The Blue Jackets, Senators and Blackhawks are three teams that had higher aspirations than what they have shown on the ice thus far. This has put them in a position where change seems inevitable.

We’re not even halfway through the NHL’s 2023-24 regular season, but in the case of a few unfortunate teams, we’re basically at the point of no return. When you have serious struggles out of the gate, and you can’t correct your trajectory with a long run of wins, the writing on the wall becomes readily apparent. And we’re seeing that with three teams in particular: the Ottawa Senators, Columbus Blue Jackets and Chicago Blackhawks.

We’ve covered the Blue Jackets’ season from hell recently, but they got another dose of bad news when sniper Patrik Laine fractured his clavicle Thursday against Toronto; Columbus is dead-last in the Metropolitan Division, and nothing short of a Vatican-validated miracle can turn their season around and make them a legitimate Stanley Cup playoff contender. The Jackets need major changes, from their ineffective roster to their management team, and they have no choice at this stage but to shift the focus to next season.

Meanwhile, the Senators dropped their third straight game – and their seventh regulation-time loss in their past 10 games (3-7-0) – Friday against Dallas to see their record fall to 11-14-0 in the Atlantic Division. Ottawa now is 12 standings points behind Detroit for a playoff position in the Atlantic, leaving them absolutely no room for error in the 57 games they have yet to play. And even if they went on an improbable, extended win streak, they’ll need teams in their division to completely collapse. It’s not going to happen, and the Sens almost certainly will miss out on post-season hockey for the seventh consecutive season. Even a new ownership and management structure can’t make the big picture a positive one for Ottawa, and they’re all but doomed to drag themselves through the rest of the season in games that have little to no meaning.

Finally, the Blackhawks are the worst team in the Central Division with a 9-19-1 record and just 19 standings points, the lowest amount of any franchise in the league thus far. The Hawks have lost three straight games and they’re 3-6-1 in their past 10. They’re currently seven points behind seventh-place-in-the-Central Minnesota, and a whopping 15 points behind the fourth-place Nashville Predators. Some believed Chicago would take a step up the standings with phenom Connor Bedard on board, but others (this writer included) saw their lack of quality depth as an obstacle too big to overcome, and that’s what’s come to pass through their 29 games. It’s going to be a long rest of the season for the Blackhawks, but in their macro picture, they’re going to get another elite young player in the draft, so not all is lost.

What impact will the Blue Jackets, Senators and Hawks have for the remainder of the year? More than anything else, the trade market will be beefed up by their struggles. In Columbus, they’ve got goalie Spencer Martin as a veteran who’ll be an unrestricted free agent next summer, and whoever is their GM at the trade deadline will be shopping Laine and forward Jack Roslovic to see what they can get for them.

In Chicago, the Hawks have four veteran forwards who’ll be UFAs at season’s end: Nick Foligno, Tyler Johnson, Anthony Beauvillier and Jason Dickinson. None of the four are stars, but as depth pickups and/or expiring contracts, they’ll draw much interest from playoff-bound organizations. Hawks GM Kyle Davidson knows full well he’s still in the early days of a bottom-to-top rebuild, so he won’t hesitate to move on from the quartet of UFAs.

And in Ottawa, the Senators have two veteran wingers who’ll be UFAs in the summer: Vladimir Tarasenko – who has posted 13 assists and 19 points in 24 games – and Dominik Kubalik, who has six goals and seven points in 25 games. Tarasenko would be one of the top forwards on the trade market, and while he does have a full-no-trade clause, if he were traded to a team willing to give him a contract extension, he’d happily go to that team and interim GM Steve Staios could land his team a nice package of draft picks and/or prospects. Senators fans are rightfully dismayed by what’s happened for them this year, and you’d better believe Staios has wrapped his mind around which players to keep for the long term, and which players are short-termers.

The crushing disappointment at this stage of the season for the Sens, Blue Jackets and Blackhawks will shape the choices their management teams make the rest of the way. They’ve all fallen well short of their best intentions, and as a result, none of them can afford to stand pat. The only real question left for them this year is which players will be left behind to slog through until the promise of a new season arrives.