The 2023-24 season has been a slog for the Columbus Blue Jackets. In a campaign that had expanded expectations, Ohio’s team has been tormented by challenge after challenge. One of those challenges early on was their star players not playing like star players. We at The Hockey Writers had been critical in articles and on our Union Junction podcast about the play of Johnny Gaudreau, in particular, who was slow as molasses to start the season. Things have changed, and his play since the middle of January shows that he is still worthy of being the highest-paid Blue Jacket.
Gaudreau’s Slow Start to the Season
It was an incredibly slow start, not just for Gaudreau but for the entire Blue Jackets organization. There was a new head coach with all new systems, a few new additions that led to too many roster players clamoring for too few roster spots, and more. It all added up to poor offensive output across the board.
As the highest-paid player by Average Annual Value (AAV) in the Blue Jackets’ history, Gaudreau was considered an engine of consistency powering the team through good times and bad. However, through the team’s first 41 games, he was tied for the lead in scoring with defenseman Zach Werenski at 25 points. Not great.
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His slow start raised many questions. Many a comment section was filled with overreaction from Blue Jackets onlookers wondering if the seven-year, $68 million contract signed by Gaudreau in 2022 was a mistake. He was even benched by head coach Pascal Vincent along with fellow star Patrik Laine in an outing against the Arizona Coyotes in the midst of the team’s franchise record-tying nine-game losing streak. It was a rock bottom moment, from which the player has rebounded as of late.
Gaudreau Has Been in Form Since Jan. 13
Jan. 13, 2024, is a key date in the tapestry of this Blue Jackets’ season. No, it’s not a date that will be held in the same esteem as, say, Apr. 8, 2009, when the Jackets clinched their first-ever playoff berth, or Apr. 16, 2019, when they finished their sweep of the Tampa Bay Lightning for their first playoff series win. But Jan. 13 is a date in this season that shouldn’t go unmentioned because it’s when Gaudreau’s production got back on track.
During the 7-4 loss to the Seattle Kraken, Gaudreau recorded an assist, snapping a four-game pointless streak that remains tied for his longest drought so far in his Blue Jackets’ tenure. That second period and powerplay assist has been a watershed moment of sorts. Not that things have gotten better from a team perspective, but Gaudreau has become more of the player he had been brought in to be. It was the start of a stretch in which the diminutive forward has racked up 33 points in 34 games. That puts him on pace for 79 points through a full season, and his 29 assists put him among the best, tied for 12th in the league.
While his four goals over that span are far from elite, it’s important to remember that Gaudreau wasn’t brought in to be an elite twine tickler. Sure, he scored 40 in 2021-22, but that was an outlier, considering it was the only time he scored more than 21 goals since 2019.
Gaudreau was signed to Columbus as one of the NHL’s few elite, puck-distributing wingers. He exists mainly to start plays, not to finish them. And looking at the lineup, Columbus has enough players who are showing that they’ll be able to finish on his passes in the coming seasons. Laine and Boone Jenner are proven 30-goal scorers in the NHL, and Kirill Marchenko, Adam Fantilli, Dmitry Voronkov, and Yegor Chinakhov are showing that they could be on their way to hitting that marker in the next few seasons. They need an elite passer like Gaudreau to help get them there. With the way he’s been playing down the stretch, he’s proving that he’s the right guy to continue doing the job through next season and beyond.