After narrowly missing the playoffs in 2024-25, the Columbus Blue Jackets look to improve in 2025-26. The Blue Jackets have players primed to break out this upcoming season. Will it be enough to put them over the hump? It is time for bold predictions for the Jackets in 2025-26.
The team was expected to potentially be aggressive this offseason, but the Blue Jackets were quiet in NHL Free Agency. The biggest move of the offseason for the team was a trade. The Colorado Avalanche were looking to shed contracts for cap space, which resulted in Columbus adding Miles Wood and Charlie Coyle.
They both may be impactful players for a team that was impressive last season. While the team finished outside of the playoffs for a fifth consecutive season, it was a successful campaign. It was a 40-33-9 finish, which gave them 89 points, the most in a full season since 2018-19. The team also finished fourth in the Metropolitan Division, the best finish since 2017-18. This has the hopes of fans high in Columbus this season.
Jet Greaves takes over in goal
The Jackets ended the season on a six-game winning streak. In five of the games, Jet Greaves was the starting goaltender. Greaves has spent the majority of his career in the AHL. He has played just 21 games at the NHL level, with 11 of them coming in 2024-25. He was great in those 11 games. The netminder went 7-2-2 with a 1.91 goals against average and a .938 save percentage.
Greaves has been stuck behind two other goaltenders. One of those was Daniil Tarasov, who was traded to the Florida Panthers. The other has been the starter, Elvis Merzlikins. Merzlikins has started 23 or more times in each of his six seasons with the team, and with his career low in the 2020-21 Covid season. In that time, the Latvian is 94-100-35 with a 3.20 goals against average and a .902 save percentage.
For Columbus to make the playoffs, they need better goaltending. Greaves could be the future in goal. He has shown he has the skill set to be a starting goaltender in the NHL. Columbus starts with a difficult schedule, playing six playoff teams in their first seven games. This is going to lead to struggles by Merzlikins, and by mid-season, the struggles will begin to pile up. That will lead to Greaves taking over in between the pipes.
Charlie Coyle puts up 50 points
During the offseason, Coyle was traded to the Blue Jackets from the Avalanche. He was a mid-season acquisition of the Avs, but is already gone from the team. This is great news for the Jackets. He is currently projected to play on the third line along with Cole Sillinger and Mathieu Olivier. The American-born forward has had some peaks and valleys in his career, but was solid in his last three full seasons with the Boston Bruins.
In those three seasons, he scored 16 or more goals in each season, while having over 40 points each year. This was capped by a 2023-24 season in which he lit the lamp 25 times and added 35 helped, good for 60 points.
The advanced statistics show that his decline in points this past year may have been due to the struggles of the Bruins overall. His individual points percentage had plummeted, as had his assist totals. Both totals rebounded near his prior marks when he moved to Colorado.
Meanwhile, he is on a line with Olivier. Olivier has improved as a goal scorer in his NHL career and looks to continue that improvement. He will have that chance with Coyle on the same line with him. With a high amount of assist opportunities and some solid goal-scoring ability, Coyle gets back to 50 points this year. Coming from the third line, that will be huge for the Blue Jackets.
The Blue Jackets break the playoff drought
The Blue Jackets were the top team in the Eastern Conference to miss the playoffs. The team finished just two points outside of the playoffs in 2024-25. This year, they will make the playoffs. To begin with, the team was already solid in scoring, sitting third in the Eastern Conference in goals scored. At 273 goals in the season, they were the highest-scoring team to miss the playoffs.
Meanwhile, the defense should be improved this year. Tarasov was dreadful in goal when he played. He was 7-10-2 with a 3.54 goals against average and a .881 save percentage. Greaves will be better, even if he stays at the backup. The improvement in net will get them enough to make the playoffs.
They have not made the playoffs since 2019-2020, after finishing sixth in the division, but winning in the qualifying round before falling to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round. That playoff drought ends this year, as Columbus enjoys playoff hockey in front of their home fans for the first time since 2019.
