COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Blue Jackets appeared poised to make big moves in the offseason with more than $35 million in cap space coming off a season in which they missed the playoffs by two points.

But the surge of the cap across the NHL up to $95.5 million threw a wrench in Columbus’ plans to bolster its defense among other positions. Numerous players re-signed with their respective teams, including Aaron Ekblad with the Panthers, and other top defensemen like Noah Dobson and Vladislav Gavrikov went elsewhere.

Ultimately, team president and general manager Don Waddell re-signed Dante Fabbro (four years, $4.125M AAV) and Ivan Provorov (seven years, $8.5M AAV), essentially running it back on the blue line for 2025-26.

Defense was a big reason the Blue Jackets came up two points short of th

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