Isac Lundestrom Sustains Achilles Injury

It appears that the Blue Jackets will be without one of their centers when the season gets underway.  Isac Lundestrom indicated to David Olsson Jiglund of Norbottens-Kuriren that he suffered an Achilles injury while training.

The extent of the injury is not yet known.  While Lundestrom’s interview indicated that he thinks it has ruptured, GM Don Waddell indicated to Aaron Portzline of The Athletic (Twitter link) that there is one test that suggested the forward could return in November while the other is more long-term.  Players can take the better part of a year recovering from a torn Achilles and if that’s the case here, Lundestrom could miss the bulk of 2026-27.

This isn’t the first time Lundestrom has suffered an Achilles injury during summer training.  The same thing happened to him in 2023, where the injury caused him to miss nearly half the season.  Notably, this recent injury is not to the same one that was injured back then.

The 26-year-old played his first season in Columbus last season after signing with them in unrestricted free agency following a non-tender from Anaheim.  Lundestrom played in 68 games with the Blue Jackets and was fairly quiet offensively, collecting just four goals and eight assists while averaging 12:23 per night in a predominantly fourth-line role.

Over his eight-year NHL career, Lundestrom has been a regular in the bottom-six between Anaheim and Columbus.  He has 405 games at the top level under his belt, tallying 39 goals and 57 assists.

While there’s never a good time for an Achilles injury, the timing could be especially problematic for Lundestrom.  He’s entering the final year of his contract, one that carries a $1.3MM cap charge.  If it winds up being the worst-case scenario in terms of the extent of the damage, most of his platform year will be spent on injured reserve which would certainly make things more difficult for him next summer.

The Blue Jackets have enough forward and center depth that this injury – be it a short-term or long-term one – shouldn’t necessarily force their hand into trying to make another move to replace him.  However, the injury has happened early enough that if Waddell decides to bring in some extra depth, there are still enough options available in free agency to do so.