The Columbus Blue Jackets have had an eventful week. After news broke that Mike Babcock is presumed to be their next head coach, they got down to making some changes to their roster personnel. Within 72 hours, the Blue Jackets traded for not one, but two legitimate top-four defensemen without giving up any roster players.
First, they acquired Russian Ivan Provorov from the Philadelphia Flyers, giving up the 22nd overall pick in this year’s draft and a conditional second-round pick in 2024 or 2025. Then they spent the 80th overall pick to acquire Damon Severson from the New Jersey Devils, who was slated to be the top right-shot defenseman in this summer’s free agent class. The two additions clutter an already logjammed defense corps for Columbus. So let’s dive into how things look on their blue line depth chart at this point in the summer.
Top-Four Locks – Werenski, Severson, and Provorov
Zach Werenski, 25, is a lock at the top of this depth chart. The perennial All-Star for the Blue Jackets is still on the upswing of his career. It’s no coincidence that the season went entirely off the rails the moment he was sidelined with a season-ending shoulder injury. He is number one on the pecking order, and that is something not likely to change in the last five years of his contract.
Severson, 29, has yet to be relied on as a top-pairing defenseman full-time. The closest he got was averaging 23:36 per night in the 2021-22 season, during which he scored a career-high 11 goals and 46 points. There’s no reason to believe he couldn’t be relied on in a top role. To be clear, the Blue Jackets would not be paying him $6.25 million for each of the next eight years if they did not believe he could spend a significant amount of time on the top-pair.
Related: 3 Blue Jackets’ Takeaways From Their Acquisition of Severson
What is understated in this is that Severson is by all accounts a great person. Watching his season-ending media availability with the Devils and his introductory press conference with Columbus, you get a glimpse of all you need to know. He has a positive demeanor and seems like he is eager to be a stabilizing veteran presence. That’s something that’s been missing from the blue line since Seth Jones was traded in 2021.
Provorov, 26, was drafted one slot ahead of Werenski in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft but will be spending the next two seasons one slot behind the Michigander on the depth chart. He’s already got 532 games of NHL experience as a minute-munching defenseman for the Flyers. He was relied on in all situations, averaging 24:05 per night, and is a solid defender. He solidifies the second pair and is an upgrade over Vladislav Gavrikov who covered that role for most of last season.
Top-Four Potential – Boqvist, Peeke, and more
Filling the bottom three slots on the blue line is where things get really tricky. It’s not because there are not enough players who are good enough, but because the Blue Jackets have seven different players who could fill those roles. We’ll start with the three guys who could take that final spot in the top-four.
Adam Boqvist, 22, was the top scorer on the blue line last season. It’s rare that a defenseman of his age has almost 200 games of NHL experience and even rarer that they’ve scored almost 100 points. He was on pace for 42 points last year and there is no reason to believe that his production will not continue to grow. His biggest question mark involves his ability to stay healthy as his career high over four seasons is 52 games. He has made a habit out of missing games, which could hurt his development and ultimately his trade value. He could also use some work on the defensive side of the puck, but that comes with more experience in the league.
Andrew Peeke, 25, would bring a more shutdown style to the second pair as more of a stay-at-home defender. He is a legitimate NHL defenseman, who blocked just under 200 shots and made 180 hits through 80 games last year. He’s spent time as high as the top-pair, while growing his play as a professional.
Peeke’s contract is what makes him most interesting. He is signed for the next three years at a healthy $2.75 million cap-hit and has played over 20 minutes a night the last two years. He could very well have the most trade value, based on ability and value on his contract. If dangled in front of a contender, he could be the next in a line of trades like the Tampa Bay Lightning’s hefty acquisitions of Brandon Hagel or Tanner Jeannot, where a value contract with term highly inflates a player’s trade value.
David Jiricek, 19, is going to be a top-pair defenseman for the Jackets eventually, but will it be this year? One of the most important parts of the Severson and Provorov trades is that Jiricek doesn’t have to be rushed to the NHL out of necessity. While he put together a pretty solid first season as a pro with the American Hockey League (AHL)’s Cleveland Monsters, he can now grow at his own pace. If he puts in the work this summer and grows in confidence, he could be ready for the big leagues as soon as 2023-24.
Bottom-Pairing Players – Gudbranson, Blankenburg & More
If three guys vying for that one slot wasn’t enough, things get even more complex when you look down at the abundance of players who are ideally suited to a third-pairing role.
Erik Gudbranson, 32, has a few things going for him. His $4 million cap-hit and veteran presence makes him a lock to play the majority of nights. He will be most effective correctly slotted in anchoring the third pairing, where he can lean into his physical presence as a big hitter and shot blocker. While many scoff at his inflated contract, a lot of that money goes towards the intangibles he brings as a mentor to the younger players looking to learn from a guy who’s been an NHL regular for 12 seasons.
Nick Blankenburg, 25, plays with a reckless abandon that endears him to the Fifth Line. Unfortunately, that also means he tends to wind up on the injured reserve by putting his body in jeopardy to make a big hit or risky play. In his first full season, he was limited to 36 games. He does bring a lot of positives, though. He’s got a work ethic rivaling the Energizer Bunny and a strong hockey sense on both sides of the puck. If he is able to get it together, he too could be in the running for a top-four spot in the future, but for now, he’s a great third-pairing piece.
Continuing with the theme of players injured last year, Jake Bean, 25, is a wild card. He’s been a player that many have had their eyes on. A more offensively inclined defender, he was a standout in the minor leagues. In 2019-20 he was named the AHL’s Defenseman of the Year, after having been a high draft pick for the Carolina Hurricanes. He had six points in 14 games for the Blue Jackets last year before being sidelined with a shoulder injury. Being a left-shot puts him automatically behind Werenski and Provorov, so the third pair is his ceiling to start. However, if one of those guys gets hurt, Bean could be counted on to fill some pretty meaningful minutes down the stretch.
2018 sixth-round pick Tim Berni, 23, is more of a defensive defenseman, who did have pretty good chemistry with Gudbranson in a pinch while the roster was riddled with injury. But on a healthy roster, it doesn’t seem like he will have many chances. While he played the third-most games on the Blue Jackets’ blue line in 2022-23, he will be fighting an uphill battle to make it into the lineup in 2023-24.
Early Look Depth Chart
So we’ve laid out all the players. If I were to build a set of pairings from them, this is what it would look like:
| Pairings | Left Defense | Right Defense |
| 1st | *Zach Werenski | *Damon Severson |
| 2nd | *Ivan Provorov | Adam Boqvist |
| 3rd | Nick Blankenburg | *Erik Gudbranson |
| Spare | Jake Bean | Andrew Peeke |
| Spare | Tim Berni | David Jiricek |
This is still leaving out a few factors, not yet including other players who could push for a roster spot, like Stanislav Svozil or Jake Christiansen. Even without them and Berni and Jiricek starting the season in Cleveland, there will still be two very capable defenders sitting out every game. One would have to imagine there might be another move or two on the horizon to make space on the Blue Jackets’ back end.
Regardless of what happens through the rest of the summer, one thing that’s for sure is the defense corps is significantly stronger heading into this October than it was leaving the 2022-23 season. It is most certainly going to be an interesting start to the season in the Ohio state capital.