Sitting in 29th place with virtually no shot at the playoffs the Columbus Blue Jackets need to focus on developing young players. The organization has a handful of players who need both ice time and need to endure losing to figure out how to win. To be specific Adam Fantilli, Kent Johnson, David Jiricek, Dimitri Vronokov, and Kirill Marchenko all of whom figure into the future of the organization need more development.
To date, some of the younger players' handling has been perplexing. Some have been healthy scratches, some have been benched in games, and some have had laughable low minutes. That must stop it is doing more harm than good. By now nearly 30 games into the season players know they need to give good effort every game and should not be punished when they have an off shift, that should be a teachable moment for coach and player, and then try it again. The fact that both Jiricek and Johnson at one point were sent to Cleveland is just baffling.
Nearly every game the players mentioned has been the best on the ice for the Blue Jackets. Fantilli is as advertised, Marchenko has added assists to his game, Voronkov has been a huge addition to the lineup, Jiricek looks like a future top-pairing defenseman, Kent Johnson is starting to find his groove, this is very good news.
Let’s go back to ice time. None of the players listed should play less than 14 minutes a game, not when they are all out playing veterans. The Blue Jackets season is well beyond wins/losses, it is now solely about player development and it is time the front office and head coach come out and say that.
Dwelling in 29th place in a season where there was optimism is a shock to the fan base as they thought the issues of last season's injuries were the cause of bad play. The team is trying to win games and is not tanking, not yet anyway. The team has been unable to hold onto leads and third periods of games have been a nightmare, yet the young players need to be on the ice in those crucial times, more than not they are on the bench with minutes sliced which makes no sense.
For the many issues the Blue Jackets have, one thing they can get right is turning over more responsibility to the young players and allowing them to develop and start setting up the future.
