Columbus Blue Jackets place Boqvist, Merzlikins and Sillinger on injured reserve

Some rough news on the injury front for one of the league’s struggling teams.

On Wednesday, the Columbus Blue Jackets announced that it is placing goaltender Elvis Merzlikins, defenseman Adam Boqvist and forward Cole Sillinger on injured reserve.

Boqvist and Merzlikins’ injuries are retroactive to December 5. Boqvist suffered a shoulder strain in the Blue Jackets’ 4-3 overtime loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday night, and is projected to miss the next four weeks.

Merzlikins is listed as having an illness, and is only expected to be out for a week.

Sillinger is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury suffered against the Montreal Canadiens on Nov. 29. His injury is retroactive to Nov. 26, the day Columbus faced the Carolina Hurricanes.

Boqvist had registered three assists in 13 games this season, while Sillinger has amassed nine points in 24 games. Merzlikins had been having a rough start in goal, posting just a 3.10 GAA and .910 SV% in 19 contests.

In response, the Blue Jackets have called up defenseman Nick Blankenburg, forward Emil Bemstrom and goaltender Jet Greaves from the American Hockey League’s Cleveland Monsters. Blankenburg and Greaves are listed as emergency recalls.

This will be Blankenburg’s first call-up to the Blue Jackets this season, having played 43 games with the big club over the previous two campaigns. Bemstrom scored three power play goals in 12 games with Columbus this year before getting sent down in mid-November.

Greaves has made just one appearance with the Blue Jackets, that coming last April, when he made 46 saves in his NHL debut, suffering a 4-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Also, Columbus altered goaltender Daniil Tarasov’s Long-Term Injured Reserve conditioning assignment to a regular one. The Russian netminder made his first start with the Monsters last Saturday, making 22 saves in a win over the Utica Comets.

These moves come on the same day the Jackets dealt Eric Robinson to the Buffalo Sabres for a conditional 2025 seventh-round pick.

The Blue Jackets are currently last in the Metropolitan Division, one point ahead of the Ottawa Senators for the worst record in the Eastern Conference, and are six back of a Wild Card spot.