It wouldn't be the start of a Blue Jackets season without some kind of bad injury news. Just as the team gears up for their annual prospects tournament that begins this week in Buffalo, it's been announced that one of the top young blue liners in the organization will miss the first several months of the season to a torn labrum.
Of course it's a torn labrum. If you've been around here long, you would know to expect nothing different. I can't count how many of these have been suffered throughout this organization over the last several years. Let's just say, we're tired of it.
In this case, it's 2024 third round draft pick Luca Marrelli that has gone under the knife to repair the labrum tear in his shoulder. It's a bummer, because this is one of the players we were most excited to see at this year's Prospects Challenge.
Marrelli is coming off of an electrifying final year of junior hockey, where he scored 19 goals and 74 points in 67 games for the Oshawa Generals (OHL). He then followed his stellar campaign up with a 6 goal, 36 point run in 21 playoff games; leading the league with 30 assists.
As a result, the 6'2", 185 pound defenseman was named a CHL second team All-Star. Selected by the Blue Jackets in the third round (#86 overall) at last summer's NHL Draft, he's a big riser in their system. In fact, he was the biggest riser in our own rankings, finishing 6th in our voting after placing 15th last summer.
The hope was that Luca would be able to use his productive season in the OHL to springboard into the AHL with confidence. Unfortunately, that will not be the case. He won't debut for the Monsters until at least mid-December.
There is a lot to like with this player, but he has a lot to learn.
Marrelli is a bit of a unicorn. He has a rare combination of size, skating, and puck moving ability. Whether or not he has NHL top pairing potential is certainly debatable. But, even if that isn't the case, he seems to have an inside edge within the system because of his skill and the fact that he's a right-hand shot.
We will have to wait and see if he can make a quick transition to the professional league. In any case, the plan should be at least 1-2 full years in the AHL before he's ready to make the jump. Patience is required with any mid-round pick, and he will need to learn to be a consistent player on both sides of the puck.
From that perspective, not much has changed in the long-term plans here. This is a guy we should be keeping our eyes on sometime in 2027.