Headlines

Go To MLB Trade Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Blue Jackets Rumors

Blue Jackets’ Miles Wood Out At Least One Week

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

The Blue Jackets announced that winger Miles Wood will miss at least a week with an apparent eye injury, according to Aaron Portzline of The Athletic.

Wood sustained the injury on Monday. He left their loss to the Devils after taking a high stick from New Jersey defender Dougie Hamilton while attempting to cross in front of the Devils’ crease (video via B/R Open Ice). Injury troubles are nothing new for Wood, who missed over 30 games due to an upper-body issue while he was with the Avalanche last year. He had just eight points in 37 games when healthy, causing Colorado to part ways with him two years into a six-year, $15MM contract and trade him to Columbus in the Charlie Coyle deal to clear some cap space.

The Jackets don’t need to place Wood on IR unless they need his roster spot for a corresponding recall, which they haven’t made yet. Even so, they only had 22 players on their active roster and could make a recall without removing Wood from the roster. He’s eligible for a placement with his return timeline being at least seven days.

In fact, a recall is destined to come before they take on Wood’s former team tomorrow. With defenseman Erik Gudbranson also sidelined day-to-day with an upper-body injury, Wood’s injury means Columbus is down to the bare minimum of 18 healthy skaters. Making his season debut in Wood’s place will be Yegor Chinakhov, Portzline reports. The 2020 first-round pick will be slotting directly into Wood’s vacant spot on the fourth line alongside Isac Lundeström and Zach Aston-Reese. Chinakhov was a healthy scratch for the first three games of the season after making a formal trade request over the summer following a dispute with head coach Dean Evason. He said at the beginning of camp that he was open to staying with Columbus, but his preseason usage was limited, and he changed his representation last month as a result.

Wood averaged just 7:58 through his first three appearances as a Jacket, although that’s dragged down by his leaving Monday’s game early. He’s managed a +1 rating and two hits and scored his first goal in a Columbus jersey last weekend in their only win of the season to date, a 7-4 victory over the Wild.

Upper-Body Injury For Wood

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

  • Blue Jackets winger Miles Wood left tonight’s game against New Jersey with an upper-body injury, the team announced (Twitter link). He took a high stick from Dougie Hamilton in the first period and did not return.  Wood is in his first season with Columbus after being acquired from Colorado in the offseason and scored in his second game of the campaign.

Brendan Smith Agrees To PTO With AHL Cleveland

at CDT | by 4 Comments

Oct. 13th: Although his professional tryout with the Blue Jackets proved unsuccessful, Smith will remain in the organization for the time being. The AHL’s Cleveland Monsters announced they’ve signed Smith to a PTO. Smith will play in his first AHL contest since the 2017-18 season.

Aug. 19th: Defenseman Brendan Smith has signed a PTO with the Blue Jackets, according to a team release.

Smith, 36, was once a fringe top-four option but has slid into a definitive No. 7 role in recent years, even sometimes slotting in as a fourth-line winger. He spent 2024-25 with the Stars on a one-year, $1MM deal, spending most of the year in the press box and averaging a career-low 13:13 per game. He logged 32 appearances, recording six points with a -9 rating and 41 hits. The 6’2″, 200-lb lefty didn’t see any playoff action for Dallas, either.

After long stretches with the Red Wings and Rangers to begin his career, he’s now played for three teams, the Hurricanes, Devils, and Stars, in the last four seasons. Smith’s best years came in Detroit, where he topped out with 19 points in 71 games during his first full-time season in the NHL back in 2013-14. He also went his entire career with the Wings without having negative possession impacts at even strength, even once, proving there was some definite defensive upside there when they selected him in the first round in 2007.

When he moved to the Rangers, though, those possession metrics took a hit that they never really recovered from. He even ended up on waivers during the 2017-18 campaign and had a brief demotion to AHL Hartford, although he hasn’t played in the minors since then.

With Columbus, Smith now competes for a contract in a decently crowded mix of depth forwards and defensemen. His ability to jump up on the wing will certainly help his case when doing roster math. He’s not a threat to unseat a name like Erik Gudbranson or Damon Severson for a bottom-pairing role, so his best-case objective would be to unseat the more offensively gifted Jake Christiansen as an extra defender or beat out a name like the newly-signed Hudson Fasching for the 14th forward spot and be used as a flex.

Columbus already has 15 defensemen under contract, 14 of whom will staff the NHL and AHL rosters. That certainly makes it an uphill battle for Smith to land a two-way deal since his fit with AHL Cleveland would be murky.

Blue Jackets Activate, Reassign Jordan Dumais

at CDT | by 1 Comment

One of the Columbus Blue Jackets’ up-and-coming forward prospects is getting back to work in the AHL. According to a team announcement, the Blue Jackets have activated Jordan Dumais from the season-opening injured reserve and have assigned him to the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters.

Dumais has dealt with injuries the past few years, and nothing has changed to start the 2025-26 campaign. Dumais suffered a hip strain during Columbus’s rookie showcase, preventing him from participating in the team’s training camp and preseason.

Still, he’s only a few years removed from an impressive performance in the QMJHL.

Despite being selected in the third round of the 2022 NHL Draft, Dumais was coming off an electric sophomore campaign with the Halifax Mooseheads, scoring 39 goals and 109 points in 68 games with a +7 rating. The next year, he dwarfed his previous output, leading the QMJHL in scoring with 54 goals and 140 points in 64 games, earning the league’s MVP award. Further, he registered five goals and 21 points in 15 postseason appearances.

Due to injuries, Dumais played only 21 games in the 2023-24 season, finishing the campaign with 16 goals and 47 points. He additionally played for Team Canada at the IIHF U20 World Junior Championships, tallying one goal and one assist in five tournament contests.

Again, injuries limited Dumais to 21 games throughout his first year of professional hockey. Still, he made the most of his brief time with the Monsters, collecting four goals and 11 points in his rookie campaign. The Blue Jackets are hoping that with the hip injury behind him, Dumais can participate in most of the Monsters’ games this season to get his development back on the right track.

Upper-Body Injury For Gudbranson

at CDT | by 2 Comments

  • Blue Jackets defenseman Erik Gudbranson exited Saturday’s victory over Minnesota early due to an upper-body injury, notes Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch. The injury occurred on a hit from Marcus Foligno late in the second period but while he came out briefly for the third period, he quickly returned to the dressing room.  Gudbranson was limited to just 16 games last season due to a shoulder injury and an early absence this year certainly isn’t ideal, especially with this being the final year of his contract.  Aaron Portzline of The Athletic adds (Twitter link) that the team won’t be providing any updates on Gudbranson’s status today.

Blue Jackets Name Jet Greaves Opening Night Starter

at CDT | by 2 Comments

Blue Jackets head coach Dean Evason confirmed to reporters today that Jet Greaves will open the season as Columbus’ starting netminder, via Aaron Portzline of The Athletic.

Given how last season transpired, it’s not much of a surprise. While Elvis Merzļikins remains under contract at a $5.4MM cap hit and has been the team’s starter since 2021-22, his workload in recent seasons has been because of a lack of other quality options, not because of his performance. He had a couple of excellent showings as Joonas Korpisalo’s backup to begin his NHL career, but hasn’t had an average showing since his first year as Columbus’ No. 1. He’s rebounded somewhat from a disastrous 2022-23 season, but still posted an uninspiring .892 SV% and 3.18 GAA in 53 appearances for the Jackets last year.

Greaves, on the other hand, has gone from unheralded prospect to one of the league’s most intriguing young goalies over the past couple of seasons. The 24-year-old has operated as the Blue Jackets’ third-stringer for the past two years and got into a career-high 11 games last year – including five straight starts to end the season as the Jackets chased a playoff berth. He went 5-0 in those games, but they’d fallen too far back in the race by that point and missed out on a wild-card spot by two points.

The undrafted netminder has logged a stellar .924 SV% in 21 career NHL appearances over the last three years, including a sparkling .938 mark and 1.91 GAA with a pair of shutouts in last season’s body of work. In those 11 games, Greaves managed to stop 14.5 goals saved above expected, per MoneyPuck – 15th in the league and more than what high-end starters like Mackenzie Blackwood, Adin Hill, and Linus Ullmark managed to produce over a full season’s worth of work.

Greaves was similarly outstanding as the starter for AHL Cleveland in 2024-25. His .920 SV% and 2.62 GAA in 40 appearances, the former of which ranked fourth in the league among goalies who saw that kind of workload.

The writing was also on the wall based on his and Merzļikins’ preseason performances. Greaves got slightly more minutes and had much better results – a .917 SV% in three outings compared to an .896 mark from his Latvian counterpart.

It remains to be seen how Evason manages Greaves’ workload this season, or whether he operates as an outright starter rather than a tandem lead. Given he’s untested in the NHL for extended periods, it will likely be the latter. The season might start with a rotation approach and, if Greaves still holds up as the clearly better option, he could be in line for more consistent usage in the back half of the year.

Will Butcher Signs With AHL Cleveland

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

After one year overseas, a former Calder Trophy vote recipient is returning to North America. According to an announcement from the team, the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters have signed defenseman Will Butcher to a one-year contract for the 2025-26 season.

Last season, the University of Denver alumnus split his time between the KHL’s Barys Astana and the DEL’s EHC München. He performed much better with the latter, scoring three goals and 11 points in 32 games with a +7 rating, after tallying three assists in 15 games with the former.

Despite his offensive struggles in Europe, Butcher is only two years removed from being one of the better puck-moving defenseman in the AHL. In his first full season in the AHL with the Texas Stars during the 2022-23 season, Butcher scored six goals and 43 points in 65 games with a +11 rating, tying for 14th in scoring among defensemen.

Still, it’s difficult not to assess Butcher’s career as somewhat disappointing. On his entry-level deal with the New Jersey Devils, as recently as the 2018-19 campaign, Butcher was considered to be an up-and-coming offensive contributor from the blue line, scoring nine goals and 74 points in 159 games, averaging 17:38 of ice time per game.

New Jersey rewarded Butcher with a three-year, $11.2MM extension, though his production began to decline almost immediately upon putting pen to paper. In the following three campaigns, the final one with the Buffalo Sabres, Butcher registered seven goals and 40 points in 116 games before becoming a full-time AHL contributor.

In Cleveland, he’ll join a team that’s reached the postseason in back-to-back seasons. Given that Denton Mateychuk has graduated into a full-time role with the Columbus Blue Jackets, Butcher could be in line for significant responsibility on the Monsters’ blue line alongside Stanislav Svozil, especially if he returns to form from his 2022-23 campaign.

Evening Notes: Chinakhov, Douglas, Canucks

at CDT | by 3 Comments

The Columbus Blue Jackets won’t begin their season until Thursday, but Yegor Chinakhov is already officially out of the lineup, as Aaron Portzline of The Athletic confirmed from Head Coach Dean Evason.

It has been a tumultuous last few months for the once-heralded Columbus prospect. After requesting a trade back in July, the Russian apparently changed his mind in September, saying he was open to staying with the Jackets, having seemingly worked through his differences with Evason. 

Then, recently, Chinakhov voiced his displeasure with his role in camp, and finally, he fired his agent last Sunday. With all of those affairs out of the way, the latest development is that the 24-year-old will not appear on Thursday in the team’s opener vs. Nashville. Portzline noted that Evason apparently met with his player to make sure they were in agreement on the role, but given all the back and forth, it is not a good sign for Chinakhov’s future in Columbus. 

Elsewhere across the league:

  • Benjamin Pierce, Tampa Bay’s beat writer, shared the unlikely story of Curtis Douglas as he finds himself, somewhat surprisingly, on the Bolts’ roster to start 2025-26. Originally drafted by Dallas 106th overall in 2018, Douglas has spent the past 5 seasons grinding away in the AHL, not exactly filling the nets, but standing out at 6’9”, 242 lbs. As the game has evolved into the 2020s, gone are the days of pure enforcers running around, however, many teams feature such hulk-sized forwards in their bottom six to drive to the net and mix it up when needed. Tampa figures to have their own version in Douglas, who was claimed on waivers two days ago. The 25-year-old Ontario native will hope to make his long-awaited NHL debut tomorrow against Ottawa. 
  • As the Vancouver Canucks open their season tomorrow against Calgary, Ben Kuzma of The Province wrote today of the team’s optimism as a playoff team in 2025-26. The Canucks are one of several promising teams who underachieved last season, and are now looking to turn the page. Given the issues behind the scenes seemingly behind with the departure of star J.T. Miller, and a fresh voice with Adam Foote moving up to Head Coach, the table is set for the Canucks to reach their potential. As outlined by Kuzma, they returned a largely similar roster, bringing in standout Evander Kane to boot, as well as youngster Jonathan Lekkerimaki facing pressure to make a larger impact. The Canucks’ disappointment last year was rewarded with the freshly-drafted Braeden Cootes, who has made a strong impression to make the team. Somewhat surprisingly given their roster, Vancouver struggled offensively last season, but Foote will look to revitalize the group as they set their sights on a return to the playoffs next spring. 

Cam Atkinson To Retire

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

After a 13-season NHL career, veteran winger Cam Atkinson is hanging up his skates. The Blue Jackets announced Wednesday that they’ll be signing him to a one-day contract and will officially honor his retirement on Oct. 16 against the Avalanche. He’s expected to join Columbus in a front-office capacity at some point down the road, but that announcement won’t be coming now, he told Aaron Portzline of The Athletic.

Atkinson is one of the better draft steals in Blue Jackets franchise history, coming to them in the sixth round in 2008. He signed with Columbus three years later after a great run at Boston College and made his NHL debut in 2011-12, although it took him another two years to fully establish himself on the active roster. After going up and down between Columbus and AHL Springfield, Atkinson broke out into a top-six role for the 2013-14 season. He finished third on the team with 21 goals and fourth with 40 points in 79 appearances, helping fuel the Jackets to a then-franchise record 43-win season that resulted in their second-ever playoff appearance.

The undersized but skilled Atkinson remained a fixture in Columbus’ top six for the balance of the decade. He was a two-time All-Star, including his career-best 41-goal, 69-point effort in 2018-19 – leading the team in goals in the year they orchestrated one of the most drastic upsets in league history by sweeping the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Lightning in the first round for their first series win in franchise history. After the COVID-shortened 2021 season, Atkinson had totaled a 213-189–402 scoring line in 627 games for Columbus, still holding up as the second-leading goalscorer and point-getter in the Jackets’ record books behind Rick Nash.

After Atkinson’s points per game production peaked at 0.86 in that career year, he only managed to produce at about a 0.60 pace over the next two years. That soft decline led Columbus to ship Atkinson to the Flyers in the 2021 offseason in a one-for-one swap for Jakub Voráček. In hindsight, it ended up being a bit of a lose-lose endeavor. Atkinson seemed to pop back into form with a 23-27–50 effort in 73 games in 2021-22, but a neck injury sustained in the following training camp ended up costing him the entire 2022-23 season and accelerating his decline. He had just 28 points in 70 games for Philly upon returning to play in 2023-24, leading the club to buy out the final year of the seven-year, $41.13MM extension he signed with Columbus back in 2017.

Atkinson became an unrestricted free agent a year ahead of schedule and signed on with the Lightning on a one-year deal worth $900K. The bounceback he was looking for never came, though. He struggled to stick in the lineup and played sparingly when he did dress, averaging just nine minutes per game across 39 contests. After finishing the year with a 4-5–9 scoring line, the Lightning were quick to say Atkinson wouldn’t be brought back.

Atkinson told Portzline that he received professional tryout offers this summer but declined them, saying he essentially made up his mind when he made his final regular-season appearance for Tampa. He ends his career with a 253-236–489 scoring line in 809 appearances, including a -11 rating while averaging north of 17 minutes per game. We at Pro Hockey Rumors congratulate Atkinson on a lengthy and successful pro career and wish him the best in whatever comes next.

Image courtesy of Kim Klement-Imagn Images.

Blue Jackets Place Christián Jaroš On Unconditional Waivers

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

10/6/25: Jaroš has now found a place to play for the 2025-26 season. Per an official announcement, Jaroš has signed a one-year contract with Spartak Moscow. The signing returns Jaros to the KHL, the league he has played in since he last played in North America in 2021-22. Spartak currently sit sixth in the KHL’s Western Conference with a 5-4-3 record through 12 games played.

10/01/25: For the second time since debuting with the Ottawa Senators in the 2017-18 season, defenseman Christián Jaroš has been placed on unconditional waivers for contract termination. The Columbus Blue Jackets announced today that the two sides have agreed to a mutual termination should he clear unconditional waivers.

Surprisingly, today’s news comes three months to the day when the Blue Jackets first shared that they had signed Jaroš. He was projected to play for the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters to start the year. There are no additional reports about his potential landing spot, but news may arrive tomorrow if he clears.

The Kosice, Slovakia native has spent the last three years in the KHL, split between the Avangard Omsk, Severstal Cherepovets, and CSKA Moskva. Throughout that stretch, the 29-year-old has scored eight goals and 42 points in 134 contests with a +16 rating.

He was largely unnoticeable throughout his playing days in the NHL, though he earned an extended look with the Senators during the 2018-19 campaign. From 2017 to 2022, Jaroš scored one goal and 14 points in 94 games with the Senators, San Jose Sharks, and New Jersey Devils, averaging 13:04 of ice time per game. He had been far more respectable with those teams’ respective AHL affiliates, registering five goals and 34 points in 90 games with a +16 rating.

Pro Hockey Rumors is not affiliated with National Hockey League, NHL or NHL.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

scroll to top