Anaheim and San Jose show promise with top prospects, while Columbus, lacking new additions, may end up as the league's worst team.
The Blue Jackets appear to be inline for another difficult season with not making many additions to the main roster as well as having to deal with the tragic loss of Johnny Gaudreau, which will weigh on the minds of the entire organization.
Their offence looks like it'll be very dependent on young forwards like Kent Johnson, Adam Fantilli, Kirill Marchenko and Yegor Chinakhov, who will all have to play important roles in the teams top six.
Last season, Columbus wasn't the worst on offence but did finish bottom eight in goals-per-game average at 2.85 and tied with the St. Louis Blues. They should take a step back in this department as their only key addition was former Winnipeg Jet Sean Monahan.
The 30-year-old Brampton native may not have the tools on Columbus to beat any career-high numbers but do expect him to put in an extra effort into this upcoming season to make his late friend Gaudreau proud.
His over/under is listed at 54.5 on Bet365 and should be one of the few future bets on the Blue Jackets that has a chance of hitting. When healthy for 70 or more games, he recorded 55+ points in six of eight seasons including last year on the Jets and Canadiens.
Despite Monahan, Columbus will see a dip in offence and which won't help their defence that is already one of the worst in the league. They made no moves to the backend in the off-season and are coming off a season, where they finished second-worst in the league in goals allowed with 298 due to poor depth on the backend and weak goaltending.
25-year-old Netminder Daniil Tarasov could still develop into a solid goaltender but the team won't receive much help from backup Elvis Merzļikins, who has showed he is past his prime at age 30 as he's recorded a 20-35-10 record and 3.77 goals against average over 71 appearances with the Blue Jackets since the start of the 2022-23 season.
It doesn't look good for the Blue Jackets next season and makes them a candidate to finish with the league's worst record as teams around them like the Sharks and Ducks show more promise with high-end prospects being called up to the main roster this upcoming season.
Unless the Blue Jackets give us a reason to be optimistic, I think Columbus to finish with the worst record at +300 on DraftKings and +350 on Bet365 is seemingly a solid future bet heading into next season.
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