News From Columbus

On Monday, the Blue Jackets announced that they placed goaltender Pascal Leclaire on the Injured Reserve, with what is believed to be an ankle injury. The injury is thought to be somewhat minor and it will only keep the keeper out of action for about a week.

Leclaire, a third round pick of Derek, will likely miss out on a few starts and since it's an ankle injury, there should be some further fears that it won't heal as quickly or be 100% as soon as the team hopes. Leclaire has battled injuries for most of his career, last year being one of the healthier years of his tenure in Columbus.

The Blue Jackets announced on Tuesday morning that rookie forward, Nikita Filatov, has been sent back down to the minors, which was somewhat expected here. Filatov, Chris' last pick in the Draft, will be considered the first person the team calls up when injury troubles arrive, but the club does believe that his game will be better suited to improve in the minors, where he can get plenty of ice-time.

The Blue Jackets have gotten off to somewhat of a rocky start this year. They don't seem to be generating the sort of offense that they were hoping for when they signed R.J. Umberger and Kristian Huselius to deals in the off-season. Surely, they were hoping for more from their young players like Kris Russell and Nikita Filatov, who both now ended up in the minors. The team is still growing and there does seem to be a plan in place. It also can't be easy when your number one goalie is having troubles with injuries to start the year, not to mention some inconsistencies.

In a bit of a strange statistical note: looking at where the Blue Jackets were drafted in the Draft pool, they do go in points order, having Huselius with 7 points, drafted before both Leclaire and Rick Nash, who both have 6 points each, Christian Backman in with 4 points, Umberger with 2 and Filatov with 1.

Click here to see an updated injury page.