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Boone Jenner

Blue Jackets Activate Boone Jenner, Kirill Marchenko Off IR

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The Blue Jackets lineup will get a considerable boost from the 4 Nations break. Captain Boone Jenner and team goals leader Kirill Marchenko have been activated off injured reserve and will play against the Blackhawks tomorrow, the team announced. In a corresponding transaction, depth winger Kevin Labanc is headed to IR after shoulder surgery on Tuesday and will miss the remainder of the season.

Jenner, 31, will be making his season debut. The 11-year veteran needed shoulder surgery after taking a nasty spill into the boards during a practice late in training camp, keeping him out of the lineup for over four and a half months. Coming off the heels of his first career All-Star Game appearance, the Jackets lifer has now averaged over 20 minutes per game for three consecutive seasons while scoring north of 20 goals each time.

Injuries have become standard for Jenner, who hasn’t touched the 70-game mark since before the pandemic. But he’s produced at a 31-goal, 55-point clip per 82 games since the 2021-22 campaign, providing strong possession metrics despite what his -51 rating over that time may indicate. While overtaxed in a first-line role, he’s a strong middle-six center with a well-rounded game. He’s served as Columbus’ captain since the 2021-22 season, succeeding Nick Foligno, and has worn a letter for them since 2015-16.

Outside of his off-ice impact, his return is a needle-mover for a Blue Jackets forward group that remains without top center Sean Monahan, who had 41 points in 41 games before a wrist sprain paused his season in early January. He’s not expected back until after the trade deadline. Columbus also has emerging winger Yegor Chinakhov on IR, who had 14 points through his first 21 games but hasn’t played since late November due to an upper-body injury and doesn’t have a timeline for a return.

Notably, Jenner may not be returning to his natural center position. PuckPedia projects him as the Jackets’ second-line left wing alongside youngsters Cole Sillinger and Kent Johnson, while sophomore Adam Fantilli continues in a first-line role in Monahan’s absence. Fantilli, the 2023 third-overall pick, has 6-7–13 in 15 games without Monahan.

He spent a few of those games without Marchenko, now a top-line fixture, on his wing. The 24-year-old winger took a puck to the jaw against the Stars on Feb. 2 and required surgery, keeping him out of the lineup for three games. He’ll undoubtedly be wearing a full shield upon his return, but his raucous 21 goals and 55 points in 53 games are a must-have as the Blue Jackets look to continue their improbable push up the standings and unseat the Red Wings for the second wild-card spot in the East. They’re one point back of Detroit but have played one more game than the Wings, making next weekend’s outdoor game at Ohio State between the two a must-watch.

Yet Columbus can’t have good news on the injury front this season without a small step back. Labanc’s role in the lineup leading into the break had been minimal, serving as a healthy scratch in nine of the Jackets’ last 10. However, undergoing surgery indicates he wasn’t fully healthy unless he sustained an off-ice injury over the break. While his deployment has been limited, he’s been an effective depth scorer when in the lineup. The ex-Sharks forward had 2-10–12 through 34 appearances, averaging 10:30 per game, and actually sported the third-best Corsi share among Columbus skaters at even strength at 52.6%. While not the fringe top-six piece he was years ago in San Jose, the 29-year-old had been playing solid hockey after signing a one-year, league-minimum deal in early October.

The Jackets have 12 forwards on the active roster following today’s moves, indicating Joseph Labate will make his Columbus debut this weekend after being recalled from AHL Cleveland yesterday. Luca Del Bel Belluz and Mikael Pyyhtia, who had played regularly for the Jackets leading into the break, remain on AHL assignments for now.

Blue Jackets Notes: Jenner, Mateychuk, Sillinger, Monahan

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Blue Jackets center Boone Jenner took to the ice today as he continues to work his way back from a shoulder injury sustained back in training camp, relays Mark Scheig of The Hockey Writers (Twitter link).  It’s the first time the captain has skated with the team since suffering the injury.  Jenner has been a key middleman for Columbus for more than a decade when healthy although he has missed time with injuries for five straight years now.  Considering he’s just starting to skate with the team now, it’s fair to suggest Jenner is still several weeks away from returning but with the Blue Jackets hanging around the playoff battle in the East, it’s possible that their big trade deadline addition to boost their roster could simply be getting him back in their lineup.

More from Columbus:

  • The Blue Jackets will welcome defenseman Denton Mateychuk back to the lineup tonight against Los Angeles, notes Aaron Portzline of The Athletic (Twitter link). The 20-year-old had missed three straight games due to illness.  Mateychuk has played in 12 games since being recalled late last month and has held his own in his first taste of NHL action with three points along with 21 blocked shots while averaging a little over 18 minutes a night of playing time.  Mateychuk had gotten off to quite a strong start before that in the minors, collecting 25 points in 27 contests with Cleveland before being brought up.
  • While they’re getting Mateychuk back, the same can’t be said for center Cole Sillinger. Team reporter Jeff Svoboda mentions (Twitter link) that the 21-year-old didn’t take the morning skate and thus is expected to miss his third straight game with an upper-body injury.  Sillinger had a solid first half with 23 points in 45 games while seeing his playing time jump up to 17:40 per night.
  • Compounding Jenner’s absence is that Sean Monahan (wrist) has also been out of the lineup for the past three weeks, weakening their already relatively thin center depth. Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch mentions that while Jenner is hoping to be back after the 4 Nations Face-Off, Monahan is expected to be back before him so Columbus may not have to deal with being down their top two centers for too much longer.

Boone Jenner Undergoes Shoulder Surgery, May Not Return This Season

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Blue Jackets general manager Don Waddell announced today that captain Boone Jenner is out indefinitely after undergoing shoulder surgery. “Our hope is he can return before the end of the season,” Waddell said, but there’s no guarantee he’ll suit up at all in 2024-25. Waddell later added Jenner would be out for at least five months, marking the beginning of March as his earliest opportunity to return, per Michael Russo of The Athletic.

Jenner sustained the injury in practice last week after losing an edge and crashing into the boards. After landing on IR before the season-opening rosters were due, Aaron Portzline of The Athletic indicated he could be out multiple months. Today’s news isn’t quite the worst-case scenario for Jenner, but it’s certainly not promising.

The shoulder surgery adds to a long list of injuries that’s prevented Jenner from playing more than 70 games in a season since the COVID-19 pandemic. While the 31-year-old has been an invaluable piece for Columbus, putting up the best offensive numbers of his career after assuming the captaincy in 2021, a broken jaw and recurring back problems have truncated his last three campaigns at 59, 68 and 58 games, respectively.

A Blue Jackets lifer, Jenner was a second-round pick of Columbus back in 2011. His career averages suggest the offensive output of a squarely middle-six center, posting 22 goals and 42 points per 82 games. But he’s averaged over 20 minutes per game in the last three years, and with increased usage has come increased production. The Ontario native has produced a 32-goal, 55-point clip per 82 games since the 2021-22 campaign. He’s done so on a bargain-bin four-year, $15MM extension he signed before his 2021 resurgence – some will remember his 30-goal, 49-point breakout campaign for the Jackets way back in 2015-16.

Jenner’s absence will deprive Columbus of their top forward for most of the season, diminishing the effectiveness of an already thin group. He was expected to shift to the wing from center this year, so Adam Fantilli and Sean Monahan won’t see much of an increase in responsibility from their already-anticipated top-six roles. But Jenner’s injury will lead to more ice time for late-summer UFA pickups Kevin Labanc and James van Riemsdyk, who now each project to play tonight’s season opener in second-line roles flanking Fantilli, per the team’s Jeff Svoboda.

In much more positive news, winger Dmitri Voronkov, who also started the season on IR, isn’t expected to miss nearly as much time as Jenner with his upper body injury, per Waddell. He doesn’t require surgery and could return by the end of next month, Svoboda relays.

Blue Jackets’ Boone Jenner Expected To Start Season On IR

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The Columbus Blue Jackets are expected to place team captain Boone Jenner on injured reserve to begin the year, shares Aaron Portzline of The Athletic. Jenner joins Dmtri Voronkov on the team’s season-opening IR. Portzline shares that both players are expected to miss extended time, with one source suggesting that they could miss months. The organization doesn’t plan to reveal either player’s timeline, though general manager Don Waddell did mention that Jenner is visiting specialists and will be out for, “a while”.

Jenner suffered the injury after losing an edge and careening into the wall in the team’s Friday practice. He’ll move forward with an official upper-body injury, entering yet another season with complications after missing at least 10 games in each of the last four years. He missed a month of action last season due to a fractured jaw, and had both his 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons ended early by back injuries. Jenner is productive when he does play, recording at least 20 goals in three straight seasons and totaling 141 points in 226 games since 2020. That’s good enough for second on the Blue Jackets in scoring in that timeframe, behind Jack Roslovic, who’s now signed with the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Blue Jackets are now missing two of their top three goal-scorers from the 2023-24 season with Jenner and Voronkov on IR, adding even more stress to what’s been an unfathomably difficult summer for Columbus. The vacant minutes are likely to be spread among the team’s many up-and-coming prospects, with James Malatesta and Yegor Chinakhov both still on the NHL roster. Columbus could also award recent signee Kevin Labanc with a hardy role after he scored a league-leading six goals in four preseason games.

Metropolitan Notes: York, Jenner, Carrier

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Flyers defenseman Cam York is entering the final year of his contract and is therefore eligible to sign a contract extension.  Speaking with reporters including Jackie Spiegel of the Philadelphia Inquirer, the blueliner indicated he wasn’t worried about getting a deal done at this point knowing that eventually something will work out.  The 23-year-old potted 10 goals along with 20 assists while playing all 82 games last season.  He also notably logged 22:37 per contest, second to only Travis Sanheim.  With that in mind, it might make sense for York to wait a little while yet before signing an extension as a repeat of last year’s performance will only bolster his value heading into next summer when he’ll be a restricted free agent with arbitration eligibility, owed a $1.6MM qualifying offer.

More from the Metropolitan:

  • While Boone Jenner has arguably been the Blue Jackets’ most reliable center in recent years, he won’t be lining up there to start the season. Instead, Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch relays that the captain will instead line up on the left wing on the top line.  Jenner has been a reliable faceoff specialist over the years but with Sean Monahan being added in free agency and Adam Fantilli now fully recovered from a calf laceration that caused him to miss the second half last season, new head coach Dean Evason wants to see how Jenner fares in Johnny Gaudreau’s old spot, hoping that his forechecking will lead to some additional opportunities.
  • Hurricanes winger William Carrier is only expected to miss a couple of days with the lower-body injury that held him out of practice yesterday, relays team reporter Walt Ruff (Twitter link). Head coach Rod Brind’Amour noted that they’re merely being extra cautious with the newcomer.  Carrier signed a six-year, $12MM contract with Carolina over the summer after spending the last seven years with Vegas where he averaged three hits per game while chipping in with 99 points in 372 appearances.

Blue Jackets Notes: Fix-Wolansky, Subban, Jenner

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The Columbus Blue Jackets announced that they’ve assigned forward Trey Fix-Wolansky to the Cleveland Monsters of the American Hockey League. The 24-year-old played in a career-high 11 NHL games this season with the Blue Jackets, posting two goals and an assist. The former seventh-round pick averaged a shade under 11 minutes of ice time per game and appeared to gain more confidence as the season went on. In his final appearance two nights ago he potted two goals against the Predators in 10:49 of ice time.

An undersized forward at 5’7” tall, Fix-Wolansky has been a prolific AHL scorer for the past two seasons but has been unable to carry it over to the NHL level. In 26 career NHL games, the Edmonton, Alberta native has four goals and two assists, numbers that are in stark contrast to his AHL numbers where he has 84 goals and 113 assists in 221 games.

In other Blue Jackets notes:

  • The Columbus Blue Jackets have also assigned goaltender Malcolm Subban to the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters. The 30-year-old netminder is a veteran of 87 NHL games split over eight seasons but has appeared in just five NHL games over the last three years including one this season. The Toronto, Ontario native is with his fifth NHL franchise and has appeared in 206 AHL games posting a record of 89-78-29 with a 2.65 goals-against average and a .911 save percentage.
  • Aaron Portzline of The Athletic is reporting that Blue Jackets forward Boone Jenner was back at team practice today as he looks to return from personal leave. It was Jenner’s first time on the ice since he and his wife Maggie announced that their son Dawson was tragically stillborn. Jenner has missed the Blue Jackets last six games but could be available for the team’s final regular season game tomorrow night against the Carolina Hurricanes. The 30-year-old has spent his entire 11-year NHL career with the Blue Jackets and is the franchise’s all-time leader in games played with 715.

Blue Jackets Notes: Jenner, Merzlikins, Danforth

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Blue Jackets captain Boone Jenner will remain out of the lineup tonight against the Avalanche, Aaron Portzline of The Athletic reports. He was unavailable for Saturday’s shootout win over the Penguins as well due to illness. That necessitated the emergency recall of 21-year-old forward Cameron Butler from AHL Cleveland, who made his NHL debut but was stapled to the bench for most of it, taking a lone 54-second shift. Butler was returned to Cleveland yesterday. Jenner has eclipsed the 20-goal mark for the third straight season, sitting third on Columbus in scoring with 22 goals and 35 points in 58 games, trailing only Johnny Gaudreau and Zach Werenski. Now in his 11th season in Columbus, the 30-year-old has two seasons remaining on his contract at a bargain-bin $3.75MM cap hit.

Other notes ahead of Monday’s matchup against Colorado:

  • Netminder Elvis Merzļikins has officially been ruled out of tonight’s contest with a lower-body injury and is listed as day-to-day, per Dave Maetzold of Bally Sports Ohio. Columbus recalled prospect Jet Greaves under emergency conditions yesterday after Merzļikins missed practice with what head coach Pascal Vincent termed as a maintenance day. Greaves will back up while Daniil Tarasov makes his 22nd start of the season, a career-high. For Merzļikins, it’s another small blip in what’s otherwise been an improved but still underwhelming campaign. His .897 SV% and 3.45 GAA are vast improvements on last year’s totals (.876 SV%, 4.23 GAA) when he was one of the worst netminders in the league, but he’s still conceded more goals than expected – 6.4 to be exact, per MoneyPuck – for the second straight year. He’s largely managed to stay healthy, though, a major issue for him last season. He’s crossed 40 starts this season for only the second time since coming to North America in 2019.
  • Forward Justin Danforth returns to the lineup tonight after missing 11 games with a concussion, per the team. The 31-year-old had played in all 63 Blue Jackets games before exiting the lineup on March 9, scoring 10 goals and 11 assists for 23 points. He’s averaged 14:16 per game, a career-high. An undrafted free agent signing out of the KHL in 2021, the Ontario-born forward has cycled between center and wing for Columbus and lands on the former tonight, holding down a line between AHL call-ups James Malatesta and Carson Meyer.

Columbus Blue Jackets Recall Cameron Butler

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The Columbus Blue Jackets recalled Cameron Butler from their AHL affiliate, the Cleveland Monsters, with captain Boone Jenner out tonight with an illness. Since the recall was made under emergency conditions, it will not count against the Blue Jackets four-call-up limit for the time being.

As an undrafted free agent coming out of the Oshawa Generals program of the Ontario Hockey League, Butler signed his entry-level deal in Columbus a little over a year ago. In his last season in the OHL, Butler scored 27 goals and 55 points in 63 games for the Generals, registering three points in five playoff games as well.

Unfortunately, Butler’s offensive potential has not translated well during his first season of professional hockey, as he’s only been able to muster two goals and eight points over 46 games for the Monsters this season. Luckily, even though Butler is sitting 25th on the team in scoring, he still has the opportunity to develop.

Being one of the most consistent teams in the AHL over the last several years, Butler is not being heavily relied upon by the Monsters roster. Sitting one point back of the division-leading Syracuse Crunch, there is not much pressure on Butler yet, allowing him to develop at his pace.

Blue Jackets Not Looking To Trade Boone Jenner

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With many teams in full preparation mode for the NHL Trade Deadline on March 8th, the Columbus Blue Jackets were expected to be one of the league’s busier sellers, as they currently sit 29th overall in the standings. However, only yesterday, the organization made a major change at the top of their front office hierarchy, firing General Manager Jarmo Kekalainen after 12 seasons with the club.

Over the last several weeks, players such as Ivan Provorov and Patrik Laine have seen their names mentioned in various trade boards across the media landscape, although each presents a separate array of challenges when it comes to building a trade around either player. Outside of Provorov and Laine, even team captain Boone Jenner has seen his name softly brought up in rumors, largely based on the poor play of the team and his perceived value across the league.

Today, the acting General Manager of the Blue Jackets John Davidson made sure to squash any rumors regarding Jenner, indicating that the team had no intention of moving out their captain (X Link).

At the end of the day, with two years and $7.5MM remaining on Jenner’s contract after this season, Columbus does not need to be in any rush to move on from Jenner. Even with forwards such as Laine and Johnny Gaudreau on the roster, there is a strong case to be made that Jenner is the most valuable forward on the roster, being that he still leads the team in goal-scoring with 16 with 10-15 fewer games played than his peers.

On the other side of the coin, with this deadline season quickly turning into a seller’s market, an offer may come across the desk of Davidson that he may not be able to refuse. Only two weeks ago, the Calgary Flames were able to acquire an established NHL player, two prospects, and a first-round pick from the Vancouver Canucks for what could only be a few months of Elias Lindholm.

Outside of some very legitimate health concerns surrounding Jenner, he is on a similar goal and faceoff win pace as Lindholm over the last three seasons, also displaying some serious defensive prowess as well. With Lindholm set to make more than twice what Jenner is earning over the next two years, a contending team may offer a serious package if they were previously unable to pry Lindholm out of Alberta.

Snapshots: Jenner, Schiefele, Annunen

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The Columbus Blue Jackets have activated forward Boone Jenner off of injured reserve. This move confirms team reporter Aaron Portzline’s earlier report that the team captain would make his return on Friday.

Jenner is in his 11th season with the Blue Jackets and his third season as the team’s captain. He’s spent all 686 of his career games with Columbus – beating out Rick Nash for the most games in club history. Jenner has managed 347 points in those games, good for third in club history. Jenner had a career year in the 2015-16 season, managing 30 goals and 49 points in 82 games, while boasting a fairly meager 13.3 shooting percentage. He struggled to replicate that scoring ability for much of the subsequent years but has found a newfound finishing ability over recent seasons – netting 23 goals and 26 goals in the last two seasons respectively.  Jenner has 13 goals and 18 points in 29 games this season.

Other notes from around the league:

  • Mark Scheifele is expected to miss the Winnipeg Jets’ Saturday matchup against the Ottawa Senators says head coach Rick Bowness. He is battling a lower-body injury suffered on January 11th. He will be reevaluated ahead of the team’s Monday game against the Boston Bruins. Scheifele was placed on injured reserve on January 16th – with the placement retroactive to January 12th – making Saturday the first game that he could have returned for. His absence corresponded with teammate Kyle Connor’s return from injured reserve, helping to keep Winnipeg’s offense alive while their leading-scorer Scheifele misses time.
  • The Colorado Avalanche have sent 23-year-old goaltender Justus Annunen to the minors. He was recalled on January 13th and made his season debut, saving 36 of 40 shots in a 7-4 win over the Ottawa Senators. He’s now up to five career NHL games spread over the last three seasons, boasting a 3-1-1 record and .871 save percentage in them. Annunen returns to the AHL, where he’s already managed a 9-5-4 record and .908 save percentage in 18 games this season.

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