Blue Jackets’ Ivan Provorov leaves Friday’s game vs. Canucks with upper-body injury
Columbus Blue Jackets’ defenseman Ivan Provorov left Friday’s game against the Vancouver Canucks with an upper-body injury, with the team announcing on social media that he would not return.
INJURY UPDATE: #CBJ defenseman Ivan Provorov (upper body injury) will not return to tonight’s game.
— CBJ Public Relations (@BlueJacketsPR) December 7, 2024
The Hockey Writers‘ Blue Jackets reporter Mark Scheig wrote on social media that Provorov’s thumb “did not look good at all.” Photos circulated online of what appeared to be a broken thumb for the Columbus defender.
Ivan Provorov goes straight to the #CBJ room. His thumb didn’t look good at all.
— Mark Scheig (@mark_scheig) December 7, 2024
The 27-year-old Provorov has two goals and seven assists for nine points in 26 regular-season games, third on the team in points among defensemen. Now in his second season with Columbus, Provorov finished with five goals and 27 assists for 32 points in 82 regular-season games last season.
Now in his ninth NHL season, Provorov has 72 goals and 186 assists for 258 points in 640 regular-season games with the Blue Jackets and Philadelphia Flyers. The native of Yaroslavl, Russia, also appeared in 22 Stanley Cup Playoff games, scoring three goals and adding eight assists for 11 points.
Taken No. 7 overall by the Flyers in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft, Provorov spent two full junior seasons with the Western Hockey League’s Brandon Wheat Kings, where he scored 36 goals and 98 assists for 134 points in 122 regular-season games, as well as five goals and 21 assists for 26 points in 40 playoff games.
Provorov helped the Wheat Kings win the 2016 WHL Championship, helping them advance to the Memorial Cup.
The Blue Jackets are now 11-12-3 with 25 points, seventh in the Metropolitan Division and three points back of a Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference.