Blue Jackets’ Sean Monahan, Erik Gudbranson “ready to go”

Columbus Blue Jackets head coach Dean Evason announced that center Sean Monahan and defenseman Erik Gudbranson are “ready to go” and will return to the lineup.

Dean Evason on Sean Monahan & Erik Gudbranson: “Both are ready to go. No restrictions.” #CBJ

— Mark Scheig (@mark_scheig) March 23, 2025

Based on those words, it appears that both Monahan and Gudbranson should be set to return for Monday’s game against the New York Islanders.

Monahan had missed the last 28 games after sustaining a wrist injury back on January 7th in a 4-3 shootout win over the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Blue Jackets went 13-12-3 without Monahan in the lineup.

Monahan appears set to return to his spot on the Blue Jackets top line between Kirill Marchenko and Dmitri Voronkov. The trio has outscored opponents 22-5 and has a 60.16% 5v5 expected goal share in 230 minutes of ice time together. Monahan will also join Marchenko, Boone Jenner, Kent Johnson and Zach Werenski on the Blue Jackets top power play unit.

Monahan has had a great first season with the Blue Jackets when he has been healthy, as he has 14 goals and 27 assists for 41 points in 41 games. Should he continue at this pace, it’ll be just his second season scoring a point-per-game pace or more, previously doing so in 2018-19 when he had 82 points in 78 games with the Calgary Flames.

Gudbranson has missed all but three games in the Blue Jackets’ season, as he sustained a shoulder injury back on October 15th during a 4-3 loss to the Florida Panthers. The injury required surgery, so the healing and recovery process took a majority of the season for the defenseman to return, but he’s back just in time for the Blue Jackets’ stretch run to make the playoffs.

Gudbranson appears to be returning to the lineup on the Blue Jackets’ bottom pair alongside Denton Mateychuk, a duo that has yet to play together since Mateychuk made his NHL debut after Gudbranson’s injury. Gudbranson will also play on Columbus’ top penalty killing pair alongside Ivan Provorov.

Gudbranson isn’t known for his offense, so failing to get a point in the three games he played before his injury shouldn’t be considered a disappointment. However, he is coming off of a career year offensively though, as he had 6 goals and 20 assists for 26 points in 78 games for the Blue Jackets last season.

The Blue Jackets currently sit in sixth in the Metropolitan Division with a 31-29-9 record, and are four points behind the Montreal Canadiens for the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. Columbus will hope the returns of Monahan and Gudbranson can snap their six-game losing streak during a pivotal playoff matchup against the Islanders on Monday at 7:30 p.m. EST.