Latest On Charlie Coyle Contract Talks
As the 2025-26 season progressed, more and more pending unrestricted free agents signed contract extensions to remain with their current teams. A free agent market that was once slated to feature big names such as Connor McDavid and Kirill Kaprizov has thinned out to a considerable degree, simultaneously hurting teams with big spending plans and helping the players who remain without a contract. One of the players who appears set to benefit most is Columbus Blue Jackets pivot Charlie Coyle.
Coyle, 34, is a pending UFA coming off of an extremely strong platform season. He’s set to be one of the top players available overall, and plays a premium position (center.) While his age might give some teams pause, he’s expected to receive significant interest on July 1 if he makes it until then without a new contract.
Yesterday, The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline reported that the Blue Jackets are determined to not let things reach that point. According to Portzline, a potential Coyle extension “is an immensely important contract for the Blue Jackets, such that Coyle could be seen as having a blank check to set his terms.”
On one hand, it’s not too difficult to see why Columbus would be desperate to extend Coyle. For much of Columbus’ franchise history, the team has battled a talent deficiency at the center position.
The Blue Jackets have been searching for a true No. 1 center for most of their existence in the NHL, and could very well have found one in Adam Fantilli. But Fantilli is still developing into that role, and the team’s No. 2 center, Sean Monahan, played through injury this season and was limited to just 13 goals and 36 points in 78 games. That’s a steep decline from his production last season, when he scored 19 goals and 57 points in 54 games. Monahan’s down season only further underscored Coyle’s importance to Columbus’ lineup.
Keeping Coyle would ensure the center position remains an area of strength in the Blue Jackets’ lineup. Part of why it may be seen as essential to team management is the fact that Columbus is under substantial pressure to reach the playoffs. They have very narrowly missed out on playoff hockey in each of the last two seasons, doing so in dramatic fashion this year.
The Blue Jackets have not made the playoffs since 2019-20, when they defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs in a qualifying-round series. The club cannot afford to take a step backward or hurt their odds of competing next season, and most would argue that losing Coyle on the open market would be doing so.
With that said, on the other hand, it’s also fair to question whether investing in Coyle would be in the team’s best long-term interests. If Columbus do indeed feel backed into a corner with Coyle, as Portzline suggested, that’s not exactly an ideal position to negotiate from.
The team’s immense interest in keeping Coyle, combined with the anticipated heavy interest in his services from across the league, gives him a massive amount of leverage in talks with the Blue Jackets. Coyle spoke highly of his time in Columbus, but it still is likely to cost quite a bit to keep him from testing the open market.
Is paying top dollar for a talented veteran center the best move for the Blue Jackets to make if the goal is building a sustainable contender? That’s the question team management will have to answer over the next few months as it considers whether to extend Coyle.
AHL Shuffle: 4/17/26
Several smaller-profile moves will come across the wire today. Teams done with their seasons are sending their fringe talent back to the AHL for postseason play, while teams bound for the first round of the playoffs could be making some small alternations as well – in particular, settling on their “emergency” third goalie as the league permits for the playoffs. We’ll keep track of those moves today:
- The Flyers announced they’ve recalled goaltender Aleksei Kolosov from AHL Lehigh Valley and reassigned Carson Bjarnason there in his stead. Bjarnason was up just yesterday for practice, but it now appears they’ve re-evaluated and will prefer to have the more experienced Kolosov as their #3 behind Daniel Vladař and Samuel Ersson to begin their clash with the Penguins rather than Bjarnason, a first-year pro. With Lehigh Valley now eliminated from playoff contention, there’s no use keeping Kolosov down there to try to get them in. Kolosov, who has a 5-11-1 record and a .863 SV% in 21 career NHL appearances, will be eligible to enter a playoff game as an emergency backup if both Vladař and Ersson leave with injuries.
- The Flames have reassigned forwards Rory Kerins and Aydar Suniev, as well as goaltender Arsenii Sergeev, to AHL Calgary following last night’s season finale against the Kings. Sergeev, 23, was exceptional in his first career start, guiding Calgary to a 4-1 win while posting a .964 SV% and saving 2.6 goals above expected, per MoneyPuck. Kerins and Suniev were both late-season call-ups for the Flames once the playoffs were no longer a possibility but didn’t do much in their reps, combining for one assist (Suniev’s) in 10 games. There won’t be any playoff action in store for the trio; the Wranglers are last in the AHL’s Pacific Division and won’t be heading to the Calder Cup Playoffs.
- The Blue Jackets have added goaltending prospect Evan Gardner to AHL Cleveland’s roster, per a team announcement. The 20-year-old’s Saskatoon Blades in the WHL were swept out of the second round of the playoffs by Prince Albert this week. The 60th overall pick in 2024, Gardner will be turning pro full-time next season with either Cleveland or somewhere in the ECHL (Columbus is one of the few teams without a designated affiliate). His entry-level contract remains slide-eligible for this season, so it won’t kick in until 2026-27. He had a .902 SV% and 2.96 GAA – both great numbers for career-lows – in 52 games for Saskatoon in his third and final junior season.
- The Sharks have assigned winger Igor Chernyshov and defenseman Luca Cagnoni to AHL San Jose for the Calder Cup Playoffs, per Max Miller of Sharks Hockey Digest. It could very well be the last AHL action of Chernyshov’s career. The 20-year-old looks well on his way toward being a top-six piece from the drop next season, rattling off a 9-10–19 scoring line in 28 games of call-up action this year while seeing significant time on Macklin Celebrini‘s left wing. The 2024 second-rounder also had 13 goals and 33 points in 41 AHL games to date. Cagnoni, a 5’9″ lefty, had only been up for the last few games to get an end-of-season look once the Sharks were eliminated from playoff contention. The 21-year-old went pointless in three games after seeing a six-game debut last season. He leads Barracuda defensemen in scoring with an 8-35–43 line in 67 games.
- The Oilers have added Calvin Pickard back from AHL Bakersfield to serve as the EBUG behind Connor Ingram and Tristan Jarry in the postseason. Pickard started the season as Edmonton’s backup but was supplanted by Ingram after struggling to the tune of a .871 SV% and 3.68 GAA in 16 appearances (5-6-2 record). Fresh off his 34th birthday, he’s started playoff games in each of the last two years for the Oilers – including Game 5 of last year’s Stanley Cup Final – so there’s zero hesitancy about tossing him into the fray if Ingram and Jarry fall flat. Since clearing waivers and being assigned to Bakersfield at the beginning of February, Pickard has a .886 SV% and 3.26 GAA in eight games with one shutout and a 4-3-1 record.
- The Mammoth announced that they’ve recalled winger Danil But and goaltender Matt Villalta from AHL Tucson. With Tucson out of the playoffs, recalling their AHL starter in Villalta isn’t an issue to serve as their EBUG. He has just two NHL starts to his name but is a known AHL commodity, posting a .895 SV% in 33 outings for the Roadrunners this season. The more pressing move, of course, is the re-infusion of But into the mix. Utah has given its 2023 12th overall pick several looks on the roster this season in top-nine duties, with the 6’5″ Russian managing three goals and four assists in 29 games. It doesn’t appear he’ll be in their Game 1 lineup to start, even with Barrett Hayton and Jack McBain still unavailable, but he’ll almost surely be the next man up in case of any other lineup changes.
- The Islanders added Russian forward Daniil Prokhorov to their AHL roster, from KHL side Dynamo Moscow. The club drafted Prokhorov in the second round, No. 42 overall, at the 2025 NHL entry draft, their fourth selection overall. The 18-year-old forward was recently ranked as the No. 6 prospect in the Islanders’ system by Scott Wheeler of The Athletic. Wheeler called Prokhorov, who stands 6’5″, a ” big, strong, driven, hardworking player.” AHL Bridgeport will be the fourth team Prokhorov has played for, in the fourth league. He scored one goal in 23 KHL games for Dynamo Moscow, 18 points in 25 games for Dynamo St. Petersburg in Russia’s second-tier VHL, and had six points in eight games at the MHL level, which is Russia’s top junior league. Prokhorov will soon make his debut on this side of the Atlantic for a Bridgeport team that has already clinched its playoff spot, and is playing out its final season in Connecticut before an offseason relocation to Ontario.
- The Wild recalled netminder Cal Petersen from their AHL affiliate, the Iowa Wild today. Petersen, 31, is the No. 3 netminder on the Wild depth chart and will likely occupy a spare goalie role for the team during its first-round playoff series against the Dallas Stars. Recalling Petersen today allows him to join the team in advance of the start of their series against Dallas. The AHL Wild have already been eliminated from playoff contention, so today’s move turns over their net to Samuel Hlavaj and Riley Mercer, while allowing the team’s No. 3 goalie to join the NHL team and provide them with additional insurance in case one of Minnesota’s two regular goalies (Jesper Wallstedt and Filip Gustavsson) become unavailable.
- The Kraken reassigned forward Jani Nyman and netminders Niklas Kokko and Victor Ostman to their AHL affiliate, the Coachella Valley Firebirds. With the Kraken’s season concluded, the move allows three potentially significant contributors to re-join Coachella Valley in advance of what the club hopes will be another extended playoff run. Nyman, 21, scored 21 goals and 33 points in 38 games at the AHL level this season, and was the Firebird’s leading goal scorer in 2024-25. Kokko, 22, went 18-10-2 in 33 games for Coachella Valley this season and posted a .903 save percentage. Ostman, 25, signed out of the University of Maine for 2024-25 and spent last season as a tandem goalie in the ECHL. He has had a strong AHL campaign in his second year of pro hockey, going 17-14-3 with a .907 save percentage in 35 games with Coachella Valley.
- The Canucks announced that forward Ty Mueller and defenseman Kirill Kudryavtsev have been reassigned to the club’s AHL affiliate, the Abbotsford Canucks. Both Mueller and Kudryavtsev had been on the Canucks’ NHL roster in the final days of the club’s NHL campaign. They have each been key AHL contributors this season. Mueller, 23, scored 35 points in 58 games this year for the AHL Canucks, while Kudryavtsev, 22, scored 18 points in 42 games playing a top-four role including time on both sides of special teams.
- The Ducks reassigned defenseman Tristan Luneau to their AHL affiliate, the San Diego Gulls, as the team prepares for their first-round playoff series against the Edmonton Oilers. The 22-year-old got into his first NHL game yesterday. A 2022 second-round pick, Luneau has been one of the AHL’s most productive offensive defensemen since joining the league. He led San Diego in scoring last season with 52 points in 59 games, and leads the team in scoring by a defenseman this year with 41 points in 69 contests.
- In a similar move to the Wild’s recall of Petersen, the Senators recalled netminder Leevi Merilainen from their AHL affiliate, the Belleville Senators today. Belleville, like Iowa, has already been eliminated from playoff contention, so Ottawa is seemingly content to turn its AHL net over to other names for the final games of the season while getting the team’s No. 3 goalie onto their NHL roster a few days early. Merilainen played a solid 18 games for Belleville this season, posting a .909 save percentage, but struggled in 20 games at the NHL level. His .860 save percentage in 20 games with the Senators this season is the lowest save percentage by any goalie with at least 15 games played.
This page will be updated throughout the day.
Blue Jackets Sign Rick Bowness To One-Year Extension
1:25 p.m.: It’s a one-year extension for Bowness, the team announced.
10:23 a.m.: The Blue Jackets have agreed to an extension with head coach Rick Bowness that will be announced later today, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports.
The news comes less than 48 hours following the end of Columbus’ season, which ended on the low side of a complete roller coaster. On Tuesday, following a 2-1 home loss to the Capitals in Game 82 – their sixth straight home loss to end the season – Bowness had some choice words for his club (via Joe Nugent of NBC4 Columbus):
All you gotta do is look at the stat sheet. Three hits, 23 giveaways. I don’t know if I’m back, but if I’m back, I’m changing this culture. These guys, they don’t care – losing is not important enough to them. It doesn’t bother them. Like, how can you go out and play like that?
The Jackets’ season ended as disappointing as it began. On Jan. 12, they had a 19-19-7 record through 45 games and were last in the Eastern Conference. That prompted them to make a change behind the bench, bringing in Bowness out of retirement while firing Dean Evason, who was midway through his second season with the club after pulling them just short of a playoff berth last season. By March 23, their record under Bowness was 19-3-4, and they had pulled ahead of the Penguins for second place in the Metropolitan Division. Even just going .500 from there likely would have shored up the franchise’s first playoff trip since 2020.
It just wasn’t in the cards. The Blue Jackets won just two of their final 11 games and had eight regulation losses, bringing them down to 40-30-12. They ultimately finished a full six points back of the surging Flyers for the Metropolitan Division playoff cutoff and seven points back of the Senators for the second wild-card spot.
Now, Bowness will get the chance he wanted to change that culture. On the whole, his 21-11-5 record in 37 games was strong. The veteran of 840 games as a head coach and countless more as an assistant had stepped away from the game in 2024 following a two-year run with the Jets, leading that franchise back to the postseason after a 2021-22 campaign that fell far short of expectations.
Bowness, 71, has now been a head coach in parts of 15 NHL seasons. He has a Western Conference championship under his belt with the Stars in 2021 and has amassed a lifetime record of 331-419-90 (.448 points percentage), although that’s dragged down significantly by his time spent coaching the expansion Senators in the early 1990s.
Columbus’ advanced numbers this season suggest a team that could and should be a playoff competitor next spring. While they do have several notable unrestricted free agents pending, their core still revolves around several 25-or-younger players like Kirill Marchenko, Adam Fantilli, Kent Johnson, Cole Sillinger, Denton Mateychuk, and Jet Greaves. Since Bowness took over on Jan. 12, the Jackets ranked 10th in the league in Corsi share (51.5%), sixth in the league in shot share (53.1%), eighth in the league in expected goals share (53.0%), and sixth in the league in scoring chance share (53.2%) at 5-on-5.
The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline was first to report things were trending toward a Bowness extension.
Blue Jackets Reassign Zach Aston-Reese, Luca Del Bel Belluz
The Blue Jackets have reassigned forwards Zach Aston-Reese and Luca Del Bel Belluz to AHL Cleveland, per a team announcement. While Columbus isn’t a part of the postseason picture, their minor-league feeder is, so the duo will be able to get some playoff action in after all.
The move could mark the final note on Aston-Reese’s transactions log in his Blue Jackets tenure. A pending unrestricted free agent, the 31-year-old had a trying campaign that’s unlikely to result in him being brought back unless there’s mutual interest in him playing more of a minor-league role.
Once a depth defensive standout for the Penguins, it’s actually been a rocky few years for the 31-year-old. He was once a lineup fixture but lost his grip on that almost overnight, failing to land a deal in the 2023 offseason and getting released from a tryout with the Hurricanes before eventually landing a two-way deal with the Red Wings at the beginning of the year. He ended up clearing waivers before spending most of the season in the AHL. He joined the Golden Knights the following summer but was claimed off waivers by Columbus during training camp.
That move in October 2024 precipitated Aston-Reese’s return to NHL relevancy. The checking winger re-emerged with a relative bang and earned a one-year extension in the process, making a career-high 79 appearances for the Jackets while also setting new best marks in assists (11), shots on goal (101), and blocks (58). While his -15 rating was cause for concern, he spent most of the season on a bottom-six checking unit with Justin Danforth and Mathieu Olivier that actually posted strong underlying metrics, controlling 54.6% of expected goals at 5-on-5 while outscoring opponents 13-9, per MoneyPuck.
This year, with Danforth gone and the offseason acquisitions of Charlie Coyle, Isac Lundeström, and Miles Wood pushing him down the depth chart, Aston-Reese’s impact was considerably more measured. He started the year in a regular role but was a healthy scratch for the first time by the end of October. He continued to fall in and out of the lineup until eventually landing on waivers in January. He cleared and was on assignment to Cleveland until getting called up at the beginning of this month in response to a Lundeström injury concern, although he played just once on his seven-game recall.
Aston-Reese’s NHL showing this year concludes with a 1-4–5 scoring line in 27 outings. He posted a -1 rating, saw decreased penalty-kill responsibilities, and averaged just 9:44 of ice time per game while racking up 78 hits. He’s also scored seven goals and 14 points in 25 AHL contests with Cleveland, where he’ll play a significant factor in the postseason.
Del Bel Belluz, on the other hand, has a clearer future in Columbus. The Jackets selected the 22-year-old middleman 44th overall in 2022, and they have to be pleased with his development, particularly offensively, thus far. He’s already worked his way up to being a consistent recall option, now making 30 NHL appearances over the last three seasons, where he has three goals and seven assists while averaging 11:27 per game. His ice time was down to about nine minutes per game across 14 showings this year, resulting in him generating only an assist and 11 shots on goal, with a -2 rating.
In Cleveland, the 6’1″ center is a star. After erupting for 27 goals and 53 points in 61 outings last season, he’s now over a point per game with a 22-35–57 scoring line in 53 games in 2025-26. He’s already received AHL All-Star honors. But, as The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler points out, he’s the type of prospect who does a lot of things well but doesn’t truly excel in any given area. As such, he sits down at #7 in the organizational prospect rankings, in part due to the difficulty of projecting where exactly he could slot in down the line amid a wealth of other young centers in the system.
Blue Jackets Sign Boston Buckberger
The Columbus Blue Jackets have signed two-time NCAA national champion defenseman Boston Buckberger to a two-year, entry-level contract. The deal will start next season. He attended development camp with the Blue Jackets in 2025.
In the official team announcement, president of hockey operations and GM Don Waddell said of Buckberger:
Boston Buckberger is a smart, skilled defenseman who can play in all situations and has a championship pedigree. He was among the top scoring defensemen in college hockey this year and a big part of Denver’s championship team. We are very excited that he is now part of the Blue Jackets organization.
As Waddell mentioned, Buckberger made a name for himself on a national stage at Denver. He was an instant-impact defenseman for head coach David Carle, scoring 27 points in 44 games. He was able to build on that strong freshman campaign the following year, potting nine goals and 30 points in 41 contests. This season, he scored 10 goals and 28 points in 42 games.
While Buckberger has never been the Pioneers’ top offensive option from the blueline (Zeev Buium held that honor the first two seasons, and Eric Pohlkamp this year) he has nonetheless been able to consistently deliver value in whatever role he played. We named him as a player to watch in this year’s NCAA free agency class earlier this month, noting that “there might not be big upside” in Buckberger “returning for his senior season.”
That’s something Buckberger appears to have agreed with, as he elected to sign his entry-level deal and forgo returning to the Pioneers.
Columbus does have a track record to point to when it comes to developing top NCAA blueliners. They signed then-University of Michigan captain Nick Blankenburg in 2022, and he quickly became an NHLer for the Blue Jackets. He also impressed with the Nashville Predators and was a trade deadline addition of the Colorado Avalanche.
While Buckberger isn’t an exact one-to-one stylistic comparable for Blankenburg (he’s a bit bigger, for example), he’ll nonetheless likely hope to have an early career that resembles how Blankenburg’s has gone.
Blue Jackets Sign Joshua Eernisse To One-Year, Entry-Level Contract
The Columbus Blue Jackets have signed college free agent Joshua Eernisse to a one-year, entry-level contract set to begin in the 2026-27 season. The University of Michigan winger will finish the 2025-26 season on a professional try-out contract with the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters.
Eernisse’s senior season in college hockey came to a close with Michigan’s double-overtime loss to the University of Denver in the Frozen Four. He scored one of Michigan’s three goals in the semifinal matchup and totaled 25:48 in ice time, the third-most on Michigan’s offense. Eernisse filled a reliable role for the Wolverines all season long. His high-energy motor and ability to play through contact was invaluable to a Michigan team built around young, skilled forwards.
Eernisse’s quick passing and drive towards the net helped him rack up 19 points in 38 games, the most he’s scored in three years with the Wolverines. He did reach 21 points in 36 games of his freshman season at the University of St. Thomas. That production was an exciting spark after two quiet seasons in the USHL and earned Eernisse a transfer to the Big Ten. There, his 6-foot-3 and 210-pound frame helped cement a checking role in the Wolverines’ middle-six. Eernisse will lean on his ability to stand up to puck battles and win space in the slot as he transitions to the pro flight.
The Cleveland Monsters have clinched a spot in the AHL’s Calder Cup Playoffs. Much of their success has come from a fortified top-six, where Mikael Pyyhtia, Luca Pinelli, and Owen Sillinger have clawed out spots as three of Cleveland’s top-five scorers. Their standing could push Eernisse into a third-line role as he sets up for his pro debut. He will likely step in for hard-nosed winger Tate Singleton, who graduated from Michigan’s rival Ohio State University in 2023. Singleton has 11 points and 54 penalty minutes in 39 AHL games, and 10 points in 10 ECHL games, this season. Eernisse could top Singleton’s scoring and physicality – a potential X-factor addition as the Monsters eye their first championship since 2016.
Marchment Should Play Tonight
- It appears that the Blue Jackets will get a key winger back tonight. Aaron Portzline of The Athletic notes (Twitter link) that Mason Marchment was a full participant in the morning skate on the top line, suggesting that he’ll return after missing Thursday’s game due to an undisclosed injury. The 30-year-old has been a key contributor since being acquired early in the year from Seattle, notching 14 goals and 13 assists in just 33 games since then. Officially, he’s listed as a game-time decision.
Blue Jackets’ Damon Severson Undergoes Shoulder Surgery, Out For Season
April 3: After additional evaluation, Severson won’t be an option this season again at all. He underwent shoulder surgery yesterday and will not be an option to play again in 2025-26, per a team release Friday. It’s unclear if his return timeline could drag into training camp in the fall.
March 27: Blue Jackets defenseman Damon Severson is out week-to-week with the upper-body injury he sustained in last night’s loss to the Canadiens, head coach Rick Bowness said Friday.
Severson scored Columbus’ only goal in the 2-1 regulation loss before taking a hard hit from Zachary Bolduc, who scored the eventual game-winner, with 8:04 remaining in the third period. He skated off and immediately went to the room, favoring his left shoulder.
The Blue Jackets obviously lost a bit of ground in the Eastern Conference playoff race with the loss, but their strong underlying numbers still leave them with a 77.9% chance of making the playoffs, per MoneyPuck, despite having the league’s third-most difficult remaining strength of schedule. At 87 points, they’re tied with the Islanders for third place in the Metropolitan Division but have a game in hand, winning the tiebreaker and pushing the Isles to the second wild-card slot.
That playoff likelihood drops a bit without Severson, who is having a resurgent campaign in Columbus. The 31-year-old righty had a pair of underwhelming seasons after signing an eight-year, $50MM deal in 2023 as part of a sign-and-trade with the Devils, even sitting as a healthy scratch for a few games last season, but has re-emerged as a does-it-all top-four piece with the best possession numbers of his career.
Through 71 games, Severson has an 8-24–32 scoring line while averaging 21:04 of ice time per game. Coupled with a career-best +18 rating, it’s his best offensive showing as a Blue Jacket and the third-best of his 12-year career on a per-game basis.
It’s what Severson has done to drive play at even strength, though, that has made him especially valuable. The Blue Jackets are controlling 54.4% of shot attempts at even strength with him on the ice – a number that even eclipses Zach Werenski – and can step in as a second-unit power play quarterback when needed.
Columbus doesn’t have an extra righty sitting around on the active roster. Youngster Denton Mateychuk, who’s gotten comfortable playing his offside on a pairing next to Ivan Provorov at points over the last couple of years, will shift back there for the time being. Egor Zamula, a healthy scratch in nine of the Jackets’ last 10 games, will presumably step back into the lineup in a bottom-pairing role.
Blue Jackets Recall Zach Aston-Reese
The Blue Jackets have recalled forward Zach Aston-Reese from the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters under emergency conditions, the team announced Wednesday.
Aston-Reese, 31, spent the first several months of the season on the active roster before clearing waivers in January. He’s been with Cleveland ever since, but could get a look in spot duty here after center Isac Lundeström left last night’s loss to the Hurricanes with an undisclosed injury.
The Blue Jackets had made up significant ground in the Eastern Conference playoff race with their seemingly perpetual hot streak under new head coach Rick Bowness, but a rash of injuries has put a stop to that for now. Damon Severson, Dmitri Voronkov, Mathieu Olivier, and now Lundeström have landed designations in recent days, leaving them winless in their last four while falling back into the second wild-card slot in the Eastern Conference.
Columbus recalled center Luca Del Bel Belluz from Cleveland on Monday. He was the lone extra forward for last night’s game, so it remains to be seen whether he or Aston-Reese will enter the lineup for tomorrow’s rematch against Carolina. Regardless, the Jackets will have an extra forward to spare even if Lundeström needs to sit out a game.
Aston-Reese, once a fourth-line mainstay for the Penguins, Ducks, and Maple Leafs, has swung between an NHL option and an AHL regular over the last few seasons. He logged just three NHL appearances while on a two-way deal with the Red Wings in 2023-24. He signed with the Golden Knights the following offseason but was claimed by Columbus during training camp. He stuck with the Blue Jackets full-time, rebounding to play in a career-high 79 games while tying his career high of 17 points.
The defensive-minded winger slipped down the depth chart to start this year, though. Amid their midseason pickups of Danton Heinen and Mason Marchment, Aston-Reese hit waivers again after only managing 1-4–5 scoring line in 26 outings while averaging just 9:37 per game.
He can still be a solid plug-and-play physical presence. Only Olivier has more hits per game among Columbus skaters this season than Aston-Reese at 2.73, and he’s been a top-nine factor in Cleveland with seven goals and 14 points there in 25 games. He is a natural center but has played mostly on the wing throughout his NHL career, in no small part due to his 35.5% lifetime faceoff win percentage.
Blue Jackets Recall Luca Del Bel Belluz
The Columbus Blue Jackets announced that they’ve recalled forward Luca Del Bel Belluz from the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters. Del Bel Belluz last played in the NHL with the Blue Jackets shortly before Christmas earlier this season.
Del Bel Belluz, 22, has been an intriguing prospect in Columbus’s system for a few years now. He’s been an exceptional scorer at the AHL level with the Monsters, but has yet to put it together in hockey’s top league.
Since debuting in the professional ranks in the 2023-24 season, Del Bel Belluz has scored 58 goals and 141 points in 172 games for AHL Cleveland. That production hasn’t been enough to warrant any awards or recognitions in the AHL, but he has essentially been a point-per-game player for the past two years.
Given that production, it’s fairly confusing why he hasn’t gotten a longer opportunity at the NHL level, especially this year. Last season, Del Bel Belluz scored two goals and eight points in 15 games for the Blue Jackets, averaging 13:45 of ice time in a middle-six role.
Still, it’s not like Del Bel Belluz hasn’t gotten any opportunities this year. Throughout the 2025-26 campaign, Del Bel Belluz has only tallied one assist in 12 games, averaging 8:46 of ice time on the team’s fourth line. Del Bel Belluz has yet to play for the Blue Jackets under the tutelage of Rick Bowness.
There’s reason to believe that Del Bel Belluz will increase his point totals if he gets any significant ice time throughout his current call-up. Before the hiring of Bowness, Columbus averaged three goals per game. Since his hire, the team has averaged just over 3.5.