The Blue Jackets made their major move ahead of the trade deadline as Thursday night turned into Friday morning, acquiring forward Conor Garland from Vancouver for a pair of draft picks.
The move gives the Blue Jackets another proven veteran up front who can add to the offense, and it was a signal from president of hockey operations and general manager Don Waddell that he wants to help his team's postseason push.
Columbus is looking to return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2020, and the squad's recent hot streak has pushed the Blue Jackets to just one point back of a wild-card spot in a tight Eastern Conference.
How does Garland’s acquisition help the Blue Jackets both now and in the future? Here’s a breakdown of five things to know about the addition.
Garland’s background: A native of Scituate, Mass., Garland is the son of Garry Garland, a former minor league hockey player, and has worked his way into being a consistent performer at the NHL level. Listed at 5-10, 165 pounds, Garland will be the shortest member of the CBJ forward group but has played his career with a chip on his shoulder having had to earn playing time coming up the hockey ladder because of his size. He played at Minnesota prep powerhouse Shattuck St. Mary’s and twice led the QMJHL in scoring in 2015 and ‘16 with Moncton, but he was just a fifth-round pick in the 2015 draft by Arizona. Garland spent two full seasons in the AHL before making his NHL debut in 2018, and since then he’s played 535 games over eight seasons with the Coyotes and Canucks. A member of Team USA’s gold medal-winning World Championships squad in May, Garland has averaged 20 goals, 29 assists and 49 points per 82 games in his NHL career.
Style of play: There’s a lot to like about Garland as a player, and his type of game should fit in with the Blue Jackets. He’s an ultra-competitive winger who plays bigger than his size because of his strength, skating ability and battle level. In some ways, his smaller stature is a benefit, as he’s able to get underneath bigger defensemen in puck battles, and his edgework allows him to make things happen in tight spaces. He’s a rink rat who has made it to the NHL level because of his competitiveness, not to mention his ability to be in the right place at the right time and make his linemates better. There’s also an element of toughness there, as evidenced in 2019 with the Coyotes when a goal went into the net off his face, then he went to the locker room, got medical attention and then returned to score another goal later in the game.
How he fits: It’s not hard to see how Garland fits into the mix as a middle-six winger, and his addition certainly lengthens the CBJ lineup. He can play on both the second and third line, though head coach Rick Bowness likely wants to keep the trio of Cole Sillinger, Charlie Coyle and Mathieu Olivier together. It makes you think Garland may settle in with Sean Monahan and either Boone Jenner or Kent Johnson, but he offers versatility as someone who can play up and down the lineup depending on the personnel available. You can never have enough bodies down the stretch and into playoffs, and Columbus became a deeper team with the acquisition of Garland, especially with the Blue Jackets already having such NHL-caliber players as Zach Aston-Reese, Brendan Gaunce and Luca Del Bel Belluz in Cleveland. Garland also has ties to the Blue Jackets squad, as he played junior hockey in Moncton with Olivier, was on the U.S. Worlds team with Zach Werenski and grew up in the same South Shore area of Boston as Coyle.
What it means: A year ago, president of hockey operations and general manager Don Waddell chose to add around the edges, acquiring forwards Luke Kunin and Christian Fischer around the deadline to give the Blue Jackets more depth up front. Neither move ended up having much impact – the two combined for 13 games played and zero points – but the point was just to have more depth on hand without mortgaging the team's future. This year, the team’s recent 14-2-1 stretch turned Waddell from a potential seller in mid-January into a buyer at the deadline, and you just know the addition of Garland will be another shot in the arm to a CBJ locker room that already believes this team has what it takes to be postseason-bound. Waddell hasn’t been afraid to make moves this year to shake the team out of its early-season struggles, the acquisition of Mason Marchment and the hiring of Bowness being the chief examples. Bringing in another top-nine forward at the deadline is another sign the Blue Jackets are serious about the playoffs this year, and now the players have 21 games to prove it on the ice.
A long-term addition: Garland signed a six-year contract extension with Vancouver over the summer that is set to begin next year, and he’s now one of two CBJ players signed through 2032 along with defenseman Ivan Provorov. Waddell said that was an attractive piece of the addition, especially with so many UFAs-to-be on the Blue Jackets’ roster making the prospect of adding a rental this year unattractive to the CBJ front office. With the salary cap going up over the next couple of seasons, Garland is signed to a long-term deal at a $6 million AAV that offers the team cost certainty, Waddell said, and should allow him to be part of the team’s core going forward.
