The Columbus Blue Jackets placed hot-and-cold winger Kristian Huselius on the injured reserve retroactive to February 18th, when he suffered his lower-body injury. The team lists him as day-to-day.
To observers who might be a bit optimistic regarding the Blue Jackets winger, this might damage his prospects as possible trade bait. After all, the offensive-minded forward did produce a 77-point (34 goals and 43 assists) season rolling with Jarome Iginla on the Calgary Flames in 2006-07.
Perhaps GM Scott Howson can try to say that the Columbus system undermined his offensive skills (21 points in 35 games this season), but his contract probably would have stamped out talks with most NHL teams anyway. (Unless the Jackets wanted to take on an even more problematic deal, that is.)
Huselius has one more season remaining on a deal with an annual salary cap hit of $4.75 million, so his hefty salary and injury issues indicate that he’ll likely be a Jacket for at least the rest of this season (if not the remainder of the contract).