Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski leaves game with lower-body injury

The top blueliner for the Columbus Blue Jackets was in distress on Wednesday night.

Zach Werenski had to leave the team’s game against the New Jersey Devils after a weird collision with Devils’ Ondrej Palat, and struggled to get to the bench. He was helped down the hall, and was ruled out for the rest of the game shortly thereafter.

This is not the first time Werenski suffered a lower-body injury this season. During the team’s home opener back in October, the former University of Michigan star suffered a quad contusion, missing over a week.

That game was Werenski’s first game since last November, when he suffered a separated shoulder and torn labrum, and was limited to just 13 games in the 2022-23 season.

In April 2022, Werenski suffered both an upper-body injury and got hit by a puck in the face, but did not miss a lot of time from those incidents.

The bad luck for Werenski has been building over his career, which has not beneficial for one of the game’s top defenseman. It is too early to tell the extent of his injury, but any omission of Werenski from the Columbus lineup will leave a big hole on an already light defense core, despite having a plethora of veterans.

Werenski has scored a goal and 24 assists so far, which leads the Blue Jackets. The 26-year-old was on pace to surpass his career-best 48 points, which he set during the 2021-22 season.

The Grosse Pointe native has hit the 40-point mark four times in his eight-year career, including 47 points during his rookie season in 2016-17.

The Blue Jackets (11-18-6) are at the bottom of the Metropolitan Division, 12 points back of the Philadelphia Flyers for third, 11 points out of a Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference.