The Columbus Blue Jackets have had a bumpy ride since beginning the season with expectations of competing in the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs. That dream is becoming less of a reality, especially with all the blown leads late in games.
Part of this is because the team has had some trouble getting players who were expected to take big leaps this season to step up. Despite massive contract extensions, veteran trade acquisitions, and high draft capital being spent, the Blue Jackets haven’t felt the effects of spending to win. Who has not played up to expectations so far?
Kent Johnson
Kent Johnson was a bright spot a year ago. With 24 goals and 57 points in just 68 games, he showed his potential. Columbus started to believe the future had arrived with Johnson and Adam Fantilli at the helm. However, through 40 games this season, Johnson has taken a major step back, with just three goals and 11 points. He has been a missing piece to the team’s offensive puzzle and quickly needs to find his game.
Under previous Blue Jackets coaches, we likely would have seen Johnson benched or even sent down to the American Hockey League’s Cleveland Monsters to build up his confidence before rejoining the NHL roster. However, at this point, it seems too late to do that, and Columbus has a choice to make.
Johnston has to step up and earn his playing time, or he must find a way to evolve his game. He is too quickly dispatched off the puck with any kind of opposing pressure. He needs to be more physical to fit with the team’s identity.
I believe in his offensive playmaking upside, but without production on the ice, the Blue Jackets are not justified in playing him with top units on the ice. He must step up, and he must make a bigger impact on the game to prove he was worth being drafted fifth overall in 2021.
Ivan Provorov Has to Be a Bigger Factor
Ivan Provorov signed a massive seven-year, $59.5 million contract extension in July, and he has yet to prove that it was money well spent. He has been a non-factor in too many games this season, and the defensive pairing of him and Damon Severson hasn’t lived up to their price tag.
That said, Provorov has been a big factor in the resurgence of both the Blue Jackets’ special teams of late, playing valuable minutes on both the penalty kill and power play.
5v5 Team Defence – January 4https://t.co/WtmCOa1caj pic.twitter.com/lGHRo0i0u4
— JFresh ???? (@JFreshHockey) January 4, 2026
However, as the graphic shows, the team’s defense has not been good enough, ranking 26th in expected goals against per 60 minutes. With a defensive core that costs the Blue Jackets a little over $30 million this season, or 31.6% of the Blue Jackets’ total cap space, that can’t happen.
Zach Werenski has yet again played like a Norris Trophy candidate, and Severson has been solid. Provorov is the one who has to figure it out, and quickly, if the Blue Jackets want to make it out of the Eastern Conference basement.
Cole Sillinger Can’t Rely on Former Success
One of the team’s biggest struggles this season is the drop-off in secondary scoring. A few seasons ago, depth scoring wasn’t an issue, but no one really broke out into a top-line player. This season, the opposite is true. The Blue Jackets have had little production outside of their top line. Cole Sillinger has to start hitting the score sheet and making a difference each game.
Team Finishing – January 4https://t.co/WtmCOa1caj pic.twitter.com/NGo0Y1pRqG
— JFresh ???? (@JFreshHockey) January 4, 2026
In Sillinger’s first season in Columbus in 2021-22, he scored 16 goals. He has yet to reach that mark again. Sillinger was expected to be a pillar of the Blue Jackets’ offense after lighting the lamp at every step of his junior hockey career, leading up to the draft.
He has to find a way to become a dominant offensive player for the Blue Jackets. His two-way game has seen a major improvement this season, but the team’s overall offense consists of too many middling players with no one on the rise.
If the Blue Jackets can somehow get these players to step up and become factors in the second half, as they were expected to be, the team could become competitive down the stretch in a very tight Eastern Conference race. However, if they can’t figure it out, the cellar dwellers could be stuck in the mud for a while.
