Columbus Loses Elvis Merzlikins to Shoulder Surgery With No Return Date
Elvis Merzlikins underwent shoulder surgery after off-season discomfort, with no return timeline set by the Blue Jackets for several weeks.
Columbus will begin the 2026-27 season without its veteran goaltender. Elvis Merzlikins underwent surgery on Monday to repair an injured shoulder, the Blue Jackets announced Thursday, with no timeline attached.
What the club said
General manager Don Waddell’s statement, reported by Sportsnet, laid out the sequence. Merzlikins told the team a few weeks ago that he was experiencing discomfort in the shoulder during his off-season workouts. An MRI followed, and surgery was determined to be the best course of action.
Waddell said Merzlikins will be evaluated again in a few weeks, at which point the club will have a clearer idea of when he can return to the ice. That is a deliberately open statement, and it is the right one to make in August about a shoulder repair with no fixed timetable.
The role he was already losing
The Latvian appeared in 30 games for Columbus last season with a .883 save percentage and a 3.40 goals-against average, having shifted into a backup role after starting for most of his career. Across 274 games, all of them with Columbus, he carries a .900 save percentage and a 3.22 goals-against average.
The player who displaced him is the reason the injury is a manageable one. Jet Greaves appeared in 55 games last season, posting a .908 save percentage, a 2.60 goals-against average and two shutouts, and took the starting job outright. Columbus signed him to a three-year, $15 million deal running through 2028-29, a contract that reads differently now than it did when it was announced.
The workload question is the real one
Sportsnet’s framing is the correct one: Merzlikins’ absence points to a heavier workload for Greaves. That is a live concern in a season that is longer than any since 1993-94. Every team plays 84 games (42 home, 42 road) across 1,344 games in 194 days, and the two extra games each club plays are divisional.
A goaltender who made 55 starts last season being asked to carry a larger share of an 84-game schedule is not a crisis. It is a durability bet, and Columbus is now making it without the fallback it had planned on.
The cap mechanics have changed too
Under the collective bargaining agreement that takes effect Sept. 16, long-term injured reserve relief for a player expected back is capped near $3.82 million (the previous season’s league average salary) rather than his full cap hit. Full relief requires the club to declare the player out for the entire regular season and playoffs.
That is exactly the decision Waddell has said he will not make yet. Evaluating in a few weeks and then deciding is the medically sensible course; it is also the one that leaves Columbus holding a contract it cannot fully shelter until it knows how bad the shoulder is.
Cole Sillinger’s three-year, $13.875 million deal and Greaves’ extension were the summer’s business. The goaltending depth chart behind them just became a lot shorter.
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