Columbus Blue Jackets Schedule 2026
The Columbus Blue Jackets missed the playoffs for a sixth straight season in 2025-26 at 40-30-12, but Zach Werenski became the first player in franchise history to win the Norris Trophy as the league's top defenseman. This Columbus Blue Jackets team roster keeps its young core intact, with Adam Fantilli and Kirill Marchenko building around Werenski. Find Columbus Blue Jackets tickets at Event Tickets Center.
Columbus Blue Jackets standings have hovered near the bottom of the Eastern Conference for most of the last six years, and last season's 11th-place finish continued that stretch despite individual growth on the roster. Zach Werenski's 81-point season put him in rare company among conference defensemen, a level of offense from the back end this franchise hasn't had before. Kent Johnson and Dmitri Voronkov give this group scoring depth that didn't exist during the longest stretch of that playoff drought.
Checking the Nationwide Arena seating chart means picking seats inside a building that opened in September 2000 on the site of the old Ohio State Penitentiary, in downtown Columbus's Arena District. About 18,500 fans fill the building for hockey, in a rink privately financed and built without public money, a rarity among NHL arenas of its era. The building has hosted every home game in franchise history and remains one of the loudest in the conference on a full night.
Columbus has never played for a Stanley Cup, but the 2019 sweep of the Presidents' Trophy-winning Tampa Bay Lightning remains one of the biggest upsets in NHL playoffs history and still the franchise's only best-of-seven series win. That high point sits six years back, with the team now on its longest playoff drought since entering the league in 2000. A Norris Trophy winner on the blue line is the kind of piece a Cup run elsewhere has started with.
Columbus has never played for a Stanley Cup, but the 2019 sweep of the Presidents' Trophy-winning Tampa Bay Lightning remains one of the biggest upsets in NHL playoffs history and still the only series this franchise has won. That high point sits six years back, with the team now on its longest playoff drought since entering the league in 2000. A Norris Trophy winner on the blue line is the kind of piece a Cup run elsewhere has started with.
This is a franchise still searching for its first real championship window, but a historic season from Zach Werenski and a young core finally deep enough to support him give this year a different feel than the last five. Watching that foundation take shape in person beats waiting for a winning record to make the trip worth it. Browse Columbus Blue Jackets game dates at Event Tickets Center.