BRAMPTON, Ontario -- The Columbus Blue Jackets have made plenty of headlines since the 2025-26 season ended, not all of them good.
There was coach Rick Bowness saying his players aren’t bothered by losing after their season finale, then came the drama regarding Norris Trophy-winning defenseman Zach Werenski’s future in Columbus in June.
Bowness and Werenski are both back, and now, according to defenseman Erik Gudbranson, the goal is to make something else this season -- the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
“It’s funny because there is the public side and then the personal side where you are just talking to your buddies,” Gudbranson told NHL.com at the 12th annual Smilezone Foundation Celebrity Golf Tournament at Lionhead Golf Club on Monday.
“Largely a lot of it is the talking points for the media and I completely understand that and they are pretty big ones for sure but conversations amongst teammates, it’s all been, ‘How are we going to get in the playoffs? ’ It’s less about the noise on the outside and more about, ‘How’s your summer going? ’ Inside the room, we are very focused on what we need to accomplish this year.”
The Blue Jackets have missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for each of the past six seasons. In 2024-25, they won their final six games but finished two points behind the Montreal Canadiens for the second wild card from the Eastern Conference. Last season, a 20-19-7 start led to the firing of coach Dean Evason when the team was second-to-last in the Eastern Conference on Jan.
13. Bowness replaced Evason, which sparked a turnaround, going 18-4-4 over the next 26 games to move into a playoff spot which they held as late as April 1. But a 2-8-1 slide over their final 11 games left them seven points out by the end of the season.
After the team’s final regular-season game, a 2-1 loss to the Washington Capitals, Bowness delivered a scathing postgame press conference in which he said, “If I’m back, I’m changing this culture. These guys, they don’t care. Losing is not important enough to them.
It doesn’t bother them.”
Bowness was re-hired as coach two days later.
“It was definitely harsh,” Gudbranson said of Bowness’ comments. “We got ourselves back into a really good position and we were very proud of that and then we missed and it hurt. Everything about that hurt, missing again when we got that close.
It lit a fire under our (butts) to be honest with you. It was already there also, we knew were behind the 8-ball and had to claw our way back and fought so hard and came up short. It’s been a few years of that going on and we need to find a way out of that, there’s no doubt that.”
The latest news surrounding the Zach Werenski saga in Columbus
Then came the Werenski saga.
On June 10, a report in The Athletic suggested that Werenski could request a trade, leading to weeks of speculation about his future, this after he finished the season with 81 points (22 goals, 59 assists) in 75 games, while averaging 26:37 ice time per game, good for second in the League.
The night before free agency opened, there was a report that the Blue Jackets had worked out a trade with the Dallas Stars, but the defenseman vetoed the move. The next day, Werenski, 29, and his agent, Judd Moldaver, met with Blue Jackets general manager Don Waddell; the team and player each released statements reaffirming their commitment to one another.
Gudbranson, who signed a one-year, $1.75 million contract on July 2 as an unrestricted free agent to remain with Columbus, does not foresee any awkwardness when the team reassembles for training camp in September.
“Zach is such a tremendous player, he’s such a great human and he’s a very dear friend of mine and will continue to be so and we are happy he is coming back for sure because he is a pretty good player,” Gudbranson said. “That noise aside, that’s more exterior to be honest with you. We are a pretty calm, cool, collected group and we are really focused on getting into the playoffs.
We have to have a good start, not get behind the 8-ball early at the start of the season and have to claw our way back, that’s a massive focus.”
Despite the two headline-grabbing occurrences since the season ended, Gudbranson insisted everyone within the organization is in alignment and focused on ending the six-season playoff drought.
“Talking about it doesn’t do anything at the end of the day. Going out and accomplishing a goal that you set for yourself at the start of the year, it’s hard to do,” he said. “An NHL season is very difficult, it’s hard to get in the playoffs.
Collectively as a group, coaching staff, everyone, we are all the same page going forward and we are very excited about the opportunity we have going into next season and the group that we have.”
The Blue Jackets have three remaining unsigned restricted free agents including goalie Jet Greaves, 25, and forward Cole Sillinger, 23, who are each arbitration-eligible, and forward Adam Fantilli, 21, who is not.
Whether the Blue Jackets name a captain to replace forward Boone Jenner, who served as captain the past five seasons, remains uncertain. Jenner signed a four-year contract with the Washington Capitals on July 1 as an unrestricted free agent after spending his first 13 NHL seasons with Columbus.
Gudbranson said the best way he sees for the Blue Jackets to overcome Jenner’s departure and end the playoff drought is if each player, younger or older, takes a degree of ownership in the goal.
“It’s a collective thing,” he said. “We actually had a really good group of guys who are older and it’s been a group thing for a while now at least during my time there. Obviously, Boone was at the head of that, and we are going to miss him dearly.
Very happy he got that deal and maybe it was time, I don’t know. I wish he was still there, he’s a great buddy of mine but, nevertheless. It’s collective across the group, there’s different leaders on different days.
It could be a young guy one day, there’s obviously guys who have been around a while and doing it for a while that you lean on but everybody has to be a leader in their own way.”