Blue Jackets’ Erik Gudbranson Expected To Return Soon
Veteran defenseman Erik Gudbranson has been out of the Columbus Blue Jackets lineup since their third game of the season. He sustained a shoulder injury on a collision with teammate Sean Monahan on October 15th, and required shoulder surgery one week later. But after nearly five months out of the lineup, Gudbranson could return as soon as early next week, head coach Dean Evason shared with Aaron Portzline of The Athletic.
This is fantastic news for the oft-injured Gudbranson. His career has been marred by routine long-term absences, dating back to his second year in the NHL in 2012-13 – when he was held to just 34 games between the NHL and AHL due to injury. Gudbranson has seemed to suffer a setback in nearly every season since then, including going through a stretch of playing just 254 games across four seasons between 2017 and 2021.
Gudbranson spurred his bad luck when he returned for the 2021-22 season. At the age of 30, he appeared in a career-high 78 games in a one-off season with the Calgary Flames. He joined the Blue Jackets on a four-year, $16MM contract in the following summer and carried his good health through a move to Ohio. Gudbranson appeared in 70 games of the 2022-23 season, then matched his career-high 78 appearances last year. Through the three seasons, he totaled 56 points in 226 total games – while missing just 20 games in total.
It was a promising stretch that helped Gudbranson plant his feet as one of Columbus’ most-utilized defensemen. He averaged 21:18 and 19:40 over his last two respective seasons with the Blue Jackets and appeared to be headed for another top-end role this year. But his lucky streak snapped this year. Columbus has just 17 games remaining in their season – and it will likely take Gudbranson at least a couple more to work his way back into the lineup. That will leave him pushing to appear in even 20 games this season, which would mark the fewest games he’s played in a single season in his 14-year NHL career.
But despite the bad news, Gudbranson still stands as a popular name on the Columbus blue-line. He’s recorded 39 points, 133 penalty minutes, and a minus-38 in 151 career games with the Blue Jackets, while averaging over 20 minutes of ice time. Much of that playing time was split between menial roles next to depth defenders – like Jake Bean and Tim Berni – and top-end roles next to Blue Jackets superstar Zach Werenski.
Werenski is in the midst of a career year and stands as a favorite for the Norris Trophy and found a strong partner in mid-season acquisition Dante Fabbro. Columbus also has plenty of strength down their lineup, with hard-hitting veteran right-shot defender Ivan Provorov supporting rookie Denton Mateychuk on the second pair and veterans Jack Johnson and Damon Severson making up the third pair. That right-side depth could make it hard for Gudbranson to sneak back into the Blue Jackets lineup, even with the precedent of playing top minutes with the club. It won’t be low scoring that earns Gudbranson a hardy shot, with Provorov and Werenski recording 17 and 11 blocked shots over their last 10 games respectively.
How the Blue Jackets opt to return Gudbranson to the lineup could be telling as they attempt to hold onto their control of an Eastern Conference playoff spot. Veteran depth behind the lineup is a coveted asset for many playoff-bound teams, and the Blue Jackets could opt to lean into that by shelving the former third-overall draft pick Gudbranson until his services are called upon. Should they want to push him back into a spot, it will likely be Johnson taking a step back – leaving Evason with the challenge of juggling four right-shot defensemen.
Snapshots: Peterka, Kulich, Hintz, Werenski
The Buffalo Sabres will exchange young forwards in Wednesday night’s lineup. Centerman Jiri Kulich is expected to return to the ice after missing Buffalo’s last game with an illness, while top-line winger JJ Peterka is out day-to-day with a lower-body injury, per Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News.
Adding Kulich back to the fold is a positive step for the Sabres. The 20-year-old centerman has recorded two points and eight shots on net in his last four games, bringing his year-long totals up to 12 goals and 19 points in 48 games. Kulich has taken on more-and-more role in the second half of the season, and appeared in a season-high 19 minutes of ice time in his most recent appearance. Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff made no indication of what line Kulich would play on in his return, but he could be set to head back to the top-six with Buffalo down one of their top players.
To that end, losing Peterka for even a short time is a hard blow for the Sabres. He’s confidently led the team over their latest stretch, with 10 points in nine games since returning from the 4-Nations Face-Off break. Peterka is quickly evolving into a star – with 19 goals and 51 points in 61 games this season putting him on a year-long pace of 26 goals and 69 points in 82 games. He’s already lapped his career-high of 50 points scored last season, with no signs of slowing down. Peterka’s absence should lead to increased minutes for wingers like Jason Zucker and Zach Benson – though Buffalo could also opt to move Ryan McLeod or Peyton Krebs to the wing with Kulich back in the fold.
Other quick notes from around the league:
- Top Dallas Stars centerman Roope Hintz is progressing well after taking an Adam Henrique shot to the face on Saturday. Hintz sat out of Dallas’ Sunday win over the Vancouver Canucks and is set to miss Friday’s game against Winnipeg – but head coach Pete DeBoer shared that Hintz could return as soon as Sunday, per NHL.com’s Mike Heika. Hintz has been red-hot since the end of the 4-Nations break, with 16 points in his last eight games. That includes back-to-back four-point games on February 28th and March 2nd. Dallas managed a confident win over Vancouver in his absence, but will undoubtedly be eager to bring their second-line centerman back before his scoring touch cools off. With Hintz out, Dallas has awarded more minutes to Jamie Benn, Wyatt Johnston, and Matt Duchene.
- Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski has become the Norris Trophy favorite in NHL.com’s recent poll of their staff writers. Werenski has been lights out this season after being held to just 83 games combined over the last two years. Now back to full health, he has a team-leading 69 points in 63 games on the year. That includes 20 goals, making Werenski the first 20-goal-scoring defenseman in Blue Jackets history. His 2024-25 campaign marked the most goals from a Blue Jackets defenseman in February, when he passed Seth Jones‘ previous record of 16 goals set int he 2017-18 season. Werenski’s 69 points are also a club record. He has shown everything Columbus could ask for and then some. His performances are a key reason why Columbus is one of five teams in the race for the Eastern Conference Wild Cards, and could soon earn Werenski the first Norris Trophy of his nine-year NHL career. He previously received Norris votes in 2019-20 (eighth-place finish) and in his rookie season of 2016-17 (18th-place finish).
Waddell: Three Attempts To Be Third-Party Retainer Fell Through
- Going back to the start of training camp, Blue Jackets GM Don Waddell had talked openly about being willing to take on a contract or even act as a third-party retainer to add some assets. Neither of those wound up happening. He told Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch that they had a pair of trades lined up on Thursday that would have seen them be a third-party retainer fall through plus another on Friday so it wasn’t for a lack of effort that they weren’t able to utilize any of those retention slots.
Gudbranson Cleared To Practice
Columbus wasn’t overly active as expected leading into Friday’s trade deadline but they’re close to getting an addition on the back end. Jeff Svoboda of the Blue Jackets’ team site relays (Twitter link) that defenseman Erik Gudbranson has been fully cleared to practice. While that means he’s still probably at least a few days away from returning, his looming return will be a welcome one. Gudbranson has been out since suffering a shoulder injury in the third game of the season back in October. He was originally expected to be out until sometime in April but instead, it appears that he’ll be available to return several weeks ahead of schedule, effectively serving as a deadline addition. Once he’s activated in the coming days, Columbus will have nine blueliners on its active roster.
Columbus Blue Jackets Reassign Joseph Labate
- The Columbus Blue Jackets announced they’ve reassigned forward Joseph Labate to their AHL affiliate, the Cleveland Monsters. As one of the most feel-good stories of the 2024-25 campaign, Labate took the ice in the NHL for the first time in eight years this season. The 31-year-old winger had spent the last several years bouncing around on AHL contracts with a one-year pitstop in the KHL. He scored six goals and 13 points in 33 games with AHL Cleveland before being elevated to an NHL contract with the Blue Jackets.
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Blue Jackets To Acquire Luke Kunin From Sharks
TSN’s Pierre LeBrun is reporting that the Columbus Blue Jackets have acquired forward Luke Kunin from the San Jose Sharks. A return hasn’t yet been shared. The Sharks held Kunin out of their Thrusday night game in anticipation of a move. In return, San Jose has received a 2025 fourth-round pick, per an official team report from Columbus.
Kunin will head to the Blue Jackets after two tough seasons as San Jose’s third-line center. He scored 11 goals and 18 points in both seasons with the Sharks – achieving the feat in 77 games last year and 63 games this year. That scoring has been coupled with frequent penalties and a low plus-minus. Kunin recorded 83 PIMs and a minus-30 last year and has 46 PIMs and a minus-24 this year. He also leads the Sharks in hits this year with 163.
Kunin was originally drafted 15th overall in the 2016 NHL Draft by the Minnesota Wild. His selection came after a standout freshman season at the University of Wisconsin, marked by 19 goals and 32 points in 34 games. He took a step forward with 22 goals and 38 points in 35 games as a sophomore, and opted to turn pro at the end of the year. Kunin joined the AHL’s Iowa Wild for the end of the 2016-17 season and quickly flashed scoring upside. He scored five goals and eight points in his first 12 AHL games, then followed it with 10 goals and 19 points in 36 games of his formal rookie season. That was enough to earn Kunin an NHL call-up partway through the 2017-18 season. He took some time to find his scoring touch, with 21 points across the first 68 games of his career – split between 2017-18 and 2018-19. The slow start pushed Kunin back to the minors for part of the latter season, but he quickly proved the decision moot with 12 goals and 20 points in 28 games. Minnesota brought Kunin back to the NHL roster for the full 2019-20 season, and 15 goals and 31 points in 63 games was enough to solidify his spot.
Kunin has been in the NHL since 2019, though Minnesota moved him to the Nashville
Predators after his breakout season. They recouped Nick Bonino and the selection used on Marat Khusnutdinov, while Kunin struggled to carry his newfound scoring touch across the Central Division. He scored just 10 goals and 19 points in his first 38 games with Nashville. Lower-body injuries cut his first year in Tennessee short. His struggle to score continued into his return in 2021-22 – but Kunin did find a different layer to his game that year. He scored just 13 goals and 22 points, but managed a career-high 99 penalty minutes as he embraced the role of a bruiser.
That hard-hitting role made Kunin an enticing pickup for the Sharks in the summer of 2022. Nashville acquired John Leonard and a draft pick for Kunin, who went on to fully embrace his hard-nosed style on an underperforming Sharks lineup. He recorded 42 penalty minutes in 31 games of his first season in San Jose, which was again cut short by injury. But the physical style proved much more repeatable, and Kunin returned with 83 PIMs in 77 games last season. His goal-scoring touch has faded the further he gets from his prime minor-league days – but Kunin still brings the heft of a six-foot, 200-pound depth centerman. He’ll be a strong depth option as the Blue Jackets gear up for what’s sure to be a hard-fought playoff run, in the mix with major Stanley Cup candidates in the Eastern Conference.
Kunin carries a $2.75MM cap hit through the end of the season. He will enter unrestricted free agency this summer without a new deal.
Blue Jackets Claim Christian Fischer From Red Wings
2:19 p.m.: Columbus announced they’ve reassigned Pyyhtia as the corresponding move. He has 4-3–7 in 47 games with the Jackets this year with a -11 rating.
1:08 p.m.: The Blue Jackets have claimed winger Christian Fischer off waivers from the Red Wings, per Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic.
Given that the Blue Jackets didn’t have any additional room on their roster for another player, the team will have to make a corresponding roster move to make Fischer’s claim official. The inevitable roster move will presumably see forward Joseph Labate or Mikael Pyyhtia reassigned to their AHL affiliate, the Cleveland Monsters.
Today’s claim ends a nearly two-year run for Fischer in Detroit. The former 32nd-overall pick of the 2015 NHL Draft signed with the Red Wings in the summer of 2023 after being non-tendered by the Arizona Coyotes.
Before signing with the second team of his nine-year career, Fischer had shown flashes of being an effective bottom-six scorer. The Chicago, IL native scored 56 goals and 111 points in 398 games in a Coyotes uniform, averaging 13:16 of ice time per game. That scoring output includes a career-year during his sophomore campaign in 2017-18, registering 15 goals and 33 points in 79 contests, finishing seventh on the team in scoring.
Similarly to the end of his tenure in Arizona, Fischer has been primarily utilized as a defensive winger in Detroit. He’ll finish his time with the Red Wings with six goals and 26 points in 124 games while also laying 227 body checks.
Fischer should be a better player than Columbus’s other options on the team’s fourth line, but they shouldn’t have any ideas about putting Fischer on the team’s penalty kill. The Blue Jackets could use help in that department, given their 26th-ranked success rate with a man disadvantage. However, Fischer had sometimes featured on Detroit’s league-worst penalty kill, with a ghastly on-ice goals against/60 while short handed of 15.4.
Blue Jackets Unlikely To Extend Ivan Provorov Before Deadline
The Blue Jackets don’t expect to have an extension done for pending UFA defenseman Ivan Provorov – or any pending free agent on the roster, for that matter – before Friday’s trade deadline, general manager Don Waddell told Jeff Svoboda of NHL.com on Wednesday.
That doesn’t mean the 28-year-old will be available for trade, though. “If I rip a guy out of this locker room right now that’s playing a role for us on this hockey club, I think that’s pretty devastating to our team,” Waddell told Svoboda. “I think it’s the wrong message from my end to the fans, the coaches and the players.” It’ll take a gargantuan package for Columbus, now firmly entrenched as a conservative buyer, to consider parting ways with Provorov this week amid a tight wild-card race.
It also doesn’t mean Provorov will hit the open market on July 1. The organization will resume contract talks with him and other pending UFAs like Dante Fabbro and Sean Kuraly when their offseason begins, whenever that is. With $43MM in projected cap space for 2025-26 and only eight open roster spots, per PuckPedia, they shouldn’t have much of an issue matching market-value offers for players they’re interested in retaining.
Provorov surely has to be part of the group that Columbus will aggressively try to keep in the fold past this season, even if efforts to date haven’t gotten across the finish line. The Russian lefty has fit nicely with the Jackets since they acquired him from the Flyers two summers ago, especially this season. He’s not producing at the 40-point heights of his early career, but he has a respectable 7-21–28 scoring line through 61 games and is munching significant minutes, averaging 23:28 per game. He’s obviously not getting premier power-play deployment with Zach Werenski starring in that role, but he logs heavy PK usage for the Jackets.
His possession metrics, however, remain underwhelming as they did in his Philly days. While his plus-seven rating stands to be his best since the 2019-20 campaign, the Jackets have been outchanced 512-434 with Provorov on the ice at 5v5, per Natural Stat Trick. His 46.4 xGF% ranks just 16th on the club as well. He earns some benefit of the doubt for starting in primarily defensive minutes at even strength, but the 2015 first-rounder has never shown the ability to be a truly dominant possession force over his nine-year career.
He’s still averaged top-four and top-pair minutes throughout his career, though, and his utility high up in the lineup will get him paid accordingly. AFP Analytics projects an extension in Columbus to cost $6.4MM per season with a five-year term. Columbus would likely be comfortable offering that deal, but if Provorov feels he could garner significantly more on the open market, it’s understandable why his camp would hold off an agreement until he gets a better sense of comparables.
Blue Jackets Sign Mathieu Olivier To Six-Year Extension
March 5: It took slightly more than 24 hours, but Olivier’s extension in Columbus is done. It’s a six-year, $18MM deal with a $3MM cap hit, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports. It’s a slightly front-loaded contract with a base salary of $4MM in 2025-26 that drops to $2.4MM by the end of the deal in 2030-31, per Renaud Lavoie of TVA. The contract does not include any signing bonuses but has a 10-team no-trade clause, Lavoie adds.
March 3: The Blue Jackets are hoping to have an extension finalized with pending UFA winger Mathieu Olivier “in the next 24 hours or so,” general manager Don Waddell told Aaron Portzline of The Athletic. A team source tells Portzline that Olivier’s deal will be for at least four seasons.
Olivier isn’t the most notable of Columbus’ pending free agents, but he has been the topic of the most discussion in the last few weeks. Darren Dreger of TSN reported back in December that the two sides had opened negotiations, adding last week that talks were heating up.
Now in his third season with the Blue Jackets, the 28-year-old is flourishing. The first player in NHL history from Mississippi has set career-highs with 12 goals, 21 points, 99 PIMs, 76 shots, and 228 hits, all while seeing legitimate top-nine usage for the first time in his career.
Olivier’s professional career began with the Predators’ AHL affiliate in Milwaukee. They signed him to a minor-league deal after he went undrafted over five Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League seasons with the Moncton Wildcats, Shawinigan Cataractes, and Sherbrooke Phoenix. He posted a 4-8–12 stat line with 91 PIMs in 54 games in his rookie year, enough to earn him an entry-level deal with Nashville the following offseason.
The 6’1″, 226-lb righty bounced between Tennessee and Wisconsin over his two-year rookie deal, but he did see a more regular NHL role in 2020-21. He spent a tad bit of time on the taxi squad but made 30 appearances in an enforcer role for the Preds after spending most of 2019-20 back in the minors, entering the 2021 offseason with six points and 74 PIMs in 38 career NHL games.
That was enough to earn him a two-year, one-way deal for the league-minimum $750K annually. Unfortunately, it didn’t signal a full-time job on the NHL roster like a one-way contract would typically yield. He suited up just 10 times for Nashville in 2021-22, instead relegated to Milwaukee for most of the year. Columbus still liked what they saw in his previous NHL minutes, paying a fourth-round pick to Nashville to acquire him before the 2022 draft.
Olivier hasn’t seen the minors since. He was only a healthy scratch twice in his first season with the Jackets, although an illness and a lower-body injury still limited him to 66 contests. He posted 5-10–15 that year – more offense than he provided in the minors the year prior – and finished third on the team with 178 hits. That earned him a two-year, $2.2MM extension, which is now in its final season.
Now on pace for 16 goals and 29 points this year, he’s bound to more than double his previous $1.1MM AAV. One limiting factor will be a recent three-year, $7.5MM extension for Keegan Kolesar in Vegas – a player historically cast in a similar role with a longer track record of offensive success. Seeing his AAV climb much higher than Kolesar’s $2.5MM would be a surprise.
Once Olivier’s extension is finalized, 15 of the Blue Jackets’ 23 players on the active roster will be under contract through next season.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Columbus Blue Jackets Seeking Middle-Six Forward
- As the top wild-card team in the Eastern Conference, the Columbus Blue Jackets could be sneakily active leading up to the trade deadline. David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period asserts the team is targeting a middle-six forward, albeit without specific names. Pagnotta mentioned the Blue Jackets were interested in Gustav Nyquist before he was traded to the Minnesota Wild on Saturday. Assuming Nyquist’s archetype is a reasonable mold to work from, Columbus is likely involved in several wingers on the rental market.
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