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Mar 18, 2024

Three Questions: Boone Jenner At Center Or Wing? How Many Games Will He Play? What's Jenner's Ceiling Under Babcock

Captain Boone Jenner is the longest-tenured Columbus Blue Jacket. A member of the organization since 2013-14, the 10-year pro has become one of the more dependable players for the franchise since

Captain Boone Jenner is the longest-tenured Columbus Blue Jacket.

A member of the organization since 2013-14, the 10-year pro has become one of the more dependable players for the franchise since embarking upon the NHL.

Boone Jenner will be skating in his 11th campaign with the @BlueJacketsNHL in 2023-24 the most in franchise history. Will he lead Columbus back into the #StanleyCup Playoffs for the first time since 2019-20? #NHLStats pic.twitter.com/wJ9CgBNJoZ

A captain for the past two seasons and a leader for longer, Jenner has experienced organizational highs and lows since breaking into the league.

The hope is there will be more highs soon amid a new era with head coach Mike Babcock and a booming prospect pipeline headlined by Adam Fantilli.

Stanley Cup contenders have elite skill players on their top line, usually. You look at the last four Cup champions like the Vegas Golden Knights with Jack Eichel, the Colorado Avalanche with Nathan MacKinnon, and the Tampa Bay Lightning going back-to-back with players like Steven Stamkos and Brayden Point.

When you look at Columbus, they don't have those players. They hope Fantilli will emerge into a top-flight center, eventually.

Jenner is and has been a very good player for the Blue Jackets. He's not the prototypical skill-first first-line center but he's been up to the task to play where Columbus has needed him.

Over the last few seasons, Jenner has been among the team leaders in points. He had 45 points (26 goals, 19 assists) last season and 44 points (23 goals, 21 assists) the season prior. Both goals totals over the last two seasons—at least 20 goals—are his two best goal-scoring seasons outside of his 30-goal campaign in 2015-16.

Though 45 points from a top-line center is not really going to cut it for the prototypical top-six player, Jenner is basically being asked to play out of position on the depth chart for the team based on need.

Jenner will likely be in that familiar 1C spot to begin the 2023-24 season but will he finish the season there?

Is the third-overall pick Fantilli or even Kent Johnson going to be in consideration for the spot at some point this season?

Could he switch spots with usual first-linemate Patrik Laine if Laine can fulfill his desire of playing center?

With the pieces all around Jenner, should Fantilli emerge as the top-line center sooner rather than later, or Laine or Johnson get that opportunity, perhaps the wing is back in Jenner's future.

There's a crowded forward group, in general, to sort through, and with training camp next month, we'll find out soon. Expect Jenner to be on that top line to start out.

Jenner has played 82 games in a season twice (2015-16 and 2016-17) and was on pace to do so again in 2019-20 when he played in the truncated 70-game season before the Covid shutdown.

Over the last few seasons, injuries have slowed Jenner down, including in 2020-21 when he was limited to 41 of the 56 games after dealing with a broken finger, a back injury that ended his season in 2021-22, and last season when he suffered a fractured thumb and he played in 68 games.

Jenner seems to be past the back issue that we know can be debilitating for a player, let alone any person.

Injuries have been the hot topic for the franchise over the last several seasons and they need guys like Jenner available. Fortunately, unlucky finger injuries aren't necessarily precursors to anything else.

Twelve years ago today, the captain became a Blue Jacket! Boone Jenner is now third in goals (170), fourth in points (329) and second in games played (657) in #CBJ history, plus is the seventh player to wear the "C" in union blue.#whosnext? Find out THIS week at the NHL Draft. pic.twitter.com/b0XQeAHRjY

Health permitting, Jenner is closing in on several franchise marks, and will presumably pass Rick Nash as the Blue Jackets' all-time games-played leader. Nash is at 674 while Jenner is currently at 657. Jenner is 43 goals behind Cam Atkinson (213) for second all-time. He's five points behind Nick Foligno (334) for third all-time.

Babcock will be the fourth head coach Jenner has played under as a Blue Jacket.

The Athletic's Aaron Portzline talked about Babcock's potential blueprint for success and in particular what that can look like for the center position on the Blue Jackets. Or players other than at center.

Such as involving more lines in the 200-foot game.

“What we’re going to do is try to have two 200-foot players on each line,” Babcock said. “What I mean by that is, having another guy (other than the center) who can play down low.

“(Red Wings great) Pavel Datsyuk used to say to me, ‘How can I have the puck down low in the offensive zone when I’m supposed to be the first guy back?’ It can’t work like that. So we’re wanting two centers or two guys on each line who can play down low in the defensive zone.”

The face-off circle is an area of importance for Babcock.

“Guys are way more dominant on their strong hand, their backhand,” Babcock said. “So if you can have a lefty and a righty on the same line, and you can be dominant on both sides of the ice, you have the puck way more. These are some of the things that will go into it.”

Jenner was the only regular to finish above 50% from the circle on the Jackets (54.7%) while Sean Kuraly was second (49.6%).

As Portzline outlined, Columbus was 23rd in face-offs (48.6%) last season and has not cracked the 50% threshold since 2019-20.

Jenner's ability from the face-off circle is already an area of strength, and whether he's playing down the middle or on the wing, there's no reason to think the 30-year-old won't flourish under his new coach based on what we know about Jenner's body of work.

Jenner's defensive metrics as exhibited below haven't been great over the last two seasons but that also goes hand in hand with the defensive abomination across the whole team—back-to-back record-setting seasons in goals allowed—in each of the last two years.

The team hopes to have shored that up and if that's the case, we should see improved numbers across the board. Where Jenner is ultimately playing and how he ends up being utilized by Babcock, and how Jenner plays with his supporting cast, will further tell the story.

RELATED Columbus Blue Jackets Head Coach Mike Babcock Wants Two Players Who Can Play Center On Each Line

Overall, Jenner has been a productive Blue Jacket and he's still only 30 years old.

What Jenner lacks in traditional first-line or even second-line skill he makes up for in being a gritty forward that can score goals and win face-offs.