As an eventful off-season reaches its quiet point, it’s time for our annual August tradition: our countdown of the 25 best players in the Columbus Blue Jackets system who will be under 25 years old as of Opening Day (October 10).
A reminder for how it works: There are 42 players in the Columbus Blue Jackets organization (either under contract or under team control) who will be under 25 as of opening day in October. This is down from 45 last season, but still up from 40 candidates in 2022, and 38 in 2021. For reference, I used the Elite Prospects depth chart page, and I recommend you browse that if you want to look up more about each player. For quick reference, I have included each player’s birth year and position in the form.
It is up to each reader to determine how you rank the players. My suggestion is you consider the impact you expect each player to have on the Blue Jackets’ roster going forward. That can be this year, or three years from now. If you were building the franchise from scratch, which of these players would be your building blocks?
A few players from last year’s top 25 have aged out, but even more were traded away or left unsigned in the last year. How many of the new signings or draft picks will replace them? Which players will move up or down based on their performance last season? Some took a step forward (Sillinger), others took a step back (Johnson) and several more stood out in the Cleveland Monsters’ run to the semis of the Calder Cup playoffs. I’m also curious to see if last year’s #1, Adam Fantilli, will increase his vote share. Who else will get first place votes?
Aged out:
#11 Daniil Tarasov
#20 Trey Fix-Wolansky
#24 Jake Christiansen
No longer in the organization:
#6 Alexandre Texier
#8 Adam Boqvist
#15 Emil Bemstrom
#19 Liam Foudy
#23 Tim Berni
Undrafted free agent signees:
Max McCue
Cole Clayton
2024 Draftees:
Cayden Lindstrom
Charlie Elick
Evan Gardner
Luca Marrelli
Tanner Henricks
Luke Ashton
Enter your votes below. You don’t have to rank all #25 if you don’t want to, but you must rank at least 10. If the embed isn’t showing up for you, you can use this link here. Voting will be open through this Friday, August 2. The countdown will start with #25 next week.