Some tough decisions had to be made, but GM Don Waddell feels good about his team heading into this week's season opener
There won’t be much drama in Columbus leading up to 5 p.m. Monday.
That is the time NHL teams must submit their 23-man opening night rosters to the league, but most if not all of that work is done after the Blue Jackets cut their training camp roster down to essentially the opening night squad last weekend. By and large, we know who will be on the Blue Jackets squad when the puck drops on the 2025-26 season Thursday in Nashville.
And in the eyes of head coach Dean Evason, that’s a good thing when it comes to preparing for the opening road trip that will feature games vs. the Predators and Wild, as well as the Oct. 13 home opener against New Jersey.
“When I was in Dallas (playing under Bob Gainey), there was one year I think we had 26, 27 guys in camp, something like that,” Evason said before Saturday’s final preseason game. “Then you’ve got your team. And honestly, just watching practice today, we’ve had enough reps with each other with line combinations and practices, and it was really sharp. I hope it translates obviously into tonight, but most importantly it translates into the start of the season.”
As it stands, the Blue Jackets are officially down to 23 players after defensemen Daemon Hunt was claimed on waivers Friday by Minnesota. Many are familiar faces – 19 spent time on the roster a season ago, comprising 85 percent of the goals, 84 percent of the points and 78 percent of the goaltending minutes from last year’s squad that finished just out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
That die was cast this summer as, amid a changing free agent market, general manager Don Waddell re-signed defensemen Ivan Provorov and Dante Fabbro to long-term contracts. Of the players who remain, the only new faces in the skater lineup are forwards Charlie Coyle, Miles Wood and Isac Lundeström.
Coyle was added to bring a veteran presence and dependable scorer as well as a right-handed faceoff man, Wood acquired to bring speed and energy to the bottom six, and Lundeström signed to serve as a responsible defensive center with potentially untapped scoring punch. Goaltender Ivan Fedotov, meanwhile, wad added via trade before camp to provide depth in the crease along with Elvis Merzlikins and Jet Greaves; though he remains on the active roster, he’s cleared waivers and could start the season with AHL Cleveland.
“We addressed a couple things (this offseason), not just with the guys we brought in but the guys we kept,” Waddell said.
That being said, it doesn’t mean there weren’t some difficult decisions for the Blue Jackets when it came to getting where we are ahead of Monday.
Perhaps the closest young up-and-comer to making the roster was 21-year-old center Luca Del Bel Belluz, who was optioned to Cleveland. The Blue Jackets believe he has NHL-caliber ability, but he faced a positional logjam when it comes to the CBJ roster; it made sense for him to return to AHL Cleveland to play games and continue his development rather than face inconsistent playing time at the highest level.
“If you look back over the years, you can rush players too quickly and they don’t ever make it,” Waddell said. “I’ve never seen it where you waited too long for a guy and then he made it (to the NHL) and then fell apart.
“We have a great situation. (Head coach Trent Vogelhuber) does a great job in Cleveland with his staff. One thing, in the American League, especially the first half of the year, you get a lot more practice time than you do in the NHL. The NHL, once we start playing games, practice is hard. With the schedule, you have to give guys rest days and all that. Being in the American League I think is a great development path.”
Del Bel Belluz impressed in his first extensive NHL action a season ago, posting two goals and eight points in 15 games when an injury to Sean Monahan led to his recall from Cleveland. The 2022 second-round pick was just as good in the American Hockey League, where his 27 goals tied for 13th in the league.
By most indications, Del Bel Belluz wouldn’t be out of place in an NHL role, but the Blue Jackets are stacked down the middle with Monahan, Adam Fantilli, Boone Jenner and Cole Sillinger having played the position extensively for the Blue Jackets and Coyle and Lundeström acquired this offseason.
Waddell also noted that while Del Bel Belluz put in the work this summer, he can still make strides with his strength and skating, which are areas that players can focus on at the AHL level. The Cleveland staff will work with Del Bel Belluz on those attributes, with the knowledge that he will be high on the list when it comes to potential recalls this season.
“We know Bel can play in the National Hockey League,” Evason said. “He’s disappointed, obviously, to not be here still, but he’s done all the right things. He got bigger, stronger in the summer. He’s a very intelligent player at both ends of the ice as well, so he’s a guy that’s got a bright future here hopefully in Columbus very soon.”
Columbus had a similar philosophy with Hunt, who was placed on waivers Thursday with the hope that he could return to Cleveland to keep playing games given the Jackets’ depth on defense, but he was claimed by a Minnesota team that originally selected him in the third round of the 2020 draft.
The signings may have slipped under the radar to some, but when Waddell inked such players as forwards Hudson Fasching and Brendan Gaunce as well as defenseman Dysin Mayo, there was a plan in place.
They all have NHL experience, which is something Waddell targeted in the offseason to improve the team’s depth. The Blue Jackets used 32 different skaters a season ago, and at some point in the seven-month, 82-game season, there will be a time when players are called upon to step up and fill roles.
That did make last Sunday’s decisions, in which all three of the aforementioned veterans were sent to Cleveland, a little bit difficult though.
“It’s a good problem to have,” Waddell said. “We think we probably have four or five guys right now if we put in the lineup would do fine for us.”
Fasching has played 137 games with the Islanders the past three seasons, while Gaunce – a former captain in Cleveland – has played 189 games with four teams. Mayo, meanwhile, was a regular with Arizona in 2021-22.
They join Del Bel Belluz and forward Mikael Pyythiä (66 games with Columbus the past three seasons) as players who will start the season in the AHL but won’t feel out of place at the NHL level if summoned this season. Forwards James Malatesta, Hunter McKown, Owen Sillinger and Jack Williams, as well as defenseman Stanislav Svozil, also have played NHL games with the Blue Jackets.
“There’s a lot more callup guys than last year,” Evason said. “I know that our depth is better. Adding professionals to our lineup obviously gives us an opportunity to let some people develop there (in Cleveland) and continue to develop there, but with the knowledge that if something was to happen, we feel extremely comfortable that we have NHL players that are going to play in the American Hockey League this year.”
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