Blue Jackets will see their depth tested as injuries mount

While the Blue Jackets have struggled to find consistency this season, the lone thing we could look to as a positive might have been their improving injury luck. Unfortunately, that seems to be catching up with them as well.

The Jackets have had some fortunate injury outcomes so far this season, not the least of which is Zach Werenski taking a shot off of his foot two weeks ago and somehow managing to not break a bone.

But, just as the team started to find its way with three straight wins, the injuries have started to mount. In the last two days, forward Miles Wood and defenseman Brendan Smith have both been moved to the injured reserve.

Good news here: the reason Smith is hitting IR is because the team expects Werenski to return to the lineup tomorrow.

The bad news is, the Jackets have had to dip into the AHL bin to get through it. As a result, the team's new-found depth is going to get tested in a big way over the next few weeks.

Call-ups are going to need to make a difference.

The Jackets recalled newly acquired forward Danton Heinen today. He took part in the team's practice this morning and was immediately thrust into second line duty alongside Cole Sillinger and Dmitri Voronkov.

That the team needs him at all is a bit of a bummer. Depending on how you rank them, Heinen is roughly 15th on the team's forward depth chart.

Currently missing are forwards Sean Monahan (day to day), Isac Lundestrom (week to week), and Miles Wood (week to week), whose injury on Wednesday night did not look good. Fortunately, it appears the worst was avoided here.

This is just up front. On the blue line, the Jackets are missing two rugged third pairing rearguards. Erik Gudbranson has been out of the lineup since October 25th, as he works his way back from a hip issue. He's only gotten into 4 games this season, and isn't expected to play any time soon.

They are also without Brendan Smith, who suffered what appeared to be a non-contact knee injury on Monday night in Ottawa. He's also listed week to week.

Fortunately, Don Waddell spent his summer preparing the team for just this situation. In years past, we would see rookies or career AHL players thrust into NHL duty with this many guys on the shelf.

Instead, the Jackets have the luxury of adding a guy with over 500 games of NHL experience into the mix. This depth is going to be tested over the next couple of weeks. For the sake of this team's playoff aspirations, let's hope it pays off.