Rumor: Josh Anderson's mysterious injury will lead to a trade.

There has been an extremely bizarre situation going on in Columbus and now one National Hockey League insider believes that the writing may already be on the wall for 25 year old forward Josh Anderson as it pertains to his future within the Blue Jackets organization.

Anderson was knocked out of action early in the 2019 - 2020 National Hockey League regular season when he suffered a shoulder injury, but since being forced out of the lineup due to his injury things have only gotten progressively more and more confusing. The Blue Jackets initially announced that Anderson would be out of the lineup for roughly four to six weeks when he suffered the injury but we have now gone months without seeing him and earlier this week TSN NHL insider Darren Dreger hinted at the fact that we may not be seeing him again this season.

"Expect to hear more on Columbus forward Josh Anderson this week. Sounds like he’s done for the season with a shoulder injury that may require surgical repair," wrote Dreger on Twitter.

The Blue Jackets have yet to confirm the news which leads me to believe that Dreger's source for his information came from the player's side of the equation, although admittedly that is only speculation on my part, and now Dreger's colleague at TSN, NHL insider Pierre LeBrun, has hinted at the fact that there may be a rift between the player and the team over how this injury should be dealt with moving forward.

From LeBrun:

Strange, yes. And I can only deduce is that there’s been a difference of opinion between the players’ camp and the team on how to proceed in terms of the injury and recovery.

LeBrun believes that the two parties are now headed for a split, one that he believes will come in the form of a trade given that Anderson will be a restricted free agent at the end of this season, an RFA with only 1 year left to go until free agency and arbitration rights on top of it. It would be a drastic turn of events given that Anderson put up 27 goals and added 20 assists for a combined 47 points in 82 games with the Blue Jackets last season, but it is a turn of events that now seems more likely than not according to some of the league's top insiders.