Patrik Laine Exits COVID Protocol; Nick Blankenburg Close To Returning
- Patrik Laine is out of COVID protocol and back with the Columbus Blue Jackets, according to Aaron Portzline of The Athletic. The star ginger will be back in the lineup tomorrow and is expected to skate with Kent Johnson and Jonny Gaudreau on the top line. Laine’s season has been constantly interrupted by injury and illness, resulting in just 20 games played so far. He has nine goals and 16 points in those appearances.
Upper-Body Injury For Tarasov, Blankenburg Resumes Skating
- The Blue Jackets announced (Twitter link) that goaltender Daniil Tarasov suffered an upper-body injury in practice on Friday. The 23-year-old was likely to be sent to the minors soon with Elvis Merzlikins clearing COVID protocol earlier this week but this will now delay that for at least a few days as Tarasov is listed as day-to-day. He has played in a dozen games with Columbus this season, recording a 3.40 GAA with a .907 SV%.
- Still with the Blue Jackets, defenseman Nick Blankenburg has resumed skating as he works his way back from a broken ankle, relays Aaron Portzline of The Athletic (Twitter link). The 24-year-old has been out for the last seven weeks due to the injury and there remains no timetable for his return. Blankenburg has three points in seven games so far this season.
Elvis Merzlikins Clears COVID Protocol
- Blue Jackets goaltender Elvis Merzlikins was a full participant in practice today, relays team reporter Jeff Svoboda (Twitter link). This means that he has cleared COVID protocol. Merzlikins has struggled considerably this season, posting a 4.68 GAA and a .864 SV% in 14 games thus far. Columbus is now carrying three goaltenders on the active roster so once Merzlikins gets the green light to return, it’s likely that Daniil Tarasov will be sent back to AHL Cleveland.
Columbus Blue Jackets Announce Several Roster Moves
The Columbus Blue Jackets will be back in action tomorrow (hopefully) after their first game out of the holiday break was postponed. In preparation for their return, the team has announced several roster moves today. Cole Sillinger has been activated from injured reserve, Emil Bemstrom was recalled from the AHL under emergency conditions, and Jake Christiansen was returned to the Cleveland Monsters.
Sillinger will be the headliner here, after missing a few games with an upper-body injury. The 19-year-old forward is experiencing a sophomore slump in his second year, with just two goals and six points through 30 games. That follows an excellent rookie season when he put up 16 goals and 31 points.
Struggles like that happen for a lot of young players who jump directly into the league, as they try to adapt to the grind of the league. Sillinger is seeing less and less ice time of late, and now had to battle through an injury. He’ll be tested in the second half, as the Blue Jackets look to try and build some confidence for next season.
Bemstrom, 23, has shown exactly why he hadn’t really needed the AHL in the past by dominating the minor leagues this year. After being sent down, he has 14 goals and 31 points in 21 games for Cleveland, his first lengthy experience in the minors. The young forward made the jump directly from Sweden to the NHL in 2019 and had a great rookie season, but – just like Sillinger – struggled to repeat it. In seven games with the Blue Jackets this season he does have four points, and will likely get another chance to stick with the big club in the second half.
Patrik Laine And Elvis Merzlikins In COVID Protocol
- Blue Jackets goaltender Elvis Merzlikins remains in COVID protocol, relays Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch (Twitter link). With Joonas Korpisalo returning just before the holiday break, Columbus didn’t need to recall a goalie but as Merzlikins has missed a full week now, the team could move him to IR in the short-term to open up a roster spot. Meanwhile, Hedger adds in a separate tweet that winger Patrik Laine has also been placed in COVID protocol. Head coach Brad Larsen wasn’t sure when Laine first was placed there and for the time being, he’s listed as questionable for their game against the Islanders on Thursday. Laine has nine goals and seven assists in 20 games this season.
NHL Postpones Tuesday’s Game Between The Buffalo Sabres And Columbus Blue Jackets
4:15 pm: The NHL, as well as Columbus and Buffalo, have since confirmed the postponement, adding that a makeup date will be set at some point, though they don’t have one right now.
3:08 pm: It appears yet another game will be postponed due to this past week’s winter weather in the upstate New York and Ontario area. According to the Columbus Dispatch’s Brian Hedger, tomorrow’s game featuring the Buffalo Sabres and Columbus Blue Jackets is expected to be postponed. Neither team nor the NHL has confirmed the postponement yet and no makeup date is known.
This postponement comes on the heels of two additional games that were rescheduled from Friday. Both the Tampa Bay Lightning and Ottawa Senators, in Ottawa, and the Detroit Red Wings and Buffalo Sabres, in Buffalo, had to be postponed. Buffalo, who hasn’t played since last Monday, December 18th, will now have to make-up two games.
Although tomorrow’s game was supposed to be in Columbus, the reason for the postponement appears to be the Sabres’ inability to get to Columbus. At this point in time, many roads in the Buffalo area are closed to traffic, and the airport itself will remain closed through tomorrow. The Sabres had been due to fly out of Buffalo tomorrow morning for that evening’s game. Interestingly, the same-day travel had nothing to do with the weather in Buffalo, but instead the league’s restriction on practice and travel today.
Looking ahead, the Sabres are scheduled to host the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday before hitting the road and heading to Boston on Saturday. Thus far, there’s been no word on the status of either of those games.
Blue Jackets Assign Josh Dunne To AHL
With the Blue Jackets off for a few days, they’ve decided to send one of their players back to the minors as the team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve assigned center Josh Dunne to AHL Cleveland.
The 24-year-old was recalled back on Monday as the injury replacement for Boone Jenner after he was placed on IR following thumb surgery. Dunne played in three games with Columbus while on recall, logging a little under six minutes a night without recording a point while averaging a hit per contest. It was the second NHL stint of his career after getting into six games late in the 2020-21 campaign.
He has fared better in the minors, however, with six goals and five assists in 24 games so far with the Monsters, numbers that are very similar to the five goals and six helpers he had in 29 contests with them last season. The Blue Jackets are off until Tuesday so the move, which will likely be reversed prior to that game against Buffalo, will save them a bit of money although, with the team well into LTIR, it won’t make any sort of difference on their cap picture.
Columbus Blue Jackets Announce Several Roster Moves
The Columbus Blue Jackets have announced a series of roster moves this evening. Defenseman Adam Boqvist and goaltender Joonas Korpisalo have both been activated off of IR. In order to create the roster space for both players, the team has placed forward Cole Sillinger on IR and assigned goaltender Jet Greaves to the Cleveland Monsters, their AHL affiliate. Sillinger’s IR placement is retroactive to December 17th.
Columbus’ injury woes this season are well-documented, and Korpisalo is no exception, coming off of his second IR stint of the season. The netminder missed the first two weeks of the season on IR before landing there again December 11th. The other key struggle for the Blue Jackets this season has been goaltending, and there, Korpisalo again is no exception. The 28-year-old has struggled to a 3.53 goals-against average this season, though his .903 save-percentage, when considering his goals-against the the Blue Jackets’ on-ice struggles, is encouraging.
Korpisalo’s fellow netminder, Greaves had been recalled Tuesday on an emergency basis, but hadn’t played. The 21-year-old has had his own struggles in net this year, getting into 11 games with Cleveland, recording an .877 save-percentage average and 4.09 goals-against average.
The 19-year-old Sillinger hasn’t yet been able to recapture the success he had as a rookie in 2021-22, tallying just six points through his first 30 games this season and now lands on a lengthy IR list. The forward suffered an upper-body injury in Saturday’s game against the Boston Bruins and hadn’t played since. Though an injury isn’t good news, perhaps a brief time away could act as a reset for the youngster with a fresh-start ahead.
Boqvist will be a much-welcomed addition to a depleted lineup, havng played in just four games this season, the most recent coming October 25th. The former Chicago Blackhawks prospect has shown promise as a legitimate NHL defenseman, but is still awaiting a big breakout. Given the long list of injuries, if Boqvist can stay healthy, he should be able to gather enough regular minutes to help him facilitate that breakout.
Yegor Chinakhov Out Six Weeks
12/21/22: We now have some more clarity on Chinakhov’s injury and the timeline related to his recovery process. The Blue Jackets have announced that Chinakhov suffered a high ankle sprain in Monday’s game against the Dallas Stars, an injury that will cause him to miss approximately six weeks.
Chinakhov, the 21st overall pick at the 2020 draft, had been having a solid sophomore NHL season. While the Blue Jackets in general have struggled mightily, Chinakhov’s 13 points put him just one point behind his total production from last season. This year, though, he has scored those 13 points in 30 games, while last year it took him 62 games to score 14.
Needless to say, this high ankle sprain is an unwelcome development for the Blue Jackets. But the team can, at the very least, be encouraged by his progress on the ice so far this year as they monitor his injury recovery process.
12/20/22: It’s hard to believe just how many Columbus Blue Jackets players have suffered serious injuries this season but the list just keeps getting longer. Today, Yegor Chinakhov was moved to injured reserve with an ankle injury. Aaron Portzline of The Athletic reports that the young forward will get an MRI later today but is expected to be out of the lineup for a while.
Elvis Merzlikins is also dealing with an illness, meaning Jet Greaves has been recalled under emergency conditions and will serve as the backup tonight for Daniil Tarasov.
Chinakhov, 21, joins an injured reserve list that could nearly be a full NHL roster. Jakub Voracek, Boone Jenner, Jake Bean, Joonas Korpisalo, Justin Danforth, Nick Blankenburg, Zach Werenski, and Adam Boqvist are already out, while Cole Sillinger is dealing with a more minor injury.
Already in last place in the Eastern Conference and on a four-game losing streak, the Blue Jackets look like prime contenders for a lottery pick next summer.
Latest On Edmonton’s Search For Defense
The Edmonton Oilers haven’t been able to stop many teams this season, allowing goals at an alarming pace for a club that started the year with plans to contend for the Stanley Cup. After three straight 4-3 losses, their search for defensemen has hit the hot stove once again. In Elliotte Friedman’s latest 32 Thoughts column for Sportsnet, the insider reports that Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov is on the Oilers’ radar.
Gavrikov, 27, is likely to draw interest from a number of teams as he continues to play solid (if unspectacular) defense for the Blue Jackets. The sixth-round pick has nine points in 32 games this season while averaging over 22 minutes a night, and brings a size/mobility combination that is very desirable for contenders at the deadline. Friedman even notes the prices of David Savard and Ben Chiarot in recent years as an indication of what it might cost to acquire Gavrikov.
In 2021, the Blue Jackets sent Savard to the Tampa Bay Lightning in a three-way deal that included the Detroit Red Wings, for the cost of a first, third, and fourth-round pick. The double salary retention involved dropped Savard’s cap hit to just over $1MM, allowing him to fit into the eventual Stanley Cup champions’ tight budget. Gavrikov, who currently carries a $2.8MM cap hit, could actually get even lower than that, if the same middle-man structure were to take place.
Chiarot landed a similar package from the Florida Panthers last year, as the Montreal Canadiens received first and fourth-round picks along with the rights to recent third-round prospect Ty Smilanic. The Canadiens retained half of Chiarot’s deal, taking his cap hit down to $1.75MM for the Panthers.
It should be noted that while Savard did win a Stanley Cup with the Lightning, neither one of these trades really worked out all that well for the acquiring team. Savard did very little on Tampa Bay’s run, dressing for 20 of the 23 games but averaging just over 14 minutes a night. Chiarot’s Panthers were swept in the second round while he was averaging just 17 minutes a night. Neither player re-signed with the acquiring teams.
Gavrikov, like Savard and Chiarot, is a pending unrestricted free agent that will likely be after a multi-year deal on the open market – one that should increase his cap hit significantly. Though he isn’t a star, he has shown the ability to play big minutes against top players and is a bargain at his current $2.8MM hit.