Blue Jackets Place Conor Garland On IR

With the Blue Jackets being a bit banged up with their forward group, they’ve made a roster move to allow them to recall someone if needed.  The team announced today that they’ve placed winger Conor Garland on injured reserve.

The placement is retroactive to November 6th, meaning that he has already missed the required one week.  Accordingly, he can be activated at any time.  The team now has one open roster slot.

Garland is dealing with an upper-body injury with no firm timeline for his return.  The 30-year-old is in his first full season from Columbus after being acquired from Vancouver last season and to say he has struggled would be putting it lightly.  Through 15 games, Garland has yet to score while recording one assist.  Dating back to last season, he’s on a 29-game goal drought.

Still, Garland has a good enough track record to provide some encouragement that he’ll be able to turn things around when he’s cleared to return.  While he had a 33-point effort last season, his previous four campaigns ranged between 46 and 52 points.

Meanwhile, after leaving last night’s game with an upper-body injury, center Sean Monahan is listed as day-to-day and hasn’t been ruled out of playing on Saturday, notes Aaron Portzline of The Athletic (Twitter link).  The veteran is also off to a quiet start with one goal and five assists through his 16 appearances.  Speculatively, if he isn’t cleared, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Columbus call someone up from AHL Cleveland using the roster slot created with Garland’s IR placement.