The Columbus Blue Jackets have announced injury updates for goalie Elvis Merzlikins, defensemen Erik Gudbranson and Nick Blankenburg as well as forward Mathieu Olivier.
Merzlikins is day-to-day with a lower-body injury. Gudbranson is out for the rest of the season with a separated shoulder while Blankenburg is week-to-week with an ankle injury. Olivier will likely miss the rest of the season with lower-leg bone bruise.
The Blue Jackets are a rebuilding team that currently sits in 31st place in the NHL, ahead of only the San Jose Sharks. They own a record of 23-42-7 for 53 points. Assuming they finish in the bottom-three in the NHL they have a good chance at winning the lottery and drafting teenage phenom Connor Bedard.
Few things have gone right this year for the Blue Jackets from injury problems to not having a goalie with a GAA below 3.91 on their current roster. The only team worse than Columbus at goaltending is the Anaheim Ducks, who let in 4.03 goals per game to Columbus’ 3.94.
The NHL has seen a significant uptick in scoring this season and the Blue Jackets are among the victims of it. Merzlikins, their starting goalie, has not caught a break all year. He has a record of 7-18-2 with an abysmal .876 save percentage.
The team’s only competent goalie was Joonas Korpisalo, who posted a .913 save percentage before being sent to Los Angeles in the Vladislav Gavrikov deal. Still, as bad as it looks now for the Blue Jackets, there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Regardless of how the lottery balls fall, they will end up with a top-five pick in a fantastic draft this year. They already have an extremely talented young core of players that includes Adam Boqvist, Cole Sillinger, Kirill Marchenko, Kent Johnson, David Jiricek, Daniil Tarasov, and Yegor Chinakhov.
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