Columbus Blue Jackets Center Kevin Stenlund's Opportunity Has Arrived

Perhaps the Columbus Blue Jackets 21-9-9 record in Kevin Stenlund's 39 career games with the team is just lucky. 

And of those 39 career games, Stenlund has registered points in 11 of them. Perhaps the Blue Jackets 9-0-2 record in those games is just fortuitous.

Or perhaps not.

With Tuesday's sudden retirement of Mikko Koivu, it is Stenlund, the 24-year-old native of Huddinge, Sweden, who is in line to have the first crack at a regular role. 

It's well overdue.

In the eyes of most folks, the Blue Jackets turned their 2019-20 season around December 16th, 2019. They defeated the Washington Capitals 3-0 at Nationwide Arena and it began both a five-game winning streak and a longer streak in which Columbus would go 17-2-3. 

Stenlund's first game with the Blue Jackets last season? December 16th. Just happenstance, surely. 

At 6'4", Stenlund is tied with Seth Jones and the newly acquired Patrik Laine for the tallest Blue Jacket on the roster, and he uses his large frame to his advantage. Look at him dance by future Hall of Famer Zdeno Chara with ease, and stay upright in Chara's subsequent attempt to keep Stenlund from advancing the puck further into the zone:

A few seconds later, it's a power play goal for Stenlund - and his third in just his 15th game with the club, despite minimal minutes on the man-advantage. Nick Foligno and Emil Bemstrom were credited with the assists, but if ever there was a time a player could assist on his own goal, it was there.

Stenlund has kept up his solid play this season as well, despite very limited opportunities. He's played just three games, but has a point (one goal, two assists) in each of the games - as do the Blue Jackets, who are 2-0-1 in the small sample size. 

It's hard to quantify his statistics, but we can only go by the numbers presented to us, and that looks like this:

Let's extrapolate that to an 82 game season:

But 13:35 average ice time? If he's playing a full season with these numbers at 13:35 per game, he's going to get more time. Let's give him an average of 17:00 on ice:

Of course, we don't know exactly how things would pan out over the grind of 82 games. The 37-point pace may not hold up. On the other hand, with more minutes, there's more development, and 37 points could be low. 

Head coach John Tortorella seems to be willing to give Stenlund an opportunity. When asked Tuesday how Koivu's retirement could impact the team, he replied simply "Stens is in."

"But Stens may not be in the bottom six."