We have finally made it. The NHL regular season kicks off this week, with the Blue Jackets getting started on Thursday night in Nashville.
For the first time in several years, the team will enter the new season with a quiet air around them. It's refreshing to see, and it gives me hope that they can take a larger step forward.
Part of this is due to general manager Don Waddell's work constructing this roster. I'm not sure I can ever recall a Blue Jackets team that had an obvious fit for nearly every spot on the NHL club.
Things were so predictable that our own Matthew Duffey was able to piece together the entire lineup all the way back in mid-July. The lines aren't exactly perfect, but every forward he predicted to make the opening night roster, made the opening night roster. Likewise, we had similar results on defense.
Those articles nailed 22 of the 23 opening night roster spots. The lone exception: it seems that goaltender Ivan Fedotov has won the final job out of camp. It would have been hard for Matthew to predict that, since the team did not acquire him until just before camp started.
All of this is good news for a Blue Jackets team that needs to get their feet firmly planted ahead of the season. This is something that they have not been able to do in recent memory.
Can we even remember a Blue Jackets team with this much depth?
It has probably been 7 years since this team has been able to start a campaign with this much talent and depth. Since the start of the 2018-19 season, they've been thrown into an ugly rebuild that has cost them four head coaches and their long-time general manager.
We've seen countless players come and go in that span, with very little continuity on the roster. In fact, just two guys who were on that 2018-19 club remain: Zach Werenski and Boone Jenner. They are the only two holdouts from the last time this team earned a playoff spot (2019-20).
But, this is no longer a team filled with hope. This is a team filled with expectations. Only one player will make this opening night roster after not playing full-time in the NHL last season, and that's Jet Greaves. No surprise that he's on the club, if you've been following along. He's ready.
The decisions were easy because Waddell went out and plugged the openings in his roster with reliable veteran players. There wasn't any need for late in the summer UFA signings to fill out the lineup. Nor any waiver claims.
Instead, he parted ways with future assets to acquire Charlie Coyle and Miles Wood for his bottom-six. He signed Isac Lundestrom at the start of free agency, a move that we think could pay off in massive returns.
As a result, those early summer roster predictions were fairly easy to make. And, the team had a preseason with little controversy, which is a massive breath of fresh air.
Two certainties: they will be harder to play against, and there is no reason for them to stumble out of the gate.
Aside from Greaves and the three additions to the bottom-two forward lines, this team returns entirely intact from last season. I can't recall this much year over year continuity in the CBJ roster. Ever.
This is honestly the best thing we could have hoped for. This team worked like a well oiled machine last year, so there was no need to do anything other than add depth and try to improve from within. The biggest thing they needed to avoid was the distractions that have plagued them in recent years.
Last year, the newly hired GM and head coach had to deal with a disgruntled Patrik Laine. Then, the tragic loss of Johnny Gaudreau just days before camp started.
Two years ago, there was the Mike Babcock fiasco, which did no favors to a hastily assembled roster that was trying to claw its way out of the rebuild too quickly.
All of this happening with too much uncertainty on the ice, and coming out of a four year stretch where - lets face it - the team did not get quality coaching; or have any kind of plan in place to compete.
Still two things to iron out.
They will have to make a decision in goal at some point. I don't see any value in keeping three guys around all year. But, the only real controversy this year is surrounding Yegor Chinakhov, whose training camp and preseason has seemingly left him on the outside looking in. The Jackets will need to make a decision on him at some point.
For the first time in recent memory, that kind of situation is not going to drag this team completely down. There is too much talent and depth here to let that happen. It feels good to say that.