Blue Jackets’ Yegor Chinakhov set to return following 39-game injury absence

Columbus Blue Jackets right winger Yegor Chinakhov will make his return to the lineup Tuesday versus the Tampa Bay Lightning after missing the past 39 games due to an upper-body injury, Blue Jackets head coach Dean Evason confirmed to The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline.

Sidelined since late November, the 24-year-old Russian-born forward has been limited to 21 games with the Blue Jackets this season in which he has tallied seven goals and seven assists for 14 points coupled with two penalty minutes and a plus-two rating. Currently skating in his fourth season with the Blue Jackets, Chinakhov wrapped up the 2023-24 campaign with a career-high 29 points counting 16 goals and 13 assists coming in 53 games.

Originally chosen 21st overall by the Blue Jackets in the 2020 NHL Draft, Chinakhov has seen 166 career contests with the club in which he has registered 34 goals and 36 assists for 70 points. Chinakhov has also spent part of three seasons with the AHL affiliated Cleveland Monsters where through 11 total appearances he has scored seven times and added six assists for 13 points.

A graduate of the KHL’s Omsk Avangard, the 2020-21 campaign saw Chinakhov presented with the Aleksei Cherepanov Award as the league’s top rookie after he posted 10 goals and seven assists for 17 points through 32 games. Chinakhov then added another seven points counting five goals and two assists through 21 postseason appearances en route to a Gagarin Cup championship.

Chinakhov rejoins a Blue Jackets squad in the midst of a four-game winning streak that has propelled the club to a record of 30-22-8 and 68 points to hold down the first wildcard seed in the Eastern Conference, two points ahead of the rival Detroit Red Wings. The Blue Jackets have not participated in the Stanley Cup Playoffs since 2020.