Zach Werenski’s Production Holds Up as Blue Jackets Lean on Him for 29 Minutes a Night
Werenski has six points in seven games and leads Columbus in ice time, even as a heavy workload may be affecting how his game looks.
Zach Werenski’s start has looked quieter than Blue Jackets fans expect from their top defenseman. The production tells a different story: through seven games, he’s tied for the team lead with six points, while carrying a workload that would make a demanding opening stretch feel heavier for any skater.
That gap between appearance and output matters. Werenski hasn’t looked like the freewheeling, offense-first force Columbus has come to rely on. He’s often chosen the safe option with the puck instead of forcing a play. But the early numbers suggest the Blue Jackets are still getting a major contribution from him, even if it doesn’t always announce itself on the ice.
Columbus is getting offense from its top defenseman
Werenski has recorded six assists in seven games, including four primary assists, and is tied for the team scoring lead. Columbus has scored 17 goals in that span. His six points therefore account for more than a third of the club’s total, and his four primary assists represent close to a quarter of its goals.
The scale of that contribution is easier to appreciate alongside his recent body of work. Over the previous two seasons, Werenski played 156 games and scored 163 points, including 55 goals, for an average of 1.04 points per game. He’s only one two-point outing away from matching that rate through the first seven games of this season.
Those totals don’t settle every question about his play. A defenseman can produce while still looking less assertive than usual, and the eye test has picked up on that difference. But a start with six points in seven games is hardly evidence that Werenski has stopped driving the offense. His role in the Blue Jackets’ scoring has remained central.
He also leads Columbus with a plus-seven rating. That’s three ahead of his defensive partner and five ahead of any other Blue Jackets player. Plus-minus has clear limits as a way to judge an individual defender, since it reflects what happens while a player is on the ice rather than assigning responsibility for every goal. Still, it adds to the picture of a player whose results are strong despite a less conspicuous style.
A workload that could explain the subdued look
Werenski is playing 29:22 per game through seven contests, according to the figures cited in the source article. That’s about two and a half minutes more per night than his typical average over the previous three seasons. The article also reports that he leads all NHL skaters in ice time, with Buffalo’s Owen Power next at 26:45 per game.
That much work can shape how a player looks shift to shift. Werenski is being asked to handle a significant share of Columbus’s minutes while also helping the club create offense. When a defenseman is on the ice so often, conserving energy and choosing a lower-risk play can be part of managing the assignment. It’s a reasonable explanation for some of the caution, though it doesn’t erase what the eye test is picking up.
The underlying possession figure is less flattering. MoneyPuck lists Werenski at 47 percent in Corsi, below 50 percent for the first time in his career, according to the article. Corsi tracks shot attempts for and against while a player is on the ice; it offers a view of territorial play, but it doesn’t explain why the attempts are happening or capture every part of a player’s contribution.
His deployment offers useful context. Werenski has started 18.7 percent of his shifts in the defensive zone, four percentage points above any previous season of his career, as reported in the article. Columbus coach Rick Bowness and his staff are leaning heavily on their No. 1 defenseman amid injuries on the blue line. A high share of defensive-zone starts can make it harder to tilt shot attempts in a player’s favor, especially when he’s also taking on so many minutes.
At the same time, the Blue Jackets have scored 57.1 percent of the goals with Werenski on the ice. Taken with the Corsi figure, that points to a more complicated start than either metric would show on its own: Columbus has been outshot in his minutes by that measure, yet has had the larger share of goals. The team has been converting the results that matter on the scoreboard while he’s out there.
Help on the blue line could ease the load
Ivan Provorov’s return to health could give Columbus a chance to distribute the defensive work differently. The article’s expectation is that Werenski would then face fewer defensive-zone starts and play fewer minutes overall, leaving more room for his attacking game to show through. That depends on Provorov becoming available, and the source provides no return date.
For now, the case for patience rests on what Werenski is producing under an unusually large assignment. Six points in seven games, a team-leading plus-seven, and a 57.1 percent share of the goals scored with him on the ice are substantial returns. The quieter shifts deserve attention, but so does the context behind them.
My read is that Werenski hasn’t been at his most dynamic, yet the Blue Jackets are still getting elite-level offense from him. If his minutes ease as the defense gets healthier, watch whether he starts taking more chances with the puck. Until then, his production and deployment make a stronger case than the early eye test alone.
Werenski’s NHL statistics | Blue Jackets statistics | MoneyPuck statistics | Werenski’s MoneyPuck profile | NHL skater ice-time statistics | Coverage of Ivan Provorov’s injury
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