It's easy to forget the kid's age.
Cole Sillinger is built like an NHL player in his mid-20s, talks like a player who's been in the league at least that long and has a dad, Mike, who played 1,049 games in the league for 12 teams over 17 years — including two for the Blue Jackets . The younger Sillinger has already logged 220 NHL games since striding into his dad's former locker room with an uncommon confidence for somebody who spent his entire rookie season as the league's youngest player.
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Sillinger was 18 that season. He's 20 now, and is close to being considered an NHL "veteran" whether he feels like it or not. Sillinger is also a key piece of the Blue Jackets' rebuild , which they began in 2021 by selecting Kent Johnson fifth overall and Sillinger with the 12th pick.
That was only three years ago, but both are now NHL players and the latter has really made that draft night feel like a distant memory. Sillinger appears closest among the Blue Jackets' promising young forwards to reaching his potential.
"Teams that are winning, it's not very often you see a young team, and that's normal," Blue Jackets coach Pascal Vincent said. "It's not that young players aren't good. They're just not ready. It takes time. But for Sillinger, he's speeding up the process."
Sillinger's development curve has been a roller coaster .
He was surprisingly advanced as a rookie, scoring 16 goals and gaining loads of experience, but his second year was a frustrating regression to three goals and 11 points — which led to him finishing the year with AHL Cleveland .
Arriving at training camp for his third NHL campaign last September, Sillinger switch his jersey number from 34 to 4 and spoke about an eagerness to get a fresh start. It took more patience, but things eventually turned favorably in his third year. Sillinger's success in battles and faceoffs helped him retain possession, he was better defensively and his scoring touch nearly returned to his rookie form with 13 goals.
Sillinger also had 19 assists and 32 points, showing significant improvement in other areas too. His plus/minus rating climbed 19 spots from last season, from –23 to -4, and Vincent started using him to kill penalties.
Sillinger also rose from centering the third line to start the season into a top-six role after Boone Jenner was sidelined with a broken jaw. Sillinger and rookie Adam Fantilli each got opportunities to center Jenner's top line with him out, and both benefited.
Sillinger now looks like part of a young two-way pivot.
"He's a great kid," Jenner said. "Off the ice, you forget how young he is, but he obviously took some huge strides this year. He approaches the game the right way. He works hard off the ice, on the ice ... he seems a lot older than what he is. That's just a credit to him and where he can get to. He took some huge strides for us this year. You can see it with his play and his confidence."
That says a lot coming from Jenner, who has displayed the same characteristics since he broke in with the Blue Jackets at the same age. Jenner, 30, has worked through his own scoring slumps along his path to becoming a regular 20-goal scorer, so he appreciates what Sillinger worked his way back from last year.
Sillinger does too. Asked last week at the Blue Jackets' season-ending media day to assess where he's most improved, it didn't take long for the answer to spill out.
"I think it's just the mental side of the game," Sillinger said. "I've always known I'm a good player and a dedicated guy, and a guy who always wants to get better, but I think for me, it's just ... when you have those little dips or moments where you're not feeling great or the puck's not going your way, to be able to stop it and reset versus letting that drag on (is key). I feel like that's a big difference from my first couple years to this year."
Sillinger's offseason plan includes living in Kelowna, British Columbia with one of his brothers and training with a driven group of NHL players in that area.
His goals are to improve his skating, specifically his agility, and continue honing the heavy wrist shot that was most responsible for getting him drafted so high. He's also got to work out a contract extension during his first foray into restricted free agency, which almost certainly won't happen until the Blue Jackets hire a new general manager.
Otherwise, Sillinger will return to Columbus in September ready to continue emerging as a young leader for the Blue Jackets in his fourth NHL season. Like the rest of his teammates, he's tired of losing so many games and plans to start becoming part of the solution – on the ice and in the locker room.
"It's getting a little frustrating that it's three years in a row this part of the season comes around, playoffs, and we're in this position," Sillinger said. "At the same time, that's when you grow. You can look in the mirror and look at how you can maybe hold your teammates more accountable, for them to be better ... because when you're in these situations and you come out of it together, I feel like you're that much closer and have more success on the other end of it."
That's spoken like the type of players Sillinger has held up as examples of what he hopes to become in Columbus ― namely New York Islanders center Bo Horvat , Winnipeg Jets center Mark Scheifele and Toronto Maple Leafs center John Tavares .
"I'm not going to put a ceiling on myself," Sillinger said. "I demand a lot of myself and I'm going to get there one way or another. ... I want to be that type of player, and I know everyone here believes in me, that I can be like that. We all believe in each other, that we have the potential, individually, to become the best players we can be and that's going to help the team."
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Reading that might put a smile on Vincent's face, but it won't come as a surprise.
"He's a confident young man, humble, and he's growing into a leader in this room even though he's very young," Vincent said. "We believe in him. We believe that he's a good player. ... I have lots of confidence in him, but he's earned it. He's a sharp young man."
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Cole Sillinger made 'strides' for Columbus Blue Jackets in 2023-24
