Summer in the NHL has a way of turning every phone check into a small event, and Blue Jackets fans got a few notable ones this week. The biggest? The league finally dropped the full 2026-27 schedule, and Columbus will spend a lot of the early going in familiar surroundings.
The Blue Jackets open the season on Oct. 1 at home against the Buffalo Sabres, and the home-heavy stretch doesn’t stop there. In the first four full weeks, Columbus plays seven of its first nine games at Nationwide Arena, with only two road games in a 24-day span in October.
That trend continues into mid-November, when the Blue Jackets will have 12 of their first 18 games at home by Nov. 14.
A strong start in that window could matter a lot.
There’s also a little history attached to this one. All teams now have an 84-game schedule, and this is the first time the Blue Jackets have ever played an 84-game slate. Columbus will face division opponents four times each for 28 games, play the rest of the East three times each for 24, and see every Western Conference team twice for 32.
The calendar also brings a few notable dates and stretches. The Blue Jackets’ longest homestand is five games from Feb.
20-Mar. 1, while they’ll have four separate four-game road trips: Nov. 17-23, Nov.
30-Dec. 7, Jan. 12-18 and Feb.
13-18. The season includes 13 sets of back-to-backs, with the Pittsburgh Penguins leading the league in that category at 15.
There are a couple of eye-catching return games, too. Former captain Boone Jenner comes back to Nationwide Arena with the Washington Capitals on New Year’s Eve, with a 2 P.M. eastern start.
Mason Marchment returns with the San Jose Sharks on Saturday, Mar. 13.
The Blue Jackets will also be part of the league-wide spotlight on Oct. 13, 2026 and Apr. 10, 2027, the two days when all 32 NHL teams are in action. Columbus hosts the Florida Panthers for Frozen Frenzy in October and finishes the season on the road against the New York Islanders in April. The final four games of the year are all against Metro Division opponents.
As for the travel, the Blue Jackets’ Western Canada trip runs Jan. 12-18 and includes Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Seattle. In February, they head to Colorado, Utah and Vegas from Feb.
15-18. The California swing comes Mar. 3-7, with stops in San Jose, Los Angeles and Anaheim.
Away from the schedule, Columbus did get one contract done. Luke Tuch signed a two-year, two-way deal after being acquired in the trade that sent Hunter McKown to the Montreal Canadiens. Tuch is the younger brother of Washington Capitals forward Alex Tuch, and he brings size to the organization at 6-foot-2 and 219 pounds.
In his first two full AHL seasons with the Laval Rocket, Tuch posted 15 goals and 28 points in 114 games. Blue Jackets GM Don Waddell described him this way when the trade was announced: “Luke is a big, physical player with great character and a strong work ethic who adds size, strength and toughness to our organizational depth at the forward position.”
That kind of profile matters with questions still lingering about who can crack the Blue Jackets out of training camp. For now, Tuch looks like a depth addition aimed at strengthening Cleveland and giving the Monsters another physical piece to work with.
There’s still no fresh update on the RFAs, though that could change quickly. The same goes for the team’s TV situation, which remains in the same spot as before: down to 2-3 options, with the club still deciding which direction to take and confident something will be settled before the season starts.
The status of Isac Lundestrom is also still unresolved. His length of absence will depend on the testing results the team receives back.
Around the league, former Blue Jackets president of hockey operations John Davidson has landed with the Buffalo Sabres as a senior advisor. It’s the third time Davidson and Jarmo Kekalainen have worked together, after earlier stops with the Blue Jackets and St.
Louis Blues. Davidson had been living in Florida while serving in a lesser role with Columbus, and he occasionally appeared in the broadcast booth when Jody Shelley was working on Amazon Monday night hockey in Canada.
Buffalo also has another Blue Jackets connection in Josh Flynn, who is on staff there.
Former Blue Jacket Matt Calvert also found a new role, joining the Nashville Predators on Friday as a forward development coach. According to the press release, Calvert will help Assistant General Manager, Milwaukee Admirals General Manager and Director of Player Development Scott Nichol evaluate drafted and signed forward prospects and guide their growth by focusing on nutrition, off-ice workouts and conditioning, practice habits and game performance.
The hire makes sense in hindsight, considering former Blue Jackets AGM Chris MacFarland made it. Calvert played for the Blue Jackets and Avalanche while MacFarland was with both teams.
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Instead, the market has started to point elsewhere, with Anaheim emerging as one of the clubs that could use a steadier answer on defense. Boston and Calgary also remain in the mix as possible landing spots, each with a different kind of need, and Stanleys next move now feels tied less to where he has been than to which team decides it can still use what he brings. [Read more 🡒]
Sabres May Have A Veteran Scoring Fix On Their Radar
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The wrinkle is the cap. Any deal would have to fit Buffalos own space constraints, while Anaheim is also weighing its options as it tries to manage future commitments. If the Ducks decide to move money, the structure could get complicated in a hurry, which is why this kind of search can linger even when the fit makes sense on paper. [Read more 🡒]