Columbus Blue Jackets’ Patrik Laine leaves season opener early with upper body injury

The Columbus Blue Jackets announced that winger Patrik Laine will not return to Wednesday night’s season opener against the Carolina Hurricanes due to an upper body injury.

The injury occurred midway through the second period when Laine and Hurricanes defenseman Brett Pesce came together along the boards when trying to retrieve the puck. Laine slightly beats Pesce to the boards, and the two collided awkwardly with Pesce making contact with Laine’s arm along the glass, which likely caused the injury. The team announced that Laine was ruled out around five minutes after the injury occurred, which probably isn’t a good sign of the injury being a minor one.

The injury cut short what was a solid start to the season for Laine, as he already scored his first goal of the season just 11 seconds into the second period to open the scoring in the game, as well as the Blue Jackets season. He also had two shots, three shot attempts, a hit, and a blocked shot. His line with Boone Jenner and offseason addition Johnny Gaudreau performed well in their 7:04 minute of ice time at even strength, going 8-2 in the shot attempts department and 0.45-0.04 in the expected goals department.

Laine was coming off arguably his best season since his first two seasons in 2021-22, with 26 goals, 30 assists, and 56 points in 56 games for the Blue Jackets. That season finally earned him a contract with term, as he was locked up to a four year deal with an $8.7 million cap hit in the offseason.

It’s a big blow to the Blue Jackets, as they paid big money to sign both Laine as a restricted free agent and Gaudreau as an unrestricted free agent from the Calgary Flames in hopes of the two becoming a dynamic playmaker/sniper pair on their top line. They’re looking to get back into the playoffs for the first time since 2020, and improve upon a sixth place finish in the Metropolitan division with a 37-38-7 record, although they still found themselves 19 points out of a playoff spot in the Eastern conference with that record.