The Offseason Additions Were Supposed to Fix Last Year's Problem. Now They're the Problem.

Columbus spent the summer building a roster specifically designed to avoid another late-season offensive collapse. Nichushkin came over from Colorado to add scoring depth. Voronkov was already here and productive. Severson was meant to shore up a defense that gave up 3.4 goals per game in the final stretch. All three are day-to-day as training camp gets underway, which means the team's most important new pieces are the ones currently unavailable.

The timing is particularly uncomfortable given what this offseason was supposed to accomplish. Last April, Columbus scored twice in their final 10 games and watched a playoff spot slip away. Management responded aggressively — Nichushkin, Sillinger's extension, Greaves locked up through 2028-29. The plan was coherent. The execution is now contingent on players getting healthy before the games start to matter.

Merzlikins is already gone for an indeterminate stretch following shoulder surgery in August, and Isac Lundestrom's status remains unclear. I noted earlier this week that Greaves is opening camp as the starter with no real safety net behind him. Add the forward and defensive injuries on top of that and Columbus is entering the new season with its depth tested before a single real game has been played.

None of this is necessarily fatal — day-to-day designations resolve, and camp is the right time to absorb this kind of disruption. But a team that collapsed because it ran out of reliable contributors is now watching its new contributors miss the first days of work. Worth keeping an eye on how many of them are actually ready when the calendar turns.