Thursday, February 17, 2011

Jackets Place Brassard on IR

With the Blue Jackets on the outside of the playoffs, looking in, the news of a major injury to one of their scoring forwards will come as a deflating proposition to the team.

The Blue Jackets will have to get used to life without Derrick Brassard, as they expect him to miss the next 2-to-3 weeks with a hand injury, which has yet to be fully diagnosed, but the first MRI taken showed no broken bones, which is a positive.  If the second MRI, which is scheduled to happen soon, doesn't show anything broken either, I think it would be fair to expect him to return in a shorter time frame.

Brassard continues to improve on his numbers as the years move on, as he had already surpassed his career-high numbers with 14 goals and 25 assists in 57 games, taking a regular spot with the Jackets in the 2011 season.  His scoring pace isn't quite amazing, yet, but at the time of the injury, he does sit in the top 100 of pool scoring, likely to fall out right away at 94th overall.

The hole that Brassard leaves behind is pretty big, but it could quickly turn the Blue Jackets into a seller at the trade deadline, rather than a buyer, especially if the team cannot string together many wins in the next 11 days.

ImplicationsThis injury does not bode well for Peter H. in the draft, who has been taking a bit of a kicking late in the injury department, a couple of weeks after the waiver draft and a healthy team was deemed.  Peter sits 12th in the third jersey race of the season with 35 points, thus far, and is already 16 points behind the leader.  The injury will not help that circumstance any.

Link to the Injury/News Page

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