Quarter Season Report Card for Columbus Blue Jackets Defenesman

The Columbus Blue Jackets are through 21 games of the season. Let’s hand out some letter grades for every defenseman’s performance thus far.

Horse racing fans will tell you that this isn’t the quarter pole mark of the season. That would come at the 60 game mark when there is only a quarter of the season. The 21 game mark is just over 25% of of the Columbus Blue Jackets season though and the Jackets sit at 12-7-2.

The 26 points the Jackets have accumulated have them atop the Metropolitan Division and sixth in the NHL. There have been downs, but far more ups so far for the CBJ and they deserve some credit. They have themselves in a good spot through 25% of the season and although they have room to grow, all is well in central Ohio.

The special teams are turning around, the team is healthy and the goalie play has been solid. I’d give the Columbus Blue Jackets as a team an A- grade for their performance so far. That is on the backs of some great performances so far that will get high marks from us at Union and Blue.

There is room to improve though still and some players parents aren’t going to be happy with the low letter grade they take home today. Sit back and relax and let us know what you think about each defenseman’s grade in the comments.

Zach Werenski

This has not been Zach Werenski’s greatest season of his young career but lets put it in perspective. Z entered the season still rehabbing from offseason shoulder surgery. There were still questions of whether or not he would be ready for the season opener in his hometown of Detroit when training camp started.

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Then Seth Jones suffered a knee injury at the Kraft Hockeyville game in Clinton, NY and was ruled out for the first few weeks of the season. This thrust the young, still recovering d-man into the number one defensive role for a Jackets team that had very high preseason expectations. No pressure kid.

He started off the year slowly and didn’t get his first point until the fourth game of the year against Florida where he had a goal and an assist. He would then rip off six points in his next six games.

But things have never fully meshed for Z this season and he is now playing on the “third” pair with Scott Harrington. Defensively he seems to have taken a step back from where he was last year and a lot of that is likely to no longer playing beside future Norris Trophy winner Seth Jones.

This year through 21 games he has four goals and nine assist. The 13 points have him on a 51 point pace. It’s hard to be disappointed in that but yet, here we are.

Z still is young and figuring out the league. He has only played 176 games, an infant in defensive terms. I have no doubts he will turn it around but there will be more speed bumps. Not a great start to the year but I’m bullish on the 21-year-olds tenure with the Jackets.

Markus Nutivaara

The aforementioned playing partner of David Savard continues to grow into one the better 7th round draft picks in recent NHL history.

Young Finn Markus Nutivaara has seen a big jump in ice time and responsibility and it is paying big dividens for the Columbus Blue Jackets. Through 21 games, Nuti has two goals and eight assist and is averaging over 18 minutes of ice time.

Alongside David Savard, Nuti has given the Jackets a stellar second pairing defensive option. Nuti is third on the team in Corsi for with a mark of 53.1% even though he starts more than have of his shifts in the defensive zone.

Nuti has shown that he can play great defense against the league’s best and produce offensively at the same time. This is the first year of the 24-year-olds four year, $2.7 million deal and he is looking like a steal at that price so far. Great start to the year for Markus Nutivaara.

Ryan Murray

Ryan Murray is finally giving Columbus Blue Jackets the the performance they have been waiting for. Murray, who has been healthy after a preseason injury,  has played every game this season. He is playing like the Jackets second best defenseman so far in the 18-19 season and deserves high praise.

Much like Nutivaara, he is starting more than half of his shift in the defensive zone but has the second highest corsi rate on the team at 53.2%. He has shut down some of the best talent in the NHL and then helped the Jackets put up the seventh most goals in the league with his passing ability.

Murray has 10 points so far, nine of which are assist. Ryan is now playing alongside Seth Jones on the top pair and is also shouldering more minutes for the Jackets, averaging over 21 minutes a game. If that keeps up it will be a career high in time on ice for the 25-year-old.

Murray is showing that he is a top four defenseman and will earn him a nice pay check after this season. At the end of the year he will be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights.

The year is looking to be Ryan Murray’s best in his young career after a great start.

Seth Jones

After missing seven games due to a knee injury suffered during the preseason, Seth Jones has returned and been an absolute dominate force on the Jackets blue line. Jones, 24, is playing just like he was last year and has put together another All-Star season performance through 14 games.

Despite missing a third of the Jackets games this season, he has been, by far, the Jackets best defender. He is rock solid in his own end, making great breakout passes, putting up points, and has the Jackets power play back into respectable territory.

His nine points in 14 games include two goals. Jones is trusted in all situations which have him playing just shy of 26 minutes a game, well above his career average of 22 minutes a night.

Jones started the year alongside Zach Werenski but has since been playing with Ryan Murray and the combo is working very well. The split from Z has been a long time coming and, although Z is struggling away from Jones, it will be a positive for the franchise in the long run. It clearly hasn’t effected Jones’ play and if he didn’t miss seven games, he would be in the thick of a Norris Trophy run.

The newest assistant captain is playing like a true leader. Jones’ fantastic start to the season is a great sight after the injury and we can only hope he continues his high level of play.

Scott Harrington

Recency bias initially dragged down the grade for Scott Harrington after a terrible performance against the Toronto Maple Leafs. But looking back at all 17 games Harry has played in this year, and we see a decent performance from the left shot d-man.

Harry has filled in nicely on the third pair alongside several different partners as Seth Jones was out at the beginning of the year and as Torts continued to shuffle pairings, he has landed alongside Zach Werenski.

As odd as it sounds, Zach’s poor defensive performance has not helped Harrington and has hurt in our evaluation of Scott. Although he is a +3 on the year, Scott’s corsi is the lowest on the team among players averaging over 10 minutes of ice time a game at 40.9%. That isn’t going to cut it.

Scott does have four points this year though and has looked good when he jumps up into the play in the offensive zone. But his play in his own end has to take two or three steps up. 17 games isn’t enough to say that Harrington can’t and won’t get the job done on the third pair, but it’s close. If Scott doesn’t turn it around soon, we may see Dean Kukan, Adam Clendening, or Gabriel Carlsson get a shot alongside Werenski.

Dean Kukan and Adam Clendening

Dean Kukan and Adam Clendening have only played a combined 10 games but it hasn’t been good for either of them. The fact that either of them haven’t shown enough to take some ice time away from Scott Harrington shows that they have a long way to go in Coach Tortorella’s mind.

Kukan in six games has looked shaky and uncertain. He is a half step behind and made some rough plays in his own end. Kukan only has three shots in six games with no points to his name yet.

Clendening, who I thought had a great preseason, has yet to show it during the regular season. He has only played in four games for the Jackets, all of them early in the season while Jones was out. Clendening is now in Cleveland with the Monsters and was looked over when the Jackets recently called up a defenseman from the AHL. I think we have seen the last of Clendening in union blue.

Overall the blue line has been solid. The weak point has been, surprisingly Zach Werenski, who will turn it around this year.

The Jackets overall have to be happy with the play of the defense and I have no doubt they will continue to get better. It certainly helps when you have Bob behind you to bail you out, but overall, this unit is one of the brighter units in the Eastern Conference.