Gavin Brindley doesn’t own a crystal ball, but as he looks around the Blue Jackets locker room, he can see the future.
In just about every corner of the room this fall, you could find a young player with seemingly limitless potential, something Brindley couldn’t help but take notice of.
“Oh yeah, absolutely,” Brindley said. “100 percent. There’s so many good young guys. It’s very exciting for the organization and for guys like myself that I’ve played with or played against for countless amount of years. It’s cool.
“I’m definitely very excited to be here with the young guys that we have, so it’s definitely going to be a fun couple years down the road.”
As the Blue Jackets get ready to begin the 2024-25 season Thursday in Minnesota, a rebuild that got under way in earnest three seasons ago is beginning to show plenty of signs of paying big dividends.
Cole Sillinger (21 years old) and Yegor Chinakhov (23) enter their fourth years in the NHL, while David Jiricek (20), Kent Johnson (21) and Kirill Marchenko (24) enter year three. For Adam Fantilli (19) and Dmitri Voronkov (24), it’s year two in the world’s top league, while Brindley (20) and Denton Mateychuk (20) are rookies pushing for NHL minutes.
All except Voronkov were taken in the first two rounds of the last five NHL drafts, a bonanza of talent the Blue Jackets expect to help push the team back into contention as it matures.
But for some of those players, the belief is simple.
Their time is now.
“Everyone knows we have to take steps forward,” Johnson said. “It’s an exciting position to be in and be with those guys. I feel like all of us are feeling good about our games and the work we put in this summer and just getting more comfortable in the league. Hopefully we can all grow together.”
That collection of young talent was one of the reasons the Blue Jackets’ general manager job was an attractive opening as the organization looked to fill it this spring. Columbus has a strong veteran core – led by captains Boone Jenner, Zach Werenski, Erik Gudbranson and Sean Kuraly – but it’s also no secret that the team has spent the past three seasons working those high draft picks into the lineup.
There have been the usual bumps in the road and growing pains for most of them – and injuries have not helped at times, including current upper-body dings to Brindley and Voronkov – but there is a belief the kids will be all right. For Waddell, the goal is to see them continue to make strides this season, and he was encouraged by the excellent preseasons of such players as Fantilli (four goals in six games), Johnson (six points in five games), Sillinger (three goals in five games) and Mateychuk (three points in four games).
“We’re looking for these players to take the next step,” Waddell said. “We’re not going to force them into that. They’re going to be provided an opportunity, and they have to take advantage of it. I’m pretty familiar with this team playing against them quite a few times the last few years. We have some great veterans, but the young players, we need them to continue grow and get better. As they do, we’re going to grow as a hockey team.”
And as the saying goes, sometimes it takes a village to make it happen. That’s where the team’s veterans come in, as Waddell did want to add some experience to the roster this offseason with the signings of such players as forwards Sean Monahan and James van Riemsdyk as well as veteran Jack Johnson.
That’s a combined 44 seasons and 2,962 games of NHL hockey between the three, and all know they were brought in to not just make an impact on the ice but in the locker room.
“I think it’s huge,” Monahan said when he was signed in July. “Looking back when I was a young player, you really lean on veterans. Especially me as a center, I leaned on older guys on the team in Calgary. You take notes, you watch the way they do things and try to add that to your game. It’s important to have good leadership in the dressing room. It creates a good culture, and I think I’m a guy that can serve that purpose.”
That’s also the attitude of such players as Werenski, who knows what it’s like to handle the ups and downs of what it takes to play in the NHL. He burst onto the scene his rookie year and had a historic campaign, finishing third in the Calder Trophy voting in 2016-17.
In the years since then, though, he’s had to navigate the ups and downs of what it means in the NHL, including weathering injuries, handling the daily grind of an 82-game season and dealing with the ebbs and flows of your game.
Those are lessons Werenski can help impart on the youngsters in the room.
“Most guys aren’t going to be great their first few years in the league,” Werenski said. “I had my ups and downs to be honest. My first year was good, but my second year wasn’t. It’s hard to understand the schedule and the grind of it and how many games you play.
“Obviously they’ve been very impactful players already, but just to see where their ceiling can be and how good they can be, I think they’re going to take steps forward this year. I’m excited to see what the guys can do.”
Head coach Dean Evason entered training camp with a clean slate for all his players, and he hasn’t hesitated to let young players try new things in camp, including such examples as using Fantilli and Kent Johnson on the penalty kill.
It will be up to those players to continue to earn their time, but that’s their goal as the season begins.
“My mentality is to try to be the best I can be,” Fantilli said. “I want to be the best player on the ice as much as possible, and I know a lot of guys have that mentality on this team. That’s why we’re going to get there. We’re going to get to that point that we want to.
“It’s a matter of time. Everyone is getting a year older, everyone is getting a year more mature, stronger and faster. The more we play together, the longer we play together, we’ll be able to build chemistry and move on from there.”
