The Blue Jackets have placed forward Patrik Laine on injured reserve retroactive to Dec. 14, per a team release. In a corresponding transaction, the team recalled forward Brendan Gaunce from AHL Cleveland under emergency conditions.
The team already announced Laine was expected to miss six weeks of action after sustaining a clavicle fracture in Thursday’s game against the Maple Leafs. The move does not change his timeline for a return and is purely for roster management purposes.
2023-24 is quickly becoming a season to forget for Laine. This is now the third time he’ll be held out of the lineup for an extended period of time this year, missing nine games near the beginning of the season with an upper-body injury and missing three games earlier in December month due to illness. He was also made a healthy scratch for a game against the Flyers on November 19, bringing his absence total to 14 out of Columbus’ 32 games this season.
When in the lineup, Laine has been a shell of the near-point-per-game player he’s been over the last two seasons. He’s scored just six goals and nine points in 18 games, and his ice time has dipped to a career-low 15:13 per game under first-year head coach Pascal Vincent.
Gaunce comes up to the NHL on his first recall of the season. The 29-year-old minor-league veteran was in the later rounds of the Blue Jackets’ cuts from training camp and cleared waivers in early October.
The 2012 first-round pick does have over 150 games of NHL experience dating back to his debut with the Canucks in the 2015-16 campaign. He made a quick stop in Boston and spent one season overseas with the Swedish Hockey League’s Växjö Lakers before arriving in Columbus in 2021. Since then, he’s primarily served as a top-six option for Cleveland, racking up 61 points in 80 AHL games over the past three seasons. So far this season, he ranks third on the team in scoring, with six goals and 15 points in 24 games. Slated for unrestricted free agency next summer, Gaunce will serve as the team’s 13th forward for the time being and is unlikely to draw into the lineup tomorrow against the Sabres.
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