As the season gets closer and closer, the Columbus Blue Jackets look ahead to a season that will be extremely defining for not only management and the ownership group, but also for the core of this team. They will have to take a step forward to prove they can win and make a push with the guys who are here.
One of the biggest checkpoints for this team will be their forwards. How do they grow or get better, and frankly be a better unit than they were last season? They have to take massive strides; otherwise, this season will be a fatal blow not only to the team, but to the fans as well with all the offseason drama already.
If any of these forwards can position themselves into potential award candidates, that is a big step, but at least being more in control of the play on ice and driving the puck up the ice into the offensive zone more consistently would be a good step.
So, let’s take a look at the offensive projections for the 2026-27 Blue Jackets forwards.
Kirill Marchenko
One guy who has heard it all from the media, fans, and even coaches about a potential departure from Columbus this offseason is Kirill Marchenko. Following the news coming from his camp that he is unlikely to re-sign with the Blue Jackets, tons of reports began to circulate about him forcing his way out.
This was quickly shut down by Blue Jackets general manager (GM) Don Waddell in a press conference following developmental camp, and he stated that Marchenko would be on the team to open the season.
Unless they are absolutely blown away by an offer, I don’t see that changing either, as they can walk right into next offseason with him as a restricted free agent and not have too many worries of him leaving.
Last season could be considered a down season for an offensive playmaker of the caliber of Marchenko. He scored 27 goals and had 40 assists, to the tune of 67 points, and a plus-7 rating.
As we look ahead to the 2026-27 season, Marchenko will likely play alongside Adam Fantilli again, and should be joined by newcomer Valeri Nichushkin on the other wing opposite him. These players together should elevate his game and give him a breakout season offensively.
2026-27 Season Projection: 38 goals, 42 assists, 80 points, plus-10 rating, 18:45 average ice time (ATOI)
Adam Fantilli
Marchenko’s linemate and top-line center, Fantilli needs to take a significant step in his development if he is going to be worth each penny of the contract he is expected to soon sign.
When he does sign, it sounds like it is going to be hefty, somewhere in the range of $13-14 million per year for five years, reportedly. We will see what the numbers he and his agent Pat Brisson come to terms with the team for.
As for on-ice production, he and Marchenko led the way for Columbus, and he will look to build on those numbers and take it to another level this season.
Last season, he had 24 goals and 35 assists for 59 points, and a minus-13 rating while on the ice. That last number needs to take a big jump for him to prove his worth in the upcoming contract.
2026-27 Season Projection: 30 goals, 38 assists, 68 points, plus-3 rating, 19:45 ATOI
Valeri Nichushkin
The final piece to what is the likely top line is a new addition this season to a team desperately needing goal-scoring and some solid two-way defense. Both of which could be seen from Nichushkin this season in the Union Blues.
Following the Blue Jackets trading with the Colorado Avalanche to acquire Nichushkin, this move feels like it gives them a major Band-Aid to cover up a hole in a room that struggled last season defensively. He gives them a more complete penalty kill unit, and his speed will play extremely well with Marchenko and Fantilli on rushes up ice.
Looking back at the production of Nichushkin last season, he didn’t have eye-popping numbers in a massive Avalanche offensive season, but he did his role and enjoyed being surrounded by great players. He has been close to a point-per-game player for the last few seasons, until 2025-26. I suspect he can get back to that level if he can stay healthy.
He scored 17 goals and had 32 assists for 49 points, and a plus-9 rating on ice. He will hopefully see more ice time in Columbus as opposed to his just under 18 minutes per game last season in Colorado.
2026-27 Season Projection: 21 goals, 39 assists, 60 points, plus-8 rating, 18:45 ATOI
Kent Johnson
Another player the Blue Jackets are expecting a big step up from this season will be Kent Johnson. He was a player who negatively regressed in a big way from a statistical standpoint last season, and if Columbus wants to take that next step, he will have to be a big reason for it.
He had 24 goals and 33 assists for 57 points in 68 games back in 2024-25, but his 2025-26 season was filled with extreme regression that ended with just seven goals and 15 assists in 76 games. He is going to need to be much closer to his 2024-25 season in order for the team to see postseason ice.
The Blue Jackets are going to look for a big step in his playmaking to keep him on the ice this season, and specifically his ability to create for himself as well. In shootouts specifically, he has become one of the best in the whole league in his ability to get the goaltender out of position for an easy goal.
KENT JOHNSON, THAT WAS NASTY 🤢🤮 pic.twitter.com/2OG0AvXJBi
— Gino Hard (@GinoHard_) November 18, 2025
If the Blue Jackets can get even a small bump in his point production this season, and he can create more on his own, they will have more depth scoring and give them more of a chance to compete. Look for him to be somewhere between his previous two seasons.
2026-27 Season Projection: 17 goals, 28 assists, 45 points, plus-1 rating, 16:30 ATOI
Sean Monahan
One guy who struggled to play to the best of his abilities last season due to battling tons of injuries was Sean Monahan, yet he only missed four games on the season. However, with an offseason and a full reset for his body, he should be able to get back to the form Columbus expects of him.
Much like Johnson, in 2024-25 he was highly productive as a point-per-game player, and he likely will be back to that this season. With two players who play vastly different playstyles to complement his game, he could take another nice step as the number-two center on this team and give them more two-way play down the middle of the lineup.
Johnson on one side and Dmitri Voronkov on the other side give him a playmaker and a net-front presence to boost the offensive output for the second line, while not sacrificing the two-way game at all, with Monahan being defensively sound the other way.
Last season he had 13 goals and 23 assists for 36 points, but this season expect him to get closer to what he has been as a playmaker in the past and as a goal scorer as well. His career high in goals in a season is 34 goals back in 2018-19 as a member of the Calgary Flames, but hasn’t touched 20 goals yet with the Blue Jackets.
I suspect he will be right below 20 goals, but will see a drastic increase in assists back to where he was expected to be when he signed with the Blue Jackets in 2024.
2026-27 Season Projection: 15 goals, 31 assists, 46 points, plus-3 rating, 17:15 ATOI
Dmitri Voronkov
The last piece of the top-six forwards is Dmitri Voronkov, and he, out of all six players in this article, has the most to prove this season. He enters this season in the final year of a two-year contract he signed, which will walk him into restricted free agency next summer.
His 2025-26 season wasn’t one that he would’ve dreamt of, but it also wasn’t terrible. He led the league in goals scored off tip-ins with 10, but he struggled to get consistent ice time with inconsistent two-way play, which is something that has been preached about by coach Rick Bowness.
I suspect he can get back closer to his 2024-25 numbers, where he put up 23 goals and had 24 assists, as opposed to 17 goals and 15 assists from this previous season. He will need to be a massive factor on the power play again for the Blue Jackets if they want their special teams units to take another step and become a threat in more than one phase of the game.
Most goals by type last season:
Wristshot — Macklin Celebrini | 27 goals
Snapshot — Wyatt Johnston | 28 goals
Slapshot — Darren Raddysh | 16 goals
Backhand — Jason Robertson | 9 goalsTipped in — Dmitri Voronkov | 10 goals
Deflected — J.T. Miller | 5 goalsWraparound —… pic.twitter.com/kL6cP74wrR
— Big Head Hockey (@bigheadhcky) July 22, 2026
However, if Voronkov can’t take that next step, it will be hard for the Blue Jackets to be a physical net-front team without a consistent presence. They need him to physically be in the right shape to be able to play a full season and not burn out mid-season.
One of the biggest things from a season ago he was told he needed to fix was his conditioning, because he was nearly unusable in many games late in the season because he couldn’t keep it up playing both ways.
If he can become a force both ways for them, and they also are able to get consistency from their top six, they will have more depth scoring and an ability to compete with the better teams in the league who have a filled-out lineup.
The bottom-six forward predictions will come out soon, where we will cover the third- and fourth-line predictions and how they can work together to create more offense, which they struggled to create last season.
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