It’s NHL hockey time again in Columbus and the Blue Jackets are ready.

While training camp for the 2025-26 Blue Jackets season is underway, the goal for Dean Evason & Co. is to take the next step as a franchise. For all 32 teams in the league, the dream of hoisting the Stanley Cup in nine months seems equally real.

Everyone is 0-0 and optimism reigns supreme across the league.

Columbus is no exception, especially after making a jump in the standings last season before alling just two points shy of another playoff appearance. Now, a few months removed from that failure, the team seems poised for a run. Eleven of the team’s top 12 scorers and 14 of the 17 players to skate in at least 50 games all return, and the leadership core is strong with the Blue Jackets.

“I couldn’t be more excited,” center Adam Fantilli said Monday at the team’s annual media day luncheon. “I don’t even know the best way to put it into words, but we’re a confident team now. We expect to make the playoffs, and if we don’t, it’s going to feel like a failure. That does change a little bit of the way you go into the season. You go in with a little bit more swagger, just expecting to win games.”

Alternate captain Zach Werenski agrees.

“Some of the questions that get answered throughout camp, we already have them answered, which is a big advantage for us,” Werenski said. “It’s the same rhetoric every year, but this year I genuinely feel like if we’re not a playoff team, it’s a failure for this group. I think everyone believes that in our locker room, so I’m excited to get to work with guys in a couple of days.”

Columbus feels like it has a roster to compete, especially with a slew of young players like Fantilli, Kirill Marchenko, Kent Johnson, Denton Mateychuk and Jet Greaves, to name a few – coming into their own a season ago.

Evason’s edict of being prepared to play was embraced by the team last season, and it showed. Now, the coach hopes to extend that to this year.

“The Stanley Cup is our expectation,” Evason said. “That’s what we want, right? We have to make steps in order to get there, and that first step is obviously to make the playoffs and then each round after that. Our expectations are to have a great season, make the playoffs, and then we want to win the first round and then move forward.

“You guys put expectations. We want to see the guys compete every night, and then we’ll see where we sit.”

The Blue Jackets announced their roster for Sunday night’s preseason opener to be held at 5 p.m. ET at Nationwide Arena. The game will be broadcast on 97.1 The Fan and streamed in Blue Jackets television territory on BlueJackets.com and the CBJ app.

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