Columbus Blue Jackets Likely to be the NHL’s Youngest Team in 2018-2019

The Columbus Blue Jackets finished 2017-2018 as the second youngest team in the NHL. Believe it or not, they should be even younger next season.

The average age of an NHL team isn’t necessarily a strong indicator of success or failure. It has never given any solid clues about who will or won’t be in the playoffs. On any given year, there are teams across the continuum of age in and out of the postseason.

At best, the metric can hint at a few things. For starters it can be presumed that a very young team is just beginning to find its core. Columbus Blue Jackets fan might be happy to assume this one.

Secondly, extraordinarily young teams can be viewed as cells of potential. This makes sense right? Rookies and second year players are often just getting their sea legs, developing in their roles and shedding minor league tendencies. After all, there are only so many Conor McDavids in this world.

Last but not least, the NHL is getting faster, and more youthful every year. Sadly fading are the days of quality teams carrying multiple heavy-bodied enforcers. You don’t need statistical spreadsheets to understand that younger (although not perfectly correlated) collectively insinuates faster. If you’re a Jackets fan, just think the 2018 team versus 2013, or any year prior for example.

There’s no debate, the team is getting younger and quicker.

Statistically speaking, according to Natural Stat Trick, the Jackets were tied for the youngest team in the NHL last year. The average player hovered right around 25 years of age. After collecting a few veteran pieces at the trade deadline, the CBJ moved just a notch below Colorado to second.

To assume the Columbus Blue Jackets could get younger, we have to predict some roster moves. I won’t go too deep into this because that is an endless rabbit hole of free agency chatter. I will stay on the course of youth though and keep eyes on average age.

The CBJ saw many rookies and second year players putting up huge minutes in the union and blue last year. Plagued by multiple extensive injuries, the Jackets leaned heavily on their young depth in the middle of the season. There is a silver lining here. The winter months gave the team a chance to watch its young players prove themselves on hockey’s biggest stage.

Thanks (in small part) to some of those injuries, the Blue Jackets have a lot of young talent to consider as free agency approaches. With cupboards well-stocked, the Jackets may go from incredibly young, to even younger in 2018-2019.

Columbus Blue Jackets

Without cranking out dozens of Excel workbooks, let’s look at a few significant shifts that could take place. I consider all of these outcomes as possibilities, as opposed to insightful probabilities.

To understand just how young the Jackets are, if they don’t re-sign veterans Thomas Vanek (34) and Mark Letestu (33), Brandon Dubinsky (32) becomes the team’s oldest player. His future in Columbus isn’t exactly cemented either. With just one more key contributor at the 30-year mark (Nick Foligno), it’s easy to see how the Jackets can be the league’s youngest team.

31-year old Jack Johnson will be in a different uniform next year. Say it ain’t so, 28-year old Matt Calvert could be moving on as well. I don’t think he will, but so could Ian Cole (29). On a team scant of veterans, most, if not all of these players would likely be replaced by a series of rookies or second year starters.

Winger Sonny Milano (21) is likely to snag a third or fourth line slot, depending on who goes and who stays. Princeton standout Eric Robinson (22) has curious potential to fight for a fourth line gig.

Perhaps the favorite to land a spot on the opening day roster is Russian scoring prodigy Vitaly Abramov (20). Defenseman Gabriel Carlsson (21) could replace a departed Cole or Ryan Murray. Throw in recent buzz about Swedish right-wing Jonathan Davidsson (21) and it feels like the floor is the limit for how young this team could be.

Calculator aside, it seems pretty clear that the Columbus Blue Jackets will indeed be even younger next year. Not likely to make any big moves in free agency, the organization will reach within for talent replenishment. The question then becomes, can the projected youngest team in the league make a run for the Stanley Cup?

They’ll need more than quick legs and better goalie play, but I think so.