Blue Jackets’ Injuries Leave Opening-Night Roster in Flux

by

The Columbus Blue Jackets finished off a .500 preseason with a 7-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday night. While it’s time to look ahead to the start of the regular season, key questions remain as the roster deadline approaches.

Thanks to a couple of injuries to important players, who exactly makes the 23-man roster is not cut and dried. There’s a good chance someone will start on the roster who’s not even on the team yet.

GM Don Waddell is going to be busy this weekend and into next week trying to make some last-minute decisions on how the opening 23-man roster will look. Let’s reset the injury situation first.

Key Injuries

We’ll start with an ominous update. Dmitri Voronkov played one shift on Thursday night before having to leave the game. He suffered an upper-body injury. On replay, it did appear he was favoring his shoulder after he got caught up with Penguins’ Sam Poulin. However, the team hasn’t specified as of yet what the exact nature of the injury is.

On Friday, the Blue Jackets placed Voronkov on injured reserve. He will be out indefinitely. The team did not give an expected timeframe in which he might return. This does leave open the possibility his absence could be longer term.

Then at practice on Friday for the non-game group, Boone Jenner slammed into the boards. He left the ice and never returned. As of this writing, there is no official update from the team as to what his status is.

With Voronkov on injured reserve and the possibility Jenner has to miss time, that could give some players an opportunity to make the roster that would not have before. That coupled with the desire of the Blue Jackets to possibly add another forward and you have a situation in which the roster is anything but settled.

Where Roster Stands

The deadline for the Blue Jackets to set their initial 23-man roster is Monday Oct 7 at 5 P.M. eastern. Thanks to the recent decision by the NHL and NHLPA, the team doesn’t have to be at the cap floor on that date. But it is expected that they get there in the future in a reasonable amount of time.

Depending on who makes the roster and what potential moves are made, there is a chance the Blue Jackets start the season above the floor. If they acquire a player with a big enough cap hit, then that’s settled.

We’ll start with the goaltending. This is easy to settle. Elvis Merzlikins and Daniil Tarasov are the goalies. Jet Greaves was assigned to Cleveland on Saturday morning. This becomes interesting as soon as next season once Greaves needs waivers, the team would have three goalies under contract that all need waivers. Merzlikins is expected to be the opening-night starter although that’s not official as of this writing.

On defense, the big story here is what to do with Denton Mateychuk. Given how well he played all preseason long, it would surprise nobody if he made it. Then conversely, going to Cleveland isn’t a bad idea either.

Here are defensemen left in camp as of Saturday morning: Mateychuk, Jack Johnson, Zach Werenski, Ivan Provorov, Jake Christiansen, Erik Gudbranson, Jordan Harris, David Jiricek and Damon Severson. That’s nine defensemen. The most they would keep is eight. Of this group, only Matyechuk and Jiricek don’t need waivers. Unless there is a surprise, this appears like Mateychuk will be Cleveland bound eventually. We’ll see though.

You Might Also Like

Now for the forwards. There are 13 forwards in play as of this moment that could make the roster. If you don’t count Jenner, there’s 12. They are Cole Sillinger, Sean Kuraly, Adam Fantilli, James van Riemsdyk, Sean Monahan, Mathieu Olivier, Dylan Gambrell, Yegor Chinakhov, James Malatesta, Mikael Pyyhtia, Kirill Marchenko and Kent Johnson.

Especially given the Blue Jackets open on the road in Minnesota and then Colorado, they would need an extra forward if Jenner’s injury prevents him from being available.

As for the potential of moves, Waddell told Blue Jackets’ radio on Friday that he’s talked with several teams and is watching the waiver wire. The fit has to make sense to them. Watch 2 P.M. eastern for not only if anyone gets claimed, but who teams expose to the wire.

Don Waddell, Columbus Blue Jackets
Columbus Blue Jackets GM Don Waddell will be busy leading up to their opening game. (Photo credit: Mark Scheig, the Hockey Writers)

The Blue Jackets can always make moves after Monday at 5 P.M. But that is when they need to have a compliant roster with no more than 23 players on it.

The Blue Jackets were already looking to add prior to the Voronkov and Jenner injuries. Unless they elect to start the season with Malatesta, Gambrell and Pyyhtia as their 10-11-12 forwards, it’s reasonable to expect one, maybe even two additional moves before Thursday’s game in Minnesota.

Stay tuned and know where your F5 button is on your computer.