Lundestrom Injury Adds a Wrinkle to Columbus's Otherwise Tidy Offseason

The Blue Jackets have spent the summer methodically patching the holes that sank their season — Valeri Nichushkin in from Colorado, Luke Tuch signed to a two-year two-way deal, Cole Sillinger locked up for three years at $13.875 million, Jet Greaves secured in net. It was a clean, purposeful offseason for a team that finished 40–43 and went 2–8 down the stretch while scoring at a rate that would embarrass a power-play unit.

Then Isac Lundestrom turned up hurt on July 25, status and timeline both unclear. It's not a crisis — the forward group Columbus assembled is deeper than last year's by a fair margin — but it's worth noting because depth was exactly the thing management spent the summer buying. The whole point of adding Nichushkin and Tuch was to ensure the team didn't arrive at a critical stretch with the same thin margin that left Adam Fantilli as the primary offensive engine while he went 27 shots without a goal.

Lundestrom isn't a top-six piece, but he's the kind of player who absorbs minutes and keeps a coaching staff from leaning too hard on anyone else. Lose him for any significant stretch and the cushion the front office built gets a little thinner before training camp even opens. My read is this probably resolves before it becomes a real problem — but it's the one unresolved item on an otherwise buttoned-up roster.