| abstract | - The 2006–07 Columbus Blue Jackets season was the sixth National Hockey League season in Columbus, Ohio. The offseason was dominated by a contract dispute with top forward Nikolai Zherdev, who had threatened to return to Russia to play if Columbus did not meet his demands. Zherdev remained a hold out for much of the pre-season, however the two parties were able to come to an agreement about a week before the season began. The Jackets, hoping to qualify for the playoffs for the first time in franchise history, got off to a disastrous start, falling as low as 6–16–2 into December, briefly holding the worst record in the league. The Jackets poor start led General Manager Doug MacLean to fire head coach Gerard Gallant on November 13.. Gallant would be replaced a week later by veteran coach Ken Hitchcock.. Coincidentally, Hitchcock's first game as Jackets head coach would be against the Philadelphia Flyers, the team that fired him as head coach earlier in the season. The Blue Jackets once again failed to qualify for the post-season. As the Atlanta Thrashers qualified for the playoffs in the East, the Blue Jackets were, until the 2008-09 season, the only NHL team to have never played a post-season game. __TOC__
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