Out of the many reasons the Blue Jackets has a skid to end the 2025-26 campaign, one of the more glaring was the absence of the Blue Jackets' heavy hitter, Mathieu Olivier. Once he and Damon Severson were out for the year, the team finished 2-8-1 and ended six points behind the Philadelphia Flyers for the final Metropolitan Division playoff spot.
After a breakout 2024-25 campaign in which Olivier put up 32 points in 82 games, it was a question during the summer of 2025 whether or not the traditional enforcer would be able to keep up that same kind of production offensively. While he didn't match the same points total in 2025-26, "Ollie" did indeed keep up the same pace as he had the year before.
Olivier slashed a 15-11-26 line in his 61 games played, good for 0.43 PPG pace, compared to a 0.39 the year before. He also spent 101 minutes in the sin bin, and put up an impressive career high of a +13 rating.
Olivier has blossomed into more than I think even I ever expected from him. He projected as a bottom-six, checking forward type years back, in the same vein as franchise favorites Jody Shelley and Jared Boll. It's safe to say he's grown beyond that level at this point.
While physicality, energy, and a high compete level are still the central aspects of Olivier's game, it's not unfair to say he's more of a middle-six winger than a bottom-six player at this point in his career. He's a depth power forward with an underrated scoring touch, especially in netfront situations, that has elevated him to more of a two-way player than strictly focused on physicality and defense-first. He'll still play on the penalty kill and isn't likely to see much power play time, but on five-on-five, he's coming off back-to-back double digit goal seasons.
Ollie has just completed the first year of his six-year, $3.0m AAV deal that he signed prior to hitting UFA status in 2025. He's one of the Jackets that is signed long-term, and won't be eligible for free agent status again until 2031.
At this point, as described prior, both the Jackets coaching/administrative staff and Olivier himself should know what kind of player he can be: an 0.40 PPG guy that should put up double digit goals and assists, and a winger that can comfortably be played against almost any other line combination comfortably while in the Jackets' middle-six.
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