Blue Jackets goaltender Joonas Korpisalo undergoing season-ending hip surgery

The Columbus Blue Jackets were thrashed by the Pittsburgh Penguins to the tune of 5-1 on Tuesday night and shared additional bad news for fans on Thursday. 

Per the NHL's website, Columbus goaltender Joonas Korpisalo will require surgery to repair a hip injury and, thus, will miss the remainder of the season and be sidelined for roughly six months. Korpisalo surrendered five goals on 37 shots in the defeat at Pittsburgh but apparently wasn't 100% for that matchup. 

"This is an injury that Joonas has been dealing with for some time and it has now gotten to the point where surgery is the best option," Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen explained on Thursday. "We are disappointed for him as he has worked extremely hard to be able to play, but this is the best course of action."

Korpisalo ends the campaign with a 7-11-0 record, a 4.15 goals-against average and a .877 save percentage tallied across 22 games and 17 starts.

As noted by The Associated Press (h/t ESPN), the Blue Jackets signed goalie Elvis Merzlikins to a five-year contract worth $27 million this past September but held onto Korpisalo through Monday's trade deadline even though the 27-year-old can hit free agency this summer. Korpisalo's future plans are unclear at this time. 

Columbus heads into Friday's game at the Winnipeg Jets fifth in the Metropolitan Division standings and a whopping 13 points behind the Washington Capitals in the race for the conference's second wild-card playoff berth.