With Boone Jenner On His Way Out, Is Charlie Coyle The Blue Jackets Next Captain?

The Columbus Blue Jackets general manager, Don Waddell, thought he did his best to construct a roster that would make it to the Stanley Cup playoffs. But the team fell from contention at the end of the season, forfeiting seven of their last ten games (2-7-1).

Head coach Rick Bowness' end-of-season criticism for his players' lack of execution reverberated throughout the media. While Charlie Coyle took the critique with humility.

“I love working with Rick,” Coyle said. “Would definitely be a big positive if he was here. He's been so good for us. I've loved just working with him, learning from him, communicating with him.
“He cares so much; we've seen that throughout the year. Of course, (Tuesday) night too.”

One player, who is supposed to be a leader in the Blue Jackets locker room, was silent during all of this, while other players offered their voices.

Boone Jenner

Jenner's been uncharacteristically silent this postseason, despite holding the captaincy of a team that was just shy of a playoff run in 2025-26.

In 67 games as a depth center, Jenner scored just 38 points (13-25) in one of his most unproductive years as a Blue Jackets player. He's a pending unrestricted free agent, and his words from his media availability on April 19th ring hollow with the latest developments regarding the Blue Jackets captain.

"We hate to lose," said Jenner. "It sucks. We got a terrible feeling going through that room right now and it's because we had a lot of belief in each other and what we could do and like I said, we come up short and we take ownership in that as players. We didn't play our game consistently enough. Our habits and work ethic down the stretch, it slipped when it needs to ramp up and now we find ourselves here."

It was reported by The Athletic's Aaron Portzline that Jenner had fired his longtime agent, Joe Resnick, and hired Pat Morris. Morris is the agent of former teammate Nick Foligno, who made a trip to the postseason with the Minnesota Wild.

According to The 32 Thoughts Podcast's Elliotte Friedman, hiring Morris signals a shift in priorities for Jenner.

“You don’t hire Pat Morris when you’re looking for a discount.”

There's been no indication that Blue Jacket, who has played all 808 games of his NHL career with the Columbus-based organization, will be brought back.

The team recently signed center Charlie Coyle to an extension (six years, $6.00 million), and the 58-point forward could be the one the team is hitching their wagon to.