Blue Jackets Planning on Moving Boone Jenner to the Wing – The Hockey Writers – Columbus Blue Jackets

The Columbus Blue Jackets have officially kicked off Training Camp. Two groups of players practiced at the Ice Haus Thursday for a little over an hour each.

This marked the first organized on-ice activity for the team since the passing of Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau. While emotions are still very high, just being able to get on the ice together to start camp was another important step of pushing forward.

This also marked head coach Dean Evason’s first practices with the Blue Jackets since he was hired as Pascal Vincent’s replacement. While the team has a lot of work ahead of them as they prepare for the season, there was a small glimpse of what some of the opening-day lineup could look like.

Most notably, captain Boone Jenner skated on a line with Sean Monahan and Kirill Marchenko. Jenner was on the left side while they were doing drills.

Evason says the roles haven’t been defined yet. However he made clear that Jenner going on the wing to start is something they will be doing.

“I think Boone can play anywhere, right?” Evason said. “You guys know that as much as I do. He doesn’t care where. It’s just he wants to help the hockey club. But right now, we like the look of their line. There’s a lot of guys that I’m seeing for the first time up front and close to watch their, to be actually on the ice, watch their speed and skillset. It’s exciting. Yeah, Boone’s definitely going to start on that left side with Monahan and Marchenko.”

Jenner has played at center the last few seasons. With the addition of Monahan and the continued development of both Cole Sillinger and Adam Fantilli, the Blue Jackets now have the option of putting Jenner on the wing.

This move makes sense on a couple of levels.

First, Jenner won’t have as much responsibility being on the wing. He can worry about playing his game without having to consider everything a center has to do.

Second and perhaps more importantly is Jenner’s health. He has had back issues in the past. Making this move allows him the opportunity to not exert as much on his back.

There certainly can be times that Jenner ends up taking a faceoff or plays center later on. If Monahan is tossed out of the circle, Jenner can go right in and take that draw. Having “two centers” on the top line can work to their advantage.

Longer term, nothing is…