Jenner Injury Highlights Depth Issues for the Jackets

The Blue Jackets showed up with another lackadaisical effort on Tuesday night, dropping a 4-0 decision to the Senators in Ottawa. One thing that’s becoming more and more evident as the team continues to struggle: they’re missing their captain.

Boone Jenner landed on the IR list 16 days ago, to have surgery to repair a fractured thumb. Since his absence, the team has gone 1-5-0, outscored by a 19-11 margin in that time. While they weren’t exactly lighting the world on fire before, their play with Boone out of the lineup has further highlighted the weakness at the center position on this roster.

Down the middle, the team is currently rolling out Kent Johnson, Jack Roslovic, Cole Sillinger, and Sean Kuraly. It’s a fine list of names in theory, but the big problem here is that all four of these guys are struggling in their current roles.

Johnson has all kinds of upside and definitely looks like he’ll be able to develop into a top-six center. But he’s very inexperienced in the position; only seeing time there with the glut of injuries the team is facing. His effort and willingness to play on both sides of the puck is there, but he’s obviously not strong enough yet, and needs to keep learning how to defend.

Experience is vital for him here, and now is probably the best time for him to learn. But, it means the team will struggle while this development takes place – it’s just part of the game. Ideally, he would see this development time in the AHL, but the roster situation here has made that impossible.

Roslovic can either be a standout player, or a complete mess on any given night. He’s probably best suited as a third line center because of his maddeningly inconsistent play, but this team’s depth chart has him playing higher up in the lineup. In spot duty I think this is fine, but leaning on Jack to be the second line center here, is a proven recipe for failure.

Sillinger continues to develop in the bottom-six, and in spite of his lack of production so far this year, I would argue that he’s been pretty good for this team overall. He’s only 19, but you can already see that he understands what it takes to be a center in the NHL, and he works hard on both sides of the puck. The goals will come in time. It certainly doesn’t help that his linemates can vary from scoring NHL wingers, to depth AHL players on any given night.

Kuraly is probably the only center currently on the roster, who is capable of playing in the role he’s given. And he’s the fourth line guy. He takes on the tough faceoff assignments and D-zone starts, and he does a fine job in his role.

It’s no secret that the center position is where you need talent and depth to compete in the NHL, and the Jackets just don’t have that right now. Imagine the difference a true #1 center would make for this team. Even a marginal one probably accounts for an additional 5-10 points in the standings thus far.

The position is so bleak that our traditional third line left wing – captain Boone Jenner – is the best center option the team has had to play with Johnny Gaudreau so far. And that has become more obvious over the last two weeks. With Boone out, Johnny has just four assists in the six games the team has played.

They miss Boone’s leadership. They miss his effort and determination on the forecheck. His penalty killing. But they’re also missing the matchups he takes on as the team’s de facto top line center. Hopefully Boone returns in a couple of weeks in full health. With the upcoming schedule, I’ll be surprised if they win many (or any) of the games they will have to play without him.