The Columbus Blue Jackets are gearing up for their first game of the 2025-26 season tomorrow against the Nashville Predators. Today, head coach Dean Evason met with the media and shared some insight on what the opening night lineup will look like.

Evason told reporters that forward Yegor Chinakhov will be a healthy scratch on Thursday. He mentioned that he met with Chinakhov to go over everything and make sure they’re on the same page.

This past offseason, a report came out from Chinakhov’s agent stating that he had requested a trade. Obviously, that hasn’t happened yet, but it doesn’t seem out of the question, especially now that he’s starting the year as a healthy scratch.

If this continues, it’ll be interesting to see if his agent speaks out publicly again, or if Chinakhov takes advantage of his opportunities when he does get into the lineup and earns a more consistent spot.

At practice today, these were the lines that are projected for opening night.

Voronkovv - Monahan - Marchenko

Jenner - Fantilli - Sillinger 

Johnson - Coyle - Olivier

Aston-Reese - Lundeström - Wood

Werenski - Fabbro

Provorov - Severson

Mateychuk - Gudbranson

Merzlikins - Greaves

It definitely feels like Chinakhov could be the odd man out for a good portion of the early games. Still, this is a strong lineup that, on paper, fits Evason’s style of play well.

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