Former Canucks defenceman to miss significant time with injury

PUBLICATION

Cooper Godin
October 17, 2024 (3:23 PM)

SHARE THIS STORY

A former Vancouver Canucks defenceman is reportedly set miss significant time with an injury.

The Columbus Blue Jackets are set to play their fourth game of the 2024-25 season as they host the Buffalo Sabres at Nationwide Arena tonight. However, the team will take to the ice without one of their veteran defencemen - Erik Gudbranson.

According to Frank Seravalli, while the Blue Jackets are still awaiting word from a specialist, which Gudbranson will see on Friday, it appears that the blueliner will be out for a significant period of time, potentially months. Once the Blue Jackets get more information from the specialist tomorrow, the team will be able to figure out the timeline for Gudbranson's return to the lineup.

"Initial diagnosis was not encouraging for #CBJ defenseman Erik Gudbranson, sounds like he is going to miss significant time (months?).

Team is awaiting a more firm update tomorrow when he sees a specialist before determining exact timeline." Seravalli said.

During Tuesday's game against the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, Gudbranson collided with forward Sean Monahan and upon getting up, appeared to be in discomfort, holding his right arm and headed down the tunnel to the team's dressing room. Gudbranson would not return to the game, which Columbus lost by a score of 4 to 3.

Less than 24 hours after the collision, it was announced that the Blue Jackets were placing Erik Gudbranson on injured reserve, which meant he would miss at least seven days, but with Seravalli's report on Thursday, it looks as if Columbus will be without the 32-year-old for quite a while.

Gudbranson, a native of Ottawa, Ontario, spent parts of three seasons with the Vancouver Canucks between 2016-17 and 2018-19 before he was dealt to the Pittsburgh Penguins for Tanner Pearson. In 139 games with the Canucks, Gudbranson had 19 points (five goals, 14 assists), 136 penalty minutes and was a minus-48.

We'll have to wait and see in the coming days how long exactly he'll miss, but this is a big loss for the Columbus Blue Jackets given the veteran presence Erik Gudbranson brings to the team's young group which features Kent Johnson, Yegor Chinakhov, Adam Fantilli, among others.