If the Blue Jackets are going to push from simply hanging around the playoff picture to truly contending in 2026-27, they’re going to need more than the expected names doing expected things. They need a few players to jump a level - maybe even two - and that’s what makes the award conversation so interesting around this team.
Three names stand out as long-shot candidates to crash the NHL Awards stage: Charlie Coyle for the Selke Trophy, Zach Werenski for the Hart, and Kirill Marchenko for the Rocket Richard. None of them are easy picks.
All three would require a big season from both the player and the team. But each one has a path.
Coyle is the most believable of the group, and that’s because the defensive case is already there. He’s been drawing Selke votes before, and the 34-year-old has spent years building a reputation as one of the league’s better shutdown forwards. Last season, he played a little over 18 minutes a night and backed up the eye test with the numbers, even though the Blue Jackets missed the playoffs and he was mostly slotted as a third-line center.
That missed-playoffs context matters, but so does what came before it. Coyle finished 23rd in Selke voting last season, collecting two third-place votes and three fourth-place votes. His now-teammate and former Colorado Avalanche teammate Valeri Nichushkin landed just behind him in 25th, with two third-place votes and two fourth-place votes.
The contract situation only adds to the pressure. After his massive six-year extension, GM Don Waddell is clearly expecting more from him, and if Coyle is going to justify that deal, he’s going to have to be in the Selke mix again.
The challenge is obvious: age, role, and team success all work against him. But if Columbus makes a real run, Coyle’s defensive work will almost certainly be part of why.
Werenski’s case is much flashier. He already broke through last season with a Norris Trophy, and that kind of year naturally puts a player in the orbit of bigger hardware. The Hart is a huge leap for a defenseman, but Werenski at least has the résumé entry now that gets people talking.
He finished seventh in Hart voting last season, receiving 10 fourth-place votes and 23 fifth-place votes. That’s not close to winning, but it does show he was in the conversation. If he puts together another full, healthy season and the Blue Jackets are actually competing, he could force his way into the MVP picture.
That’s the catch, though: this only gets real if Columbus is winning. The Hart is supposed to go to the league MVP, and for Werenski to have a true shot, he’d need to separate himself from a crowded field while anchoring a team that matters in the standings. If he somehow pulled it off, he’d be the first defenseman to win the Hart since Chris Pronger edged Jaromir Jagr by a single voting point in 1999-00.
It’s a steep climb, but Werenski is the kind of player who makes the idea feel less far-fetched than it should. He’s already shown he can carry a season, and if he keeps that level up, he’ll be in the mix for plenty of awards.
Then there’s Marchenko, who is the biggest swing of all. The Blue Jackets haven’t had a Rocket Richard winner since Rick Nash won it in 2003-04, when he shared the trophy with Ilya Kovalchuk and Jarome Iginla. Marchenko is nowhere near that territory yet, but the skill set is there to dream on.
He has the kind of wrist shot that can beat goalies from all sorts of angles, and he can get it off in a hurry even when space is tight. That’s the profile of a scorer who can explode if everything clicks. The issue is that it hasn’t all come together yet.
His career high is 31 goals, set in 2024-25, so the gap to the Rocket Richard race is enormous. Three of the last five winners scored more than 60 goals, including Auston Matthews’ 69 in 2023-24.
The last two leaders finished with 52 and 53, respectively. That tells you just how massive the leap would have to be.
Still, there’s at least some recent evidence that a big jump is possible. Cole Caufield went from 28 goals in 2023-24 to 51 in 2025-26, and that kind of rise is the sort of example that keeps Marchenko’s name in the conversation.
The other piece is usage. Marchenko has often looked to set up teammates instead of pulling the trigger himself, and last season head coach Rick Bowness made it clear he wanted him shooting more.
That green light matters. If Marchenko starts playing with a little more selfishness in the best possible way and hunts his own chances more aggressively, he could at least enter the discussion as a dark horse.
That’s the thread running through all three of these candidates: Columbus needs the leap, and the leap needs to happen now. If the Blue Jackets are going to make real noise in 2026-27, these are the kinds of seasons that would help get them there. And if everything breaks right, one or more of these players could be standing on the NHL Awards stage in June.
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