Report: Blue Jackets get awful news regarding Patrik Laine

The Columbus Blue Jackets announced today that star forward Patrik Laine will miss the next 3-4 weeks due to an ankle injury.

From the Blue Jackets' official Twitter account:

This is obviously devastating news for a team that has been absolutely abysmal this season. Laine has just two goals and four points in eight games to start the campaign and hasn't looked particularly good on most evenings. Still, he's an elite level scorer and has been streaky his entire NHL career so you have to imagine that he was just ready to bust out of his slump. He has shown some chemistry with Johnny Gaudreau, but again he hasn't been particularly great all season. 

Combine Laine's injury with the season ending shoulder injury suffered by #1 defenseman Zach Werenski earlier this month and well... I'm inclined to say that the BJ's are cooked this season. Their top defenseman is out for the season, their top scorer is on the shelf and they simply don't have the depth needed to pull through tough stretches. Oh... and goaltenders Elvis Merzlikins and Joonas Korpisalo have been amongst the NHL's worst goalies to start the year. Certainly this is not the page-turning season that the team or its fans were hoping for in 2022-23 after an offseason of big splash moves.

The silver lining in all this of course is the fact that the 2023 NHL Entry Draft is supposedly loaded with talent at the top end. Obviously that doesn't mean much to the players, but you can't help but think that the team's management staff is eyeing the likes of Connor Bedard, Matvei Michkov and Adam Fantilli. The early reports are that landing any one of these projected top three players will net an absolute stud and a potential superstar in the making. For the Blue Jackets, a team who has never won the NHL Draft Lottery, the chance at nabbing a true franchise player like Bedard has to be enticing. The question is... are they ready to embrace the tank? With core pieces like Laine, Gaudreau, Werenski and Merzlikins all signed to long term deals the team's front office doesn't necessarily have to worry about alienating its top players and has the luxury of tanking a season for a legit blue chip prospect.