# 2018–19 Columbus Blue Jackets season

The 2018–19 Columbus Blue Jackets season was the 19th season for the National Hockey League franchise that was established on June 25, 1997. On April 5, 2019, the Blue Jackets clinched a playoff spot after a 3–2 shootout win over the New York Rangers.
The Blue Jackets won their first ever playoff series by sweeping the Presidents' Trophy winners, the Tampa Bay Lightning, in the First Round of the playoffs. However, the Blue Jackets were not able to carry their success into the Second Round, and they were eliminated by the Boston Bruins in six games.

## Standings

Metropolitan Division :
| Pos | Team v t e | GP | W | L | OTL | ROW | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
| 1 | y – Washington Capitals | 82 | 48 | 26 | 8 | 44 | 278 | 249 | +29 | 104 |
| 2 | x – New York Islanders | 82 | 48 | 27 | 7 | 43 | 228 | 196 | +32 | 103 |
| 3 | x – Pittsburgh Penguins | 82 | 44 | 26 | 12 | 42 | 273 | 241 | +32 | 100 |
| 4 | x – Carolina Hurricanes | 82 | 46 | 29 | 7 | 44 | 245 | 223 | +22 | 99 |
| 5 | x – Columbus Blue Jackets | 82 | 47 | 31 | 4 | 45 | 258 | 232 | +26 | 98 |
| 6 | Philadelphia Flyers | 82 | 37 | 37 | 8 | 34 | 244 | 281 | −37 | 82 |
| 7 | New York Rangers | 82 | 32 | 36 | 14 | 26 | 227 | 272 | −45 | 78 |
| 8 | New Jersey Devils | 82 | 31 | 41 | 10 | 28 | 222 | 275 | −53 | 72 |
Eastern Conference Wild Card :
| Pos | Div | Team v t e | GP | W | L | OTL | ROW | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
| 1 | ME | x – Carolina Hurricanes | 82 | 46 | 29 | 7 | 44 | 245 | 223 | +22 | 99 |
| 2 | ME | x – Columbus Blue Jackets | 82 | 47 | 31 | 4 | 45 | 258 | 232 | +26 | 98 |
| 3 | AT | Montreal Canadiens | 82 | 44 | 30 | 8 | 41 | 249 | 236 | +13 | 96 |
| 4 | AT | Florida Panthers | 82 | 36 | 32 | 14 | 33 | 267 | 280 | −13 | 86 |
| 5 | ME | Philadelphia Flyers | 82 | 37 | 37 | 8 | 34 | 244 | 281 | −37 | 82 |
| 6 | ME | New York Rangers | 82 | 32 | 36 | 14 | 26 | 227 | 272 | −45 | 78 |
| 7 | AT | Buffalo Sabres | 82 | 33 | 39 | 10 | 28 | 226 | 271 | −45 | 76 |
| 8 | AT | Detroit Red Wings | 82 | 32 | 40 | 10 | 29 | 227 | 277 | −50 | 74 |
| 9 | ME | New Jersey Devils | 82 | 31 | 41 | 10 | 28 | 222 | 275 | −53 | 72 |
| 10 | AT | Ottawa Senators | 82 | 29 | 47 | 6 | 29 | 242 | 302 | −60 | 64 |

## Schedule and results
### Preseason

The preseason schedule was published on June 15, 2018.

### Regular season

The regular season schedule was released on June 21, 2018.
2018–19 game log :
Legend:
  Win (2 points)
  Loss (0 points)
  Overtime/shootout loss (1 point) :

### Playoffs

The Blue Jackets faced the Tampa Bay Lightning in the First Round of the playoffs, and swept the series in four games, marking the first time in franchise history the team won a playoff series.
The Blue Jackets faced the Boston Bruins in the Second Round of the playoffs, where they fell to the Bruins in six games.
2019 Stanley Cup playoffs :
Legend:
  Win
  Loss :

## Player statistics

As of May 6, 2019

### Skaters

Regular season :
| Player | GP | G | A | Pts | +/− | PIM |
| Artemi Panarin | 79 | 28 | 59 | 87 | 14 | 23 |
| Cam Atkinson | 80 | 41 | 28 | 69 | 3 | 20 |
| Pierre-Luc Dubois | 82 | 27 | 34 | 61 | 16 | 64 |
| Josh Anderson | 82 | 27 | 20 | 47 | 25 | 60 |
| Seth Jones | 75 | 9 | 37 | 46 | 1 | 28 |
| Zach Werenski | 82 | 11 | 33 | 44 | −12 | 18 |
| Boone Jenner | 77 | 16 | 22 | 38 | 6 | 42 |
| Oliver Bjorkstrand | 77 | 23 | 13 | 36 | 8 | 8 |
| Nick Foligno | 73 | 17 | 18 | 35 | 12 | 44 |
| Ryan Murray | 56 | 1 | 28 | 29 | 20 | 10 |
| Alexander Wennberg | 75 | 2 | 23 | 25 | −1 | 12 |
| David Savard | 82 | 8 | 16 | 24 | 19 | 36 |
| Markus Nutivaara | 80 | 5 | 16 | 21 | 3 | 6 |
| Anthony Duclair$^‡$ | 53 | 11 | 8 | 19 | −3 | 12 |
| Scott Harrington | 73 | 2 | 15 | 17 | 6 | 23 |
| Brandon Dubinsky | 61 | 6 | 8 | 14 | −16 | 36 |
| Matt Duchene$^†$ | 23 | 4 | 8 | 12 | −1 | 2 |
| Ryan Dzingel$^†$ | 21 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 4 | 0 |
| Riley Nash | 78 | 3 | 9 | 12 | −8 | 19 |
| Markus Hannikainen | 44 | 4 | 3 | 7 | −5 | 2 |
| Lukas Sedlak | 47 | 4 | 2 | 6 | −5 | 10 |
| Dean Kukan | 25 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 |
| Adam McQuaid$^†$ | 14 | 1 | 1 | 2 | −1 | 9 |
| Alexandre Texier | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| Sonny Milano | 8 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Zac Dalpe | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Mark Letestu | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | −1 | 0 |
| Kole Sherwood | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Gabriel Carlsson | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | −1 | 2 |
| Adam Clendening | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Kevin Stenlund | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Eric Robinson | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | −4 | 0 |
Playoffs :
| Player | GP | G | A | Pts | +/− | PIM |
| Artemi Panarin | 10 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 0 | 0 |
| Matt Duchene | 10 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 4 | 0 |
| Seth Jones | 10 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| Cam Atkinson | 10 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 2 | 4 |
| Zach Werenski | 10 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 9 |
| Oliver Bjorkstrand | 10 | 2 | 3 | 5 | −1 | 0 |
| Pierre-Luc Dubois | 10 | 2 | 3 | 5 | −5 | 14 |
| Scott Harrington | 10 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
| Alexandre Texier | 8 | 2 | 1 | 3 | −2 | 2 |
| Riley Nash | 7 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 4 |
| Josh Anderson | 10 | 1 | 2 | 3 | −5 | 22 |
| David Savard | 10 | 1 | 2 | 3 | −1 | 4 |
| Boone Jenner | 10 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| Nick Foligno | 10 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 4 |
| Ryan Dzingel | 9 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| Brandon Dubinsky | 10 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 |
| Dean Kukan | 10 | 1 | 0 | 1 | −2 | 2 |
| Adam Clendening | 7 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Alexander Wennberg | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Markus Nutivaara | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Vladislav Gavrikov | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | −2 | 0 |
| Markus Hannikainen | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | −1 | 0 |

### Goaltenders

Regular season :
| Player | GP | GS | TOI | W | L | OT | GA | GAA | SA | SV% | SO | G | A | PIM |
| Sergei Bobrovsky | 62 | 61 | 3,556:40 | 37 | 24 | 1 | 153 | 2.58 | 1,756 | .913 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Joonas Korpisalo | 27 | 21 | 1,360:34 | 10 | 7 | 3 | 67 | 2.95 | 651 | .897 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Playoffs :
| Player | GP | GS | TOI | W | L | GA | GAA | SA | SV% | SO | G | A | PIM |
| Sergei Bobrovsky | 10 | 10 | 622:56 | 6 | 4 | 25 | 2.41 | 333 | .925 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
$^†$Denotes player spent time with another team before joining the Blue Jackets. Stats reflect time with the Blue Jackets only. $^‡$Denotes player was traded mid-season. Stats reflect time with the Blue Jackets only. Bold/italics denotes franchise record.

## Transactions

The Blue Jackets have been involved in the following transactions during the 2018–19 season.

### Trades

| Date | Details | Details |
| June 23, 2018 (2018-06-23) | To Detroit Red Wings5th-round pick in 2019 | To Columbus Blue JacketsMTL's 6th-round pick in 2018 |
| June 27, 2018 (2018-06-27) | To Chicago BlackhawksJordan Schroeder | To Columbus Blue JacketsJean-Francois Berube |
| July 18, 2018 (2018-07-18) | To Arizona CoyotesJacob Graves Conditional 6th-round pick in 2019 | To Columbus Blue JacketsRyan MacInnis |
| February 11, 2019 (2019-02-11) | To Pittsburgh PenguinsBlake Siebenaler | To Columbus Blue JacketsConditional 7th-round pick in 2019 |
| February 22, 2019 (2019-02-22) | To Ottawa SenatorsVitalii Abramov Jonathan Davidsson Conditional 1st-round pick in 2019 Conditional 1st-round pick in 2020 | To Columbus Blue JacketsJulius Bergman Matt Duchene |
| February 23, 2019 (2019-02-23) | To Ottawa SenatorsAnthony Duclair 2nd-round pick in 2020 2nd-round pick in 2021 | To Columbus Blue JacketsRyan Dzingel CGY's 7th-round pick in 2019 |
| February 25, 2019 (2019-02-25) | To New Jersey Devils5th-round pick in 2022 | To Columbus Blue JacketsKeith Kinkaid |
| February 25, 2019 (2019-02-25) | To New York RangersJulius Bergman 4th-round pick in 2019 7th-round pick in 2019 | To Columbus Blue JacketsAdam McQuaid |
| February 25, 2019 (2019-02-25) | To Winnipeg JetsAlex Broadhurst | To Columbus Blue JacketsFuture considerations |

### Free agents

| Date | Player | Team | Contract term |
| July 1, 2018 (2018-07-01) | Matt Calvert | to Colorado Avalanche | 3-year |
| July 1, 2018 (2018-07-01) | Adam Clendening | from Chicago Blackhawks | 1-year |
| July 1, 2018 (2018-07-01) | Ian Cole | to Colorado Avalanche | 3-year |
| July 1, 2018 (2018-07-01) | Tommy Cross | from Boston Bruins | 1-year |
| July 1, 2018 (2018-07-01) | Cameron Gaunce | to Tampa Bay Lightning | 1-year |
| July 1, 2018 (2018-07-01) | Jack Johnson | to Pittsburgh Penguins | 5-year |
| July 1, 2018 (2018-07-01) | Riley Nash | from Boston Bruins | 3-year |
| July 1, 2018 (2018-07-01) | Dillon Simpson | from Edmonton Oilers | 2-year |
| July 1, 2018 (2018-07-01) | Thomas Vanek | to Detroit Red Wings | 1-year |
| July 5, 2018 (2018-07-05) | Anthony Duclair | from Chicago Blackhawks | 1-year |
| July 6, 2018 (2018-07-06) | Jeff Zatkoff | to Straubing Tigers (DEL) | Unknown |
| July 7, 2018 (2018-07-07) | Taylor Chorney | to Lugano (NL) | 1-year |
| September 27, 2018 (2018-09-27) | Michael Prapavessis | from RPI Engineers (ECAC) | 2-year |
| June 15, 2019 (2019-06-15) | Jakob Lilja | from Djurgårdens IF (SHL) | 1-year |

### Waivers

| Date | Player | Team | Ref |

### Signings

| Date | Player | Contract term |
| July 5, 2018 (2018-07-05) | Boone Jenner | 4-year |
| July 14, 2018 (2018-07-14) | Ryan Murray | 1-year |
| July 15, 2018 (2018-07-15) | Oliver Bjorkstrand | 3-year |
| July 30, 2018 (2018-07-30) | Liam Foudy | 3-year |
| September 27, 2018 (2018-09-27) | Mark Letestu | 1-year |
| February 27, 2019 (2019-02-27) | Zac Dalpe | 2-year |
| March 15, 2019 (2019-03-15) | Trey Fix-Wolansky | 3-year |
| March 20, 2019 (2019-03-20) | Elvis Merzlikins | 1-year |
| April 1, 2019 (2019-04-01) | Andrew Peeke | 3-year |
| April 13, 2019 (2019-04-13) | Vladislav Gavrikov | 2-year |
| May 4, 2019 (2019-05-04) | Daniil Tarasov | 3-year |
| May 14, 2019 (2019-05-14) | Emil Bemstrom | 3-year |
| May 15, 2019 (2019-05-15) | Elvis Merzlikins | 1-year |
| June 4, 2019 (2019-06-04) | Veini Vehvilainen | 2-year |
| June 15, 2019 (2019-06-15) | Markus Hannikainen | 1-year |

## Draft picks

Below are the Columbus Blue Jackets' selections at the 2018 NHL Entry Draft, which was held on June 22 and 23, 2018, at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas.
| Round | # | Player | Pos | Nationality | College/Junior/Club team (League) |
| 1 | 18 | Liam Foudy | C | Canada | London Knights (OHL) |
| 2 | 49 | Kirill Marchenko | LW | Russia | Mamonty Yugry (MHL) |
| 3 | 80 | Marcus Karlberg | RW | Sweden | Leksands IF J20 (SuperElit) |
| 6 | 159$^1$ | Tim Berni | D | Switzerland | GCK Lions (NLB) |
| 6 | 173 | Veini Vehvilainen | G | Finland | Karpat (Liiga) |
| 7 | 204 | Trey Fix-Wolansky | RW | Canada | Edmonton Oil Kings (WHL) |
Notes:
* The Detroit Red Wings' sixth-round pick went to the Columbus Blue Jackets as the result of a trade on June 23, 2018, that sent a sixth-round pick in 2019 to Detroit in exchange for this pick.