Depth and role players are crucial to success.
Why are the Florida Panthers absolutely dummying the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Finals? In my opinion, it's simple: they're getting more out of their depth players. Even if that value is just playing low event hockey, it's still value. You need all 18 of your skaters to be able to play against any competition, and the Panthers have that going right now.
Again, size is an important consideration here. Contending teams usually have a bottom-six forward group that can not only take over games by imposing their physical will; they can also score some goals. If we look at the Western Conference playoffs, both the Dallas Stars and Edmonton Oilers have gotten value out of their depth players. More so the Oilers, which explains why they're up in that series.
The Jackets honestly have a good makeup here, but could use a few tweaks. High on that list might be finding a suitable top-six forward to move Boone Jenner into more of a depth role. But, with guys like Cole Sillinger, Mathieu Olivier, and Zach Aston-Reese already locking down jobs and providing a variety of helpful traits; they're in pretty good shape. Throwing Jenner into that mix and adding some more size, would certainly help the team from an overall perspective.
About that goaltending.
The last ingredient to the Stanley Cup formula: goaltending. Honestly, recent winners tell us that you don't even need "elite" goaltending to win the Cup. If you've assembled the rest of the pieces the right way, you just need someone who can make timely saves and play around league average.
This is one piece of the puzzle that I think can get overrated in today's NHL. This isn't the "dead puck" era that was the late 1990s and early 2000s, when you had to slog the game down to a crawl. Nowadays, if your team plays defense as a complete unit and finds offense throughout the lineup, even a team being backstopped by Darcy Kuemper can win it all.
While it certainly wouldn't hurt to have Andrei Vasilevskiy or Sergei Bobrovsky back there, I don't think the Jackets need to spend a big chunk of their cap space at this position. They may be better off bolstering their lineup in other places, and seeing what they have in a guy like Jet Greaves. When the playoffs hit, a hot streak like the one he had to end this season; could be enough to carry them deep into the playoffs.
In the end, what we're learning...
The Florida Panthers have it figured out. They were patient with the young players they acquired in the draft. When those guys were ready to take the next step, GM Bill Zito found bargain weapons like Sam Reinhart and Carter Verhaeghe. He fleeced the Calgary Flames for Matthew Tkachuk. And, he's perennially filled in the gaps as needed - look no further than Seth Jones or Brad Marchand from this year's trade deadline.
Put it all together: they have amassed three scoring lines that can play any style of hockey. They have that big, physical, strong skating defense. Their fourth line and third defense pairing play mostly low event hockey. Their goaltender makes the saves they need him to make. As a result, the Panthers are on the verge of their third straight Stanley Cup Finals appearance.
Everything starts with the high draft picks. Now that the Blue Jackets have accumulated the guys who will make up the competitive core, it's up to Don Waddell to fill out the rest of the roster in a lot of the same ways.