versus St. Louis in Nationwide Arena. The full NHL schedule will be released in mid-July, a spokesman said.
MARK YOUR CALENDARS, OUR PRESEASON SCHEDULE IS HERE!! 🚨
📝 https://t.co/x7fT5pvNNG@ticketmaster | #CBJ pic.twitter.com/qefBThxPZz
— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) June 24, 2025
- The two speedy centers drafted by the Blue Jackets late in Saturday’s second round — Owen Griffin in the fifth round (No. 160) and Jeremy Loranger in the seventh (No. 198) — are distinct among the 12 players Waddell has taken in his two drafts with Columbus: They’re both under 6 feet. Griffin is 5-10, while Loranger is 5-9. So far, seven of the 12 players drafted by Waddell with the Blue Jackets are 6-foot-3 or taller and seven of the 12 are defensemen.
- Here’s Blue Jackets’ assistant director of amateur scouting Trevor Timmins on the NHL Draft appearing to morph toward the NBA Draft in the past two years: “Yeah, I don’t know what’s in the water nowadays. They seem to be growing bigger. Maybe players who were going to be football players or basketball players are now hockey players, or it’s just a coincidence. If you look at the teams that are (getting) to the (Stanley Cup) Final, they’ve got a big defense corps. That’s probably one affinity that all 32 teams have now toward NHL defensemen.”
- A Blue Jackets spokesman on Saturday said that all six players selected in the draft this week will attend the club’s off-season development camp, which runs July 2-5 in the Nationwide Arena practice rink. Also attending is center Cayden Lindstrom, the No. 4 overall pick in the 2024 draft. A full roster should be released soon. The camp is free and open to the public daily. Wednesday’s sessions run from 11:10 a.m. to 1:40 p.m., while Thursday and Friday are from 9:40 a.m. to 12:10 p.m. On Saturday, there’s a 9:30 a.m. prospects game.
- Here’s your Blue Jackets Sunday Gathering trivia question: After this weekend’s draft, the Blue Jackets have made 203 picks across 26 drafts since they joined the league in 2000. Which Columbus draft pick has scored the most points in his NHL career?
- Misha Donskov, who was born in Canada and raised in Columbus, stepped down last week after two years as an assistant coach with the Dallas Stars to become vice president of hockey operations with Team Canada. It’s a massive role for Donskov, who will be head coach of Canada’s entry in the World Championships, an associate coach for the World Juniors club, and an assistant coach at the Olympics this winter. Donskov, who spent seven seasons with the Vegas Golden Knights before joining the Stars, has started to draw interest from NHL clubs in their coaching searches.
Misha Donskov has been hired as VP of hockey operations, working with 🇨🇦’s men’s, women’s and para hockey teams.
Misha Donskov devient le vice-président des activités hockey à la tête des équipes masculines, féminines et de parahockey du 🇨🇦.
— Hockey Canada (@HockeyCanada) June 27, 2025
- Former Blue Jackets player Manny Malhotra has been an NHL assistant for seven seasons, both with Vancouver and Toronto. He returned to the Vancouver organization last summer to be head coach of their AHL franchise in Abbottsford, British Columbia, and he’s off to a great start. Abbottsford won the AHL’s Calder Cup this year, beating Charlotte in six games. It’s the first time the AHL has had a champion from the Pacific Division since expansion in 2015. Look for Malhotra to start getting heavy consideration for NHL head-coaching jobs.
- Trivia answer: Jakub Voracek, the Blue Jackets’ No. 7 pick in the 2007 NHL draft, totaled 806 career points during his 1,058-game career with Columbus and Philadelphia. Rick Nash, who went No. 1 in 2002, finished with 805 points in a 1,060-game career with Columbus, the New York Rangers and Boston.
(Photo: Matthew Pearce / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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