COLUMBUS, Ohio — A collection of notes, insights, ruminations and did-you-knows gathered throughout the week that was for the Columbus Blue Jackets:
Item No. 1: The Brothers Sillinger
Before last season, Blue Jackets center Cole Sillinger changed his sweater number from 34 to 4. This season, he may have to change his nameplate by adding a first initial.
Owen Sillinger, the eldest of three Sillinger sons, has never been closer to the NHL after signing a two-way contract with the Blue Jackets on July 1.
The 27-year-old is in a battle for the final roster spot among Blue Jackets forwards, and you could say he’s earned an inside track to the job. Since the start of camp, including Saturday’s preseason win over Buffalo, he’s skated on the left side of the fourth line with veteran center Sean Kuraly and right winger Mathieu Olivier.
“This is my first camp on an NHL contract, and I’ve put a lot of hard work into this, especially with the year we had last year in (AHL) Cleveland,” Owen said. “There’s a lot there for me to build off, absolutely. I came into camp, and it’s been exciting to see the opportunity. But things change all the time.”
Nobody is more excited about this than Cole, who is six years younger than Owen. The two played together toward the end of the 2022-23 season after Cole was sent to the AHL while struggling in his sophomore NHL season.
“It’s both of our dreams to play with each other at the highest level,” Cole said. “But we’re both just trying to stay in the moment and focus on what’s in front of us.
“But my focus this camp, honestly, has been a little bit on (Owen), too. I want to see him do well, so it’s ‘How is he playing? How’s he feeling?’ We’re living together, so after practices or games, we come home together and just kind of decompress and hang out together. It’s been nice.”
Blue Jackets GM Don Waddell has been keeping one eye on his club and the other on the rest of the league, still hoping to add a veteran forward through trade or on the waiver wire. The next 10 days or so will be crucial in that pursuit; with veteran Justin Danforth nursing a wrist injury, there are likely two roster spots available.
And if Owen doesn’t make the roster out of camp, he’d be on the short list of call-ups as the season moves along, especially since Waddell insists on not rushing prospects to the NHL before they’re ready. He has adequate speed, adequate size (5-foot-10, 183 pounds) and is defensively reliable.
“It’d be a good story,” Waddell said. “You’re 100 percent right, though, I love a good story, but they have to be stories that benefit our hockey team and help us win games.
“(Owen) did a good job killing penalties the other night. He’s been fine. Put it this way: We haven’t talked about him being one of the guys to go down to Cleveland yet.”
While Cole Sillinger was playing as a top prospect in the Western Hockey League and United States Hockey League, Owen was grinding away for four seasons at Bemidji State in Bemidji, Minn., about a four-hour drive north of Minneapolis/St. Paul.
Owen signed an AHL-only deal with Cleveland after college, spending the last two-plus seasons just a 2 1/2-hour drive from his brother. He’s been the model of consistency for the Monsters, with 11-25-36 in 2022-23 and 11-29-40 last season. Cleveland made it to the AHL’s conference semifinals last spring.
“It’s just confidence and maturity,” he said. “I came from college playing 30-36 games a season and it’s a big jump to pro.”
There have been 47 sets of brothers who have played NHL games together on the same team, though it has yet to happen in Columbus.
During the 2011-12 season, Kris Russell and his twin brother, Ryan, played for the Blue Jackets, but Kris was traded to St. Louis in early November and Ryan made his NHL debut in January.
Item No. 2: Severson settles in
Even in a perfect scenario, last season would have been a challenging adjustment for veteran defenseman Damon Severson, who signed an eight-year, $50 million contract in a sign-and-trade between the New Jersey Devils and Blue Jackets last summer.
But it wasn’t a perfect scenario.
Four days before the start of training camp, the Blue Jackets fired coach Mike Babcock for coaxing players to share personal photos with him in an effort, he said, to get to know them. Then, three games into his Columbus career, Severson was benched by coach Pascal Vincent, an ominous sign for a player signed through 2030-31.
“I’d never been through it before, changing teams like that with a new contract and expectations,” Severson said. “I was in New Jersey for a long time, and now it’s a new world and it was a bit of a challenge at the start. That’s nobody’s fault, it’s just natural.
“They paid you all this money, gave you all this team, and you try to fulfill it all in one day. In my head, I’m saying, ‘That’s not how it works, just be yourself.’ But then, man, you end up really overdoing it. I caught myself a couple of times last season overdoing it, for sure.”
Severson started to play much better as last season progressed, finishing with 9-19-28 in 67 games. He also drew rave reviews for his play for Team Canada this spring at the IIHF World Championship in Prague and Ostrava, Czechia.
Since the start of training camp, new Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason has played Severson on the right side of the top defensive pair next to Zach Werenski. It’s a comfortable spot, Severson said.
“Z and I have spent a lot of time together on and off the ice over the last year,” Severson said. “His fiance and my wife are very tight now, so it all just kind of clicks. We live in the same area (New Albany) and we think the game similar. We both like to move our feet and move the puck.”
In Saturday’s 6-3 win over Buffalo, Severson played 22:36 and had an assist and a plus-2 rating. He also played the point on the second power-play unit. Werenski operates the top unit.
Severson is setting up to have a bounce-back season. He had a career-high 46 points (11-35-46) with the Devils just two years ago.
“It’s a much more comfortable situation here for me a year later, absolutely,” Severson said. “Not a great start last season, but I’m hoping it goes much better this time. And I think it will. I’ve felt really good throughout camp and in the preseason.”
Item No. 3: Dumais awaits surgery
For the second time in less than nine months, Blue Jackets prospect forward Jordan Dumais is awaiting hernia surgery, which will likely keep him off the ice until at least mid-January.
Dumais had surgery on Jan. 19, 2024, in Columbus to fix a hernia, the Blue Jackets announced last winter. But Dumais complained of further discomfort this summer at the club’s development camp in Nationwide Arena, where he was a limited participant.
“We sent him to see a specialist in New York, who confirmed it,” Waddell said.
The surgery has been delayed because Dumais has been battling an illness, Waddell said. He declined to give any further specifics but said he believes it will be resolved soon, allowing for the surgery.
“They think it’ll be a three-month recovery,” Waddell said. “If he has (surgery) next week, it could be mid-January (before Dumais returns).
“He hasn’t had too many good breaks lately.”
Dumais said he tried to “tough it out” for Team Canada at the World Junior Championship last December and January, but that hip and abdominal injuries left him “barely able to skate.” He had just one goal and one assist in five games, then had surgery about two weeks later.
The now 20-year-old hasn’t played competitive hockey since.
He had been cleared to resume play last spring with his junior club, the Halifax Mooseheads of the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League, but was suspended five games by the club in March after he was charged with impaired driving.
He has pleaded not guilty and has a tentative trial date set for June 27, 2025.
Dumais, a third-round pick (No. 94) in 2022, had a dynamic junior career in Halifax, including a 2022-23 season in which he had 54-86-140 in only 64 games. The only player in major junior with more points that season was Connor Bedard, the future No. 1 pick by Chicago.
Waddell said Dumais is in Montreal, where he’ll have the surgery and recover near family. When he’s cleared to play, he’ll join AHL Cleveland to make his pro debut.
Item No. 4: Snacks
• As of today, the Blue Jackets are down to 36 players in camp — 23 forwards, 10 defensemen, three goaltenders — with two back-to-backs on the preseason schedule this week: Monday (vs. Washington) and Tuesday (at St. Louis), and Thursday (vs. Pittsburgh) and Friday (at Pittsburgh). The roster cuts may continue, Evason noted, because players who have been sent to AHL Cleveland camp (which opens Monday) can be recalled to play preseason games. Two of those 23 forwards — Cayden Lindstrom (back) and Justin Danforth (wrist) — are not skating with the group.
• The NHL and NHL Players’ Association will likely provide guidance to the Blue Jackets this week regarding what their salary-cap floor will be for the coming season, the league told The Athletic. The league and the union have been working toward a remedy after the tragic death of left winger Johnny Gaudreau last month left the Jackets below the league floor of $65 million. Their current projected lineup would leave them at $61.7 million, more than $3 million below the floor.
• An unfortunate sight in Montreal on Saturday: Patrik Laine, gearing up for his first season in Montreal, had to be helped off the ice after suffering an apparent left knee injury in a collision with Toronto’s Cedric Pare. Laine played in less than 60 percent of the Blue Jackets’ games during his time in Columbus and now may start his time with the Canadiens on the shelf. Montreal coach Martin St. Louis did not provide an update after last night’s game.
Patrik Laine goes down after a knee-on-knee contact.
Doesn’t look good. He had to leave the game. #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/cXrNTOzK4L
— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) September 28, 2024
• Here’s your Sunday Gathering trivia question for the week: Owen Sillinger, at 27, would be one of the older players to make his NHL debut with the Blue Jackets, but he wouldn’t be the oldest. Not even close, actually. Can you name the oldest player to make his NHL debut with the Jackets?
• Friday’s preseason game in Washington was nearly canceled due to the Blue Jackets’ travel woes getting out of Columbus. First came mechanical problems with the charter flight, delaying the scheduled 2:30 p.m. takeoff. Then came the nasty winds and rain — the remnants of Hurricane Helene — that suspended traffic temporarily at John Glenn International. They finally took off around 5:30 p.m. and landed around 6:30 p.m., making it from Dulles International to Capital One Arena in about 40 minutes, a minor miracle given D.C.’s traffic. “They (the Caps) didn’t want to start the game past 8:30 p.m.,” Waddell said. “We got to the rink at 7:20. The equipment truck made it at 7:30. We took warmups at 8.” The puck dropped at 8:39 p.m.
• So with that kind of trouble getting started, you had to wonder how the Blue Jackets might have played on Friday. An 8-4 win over Washington’s mostly NHL lineup, including a hat trick from Adam Fantilli, was a pleasant surprise. “We were excited to play, especially the young guys,” Waddell said. “On a day like that, you get to the rink and you play. You don’t have to sit around for 2 1/2 hours. Forget the score. The score is the score. We were the better team, and let’s face it, they probably had the better lineup.”
• Waddell was asked what has stood out to him over the first week-plus of training camp, including the four preseason games. “Probably the atmosphere in the room,” he said. “It’s been very, very good. The energy that Dean wants … he doesn’t ask a lot, but you’re out there for an hour or a little more than an hour for practice, he wants you to be a committed hockey player. We talked about it (Friday night) on the plane (home from Washington) and that’s what we’ve had so far. That’s been really good to see.”
• Trivia answer: Goaltender Fredrik Norrena, at 32 years, 10 months and 16 days, is the oldest player to make his NHL debut with the Blue Jackets. On Oct. 14, 2006, he came on in relief of Pascal Leclaire in an eventual 5-0 loss to the Minnesota Wild.
• The Blue Jackets followed Friday’s win in Washington with a 6-3 win over Buffalo at home on Saturday. Many of the players in the lineup didn’t get home from D.C. until nearly 2 a.m. on Friday. You have to love Evason’s response after Saturday’s game when he was teed up with a great opportunity to laud his troops for their resilience and fortitude: “It’s not that hard,” he said. “They get a nap and they get a really great meal and they play hockey. It’s awesome. The attitude that we want all of our guys to have is ‘What else would I want to do tonight?’”
(Top photo of Cole Sillinger: Stephen Brashear / USA Today)
