Ex-Canucks forward Garland crashing and burning in Columbus
After the Vancouver Canucks traded Conor Garland to the Columbus Blue Jackets, he erupted for four goals in his next three games.
He’s scored just one goal for the Blue Jackets in the 25 games since that four-goal outburst, and is now on a 15-game pointless streak.
Heading into Tuesday’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Garland has no points in seven games this season. While he’s played at times in the Blue Jackets’ top six, he’s been demoted to the fourth line with Ryan Lomberg and Luca Del Bell Belluz.
That’s very bad news for the Blue Jackets, as it’s the first year of Garland’s new six-year contract. His contract has a cap hit of $6 million per year, making him the fourth-highest-paid forward on the team this season.
Garland is averaging just 12:43 in ice time per game, a sharp drop from the 18:57 per game he was averaging with the Canucks last season. He’s ninth in average ice time among Blue Jackets forwards.
It’s hard to blame Blue Jackets head coach Rick Bowness for limiting Garland’s ice time. His underlying numbers, long a strength of his game, look very ugly right now. When Garland has been on the ice at 5-on-5, shot attempts are 91-to-69 for the Blue Jackets’ opponents for a 43.1% corsi, indicating that he’s seriously struggling in puck possession.
Garland also hasn’t been able to chip in any points on the power play, where he’s on the second unit. The Blue Jackets currently have the third-worst power play in the NHL at 11.8 per cent.
It’s still early in the season, and it’s entirely possible that Garland could turn things around. For now, however, his lack of production has some Blue Jackets fans irate.
Iāve seen some bad players in my life.
Iām a lifelong Blue Jackets fan after all.
Conor Garland is climbing up the rankings of all time suck at an alarming rate. #CBJ
— Bruh Larsen (@BruhLarsen) October 18, 2026
“He is awful and I don’t understand why Bones keeps putting him on the 2nd line,” said one Blue Jackets fan on Reddit. “He’s a turnover machine.”
Another fan pointed out that the trade that brought Garland to Columbus “looked good on the surface” but was “terrible” as soon as you looked at his contract that was about to kick in: “Vancouver popped the Champaign [sic] when they got rid of that contract.”
The Canucks traded Garland ahead of the trade deadline last season, getting a second-round pick in 2028 and a third-round pick in 2026 back from the Blue Jackets, the latter of which the Canucks used to select goaltender Dmitri Ivchenko.
At the time of the trade, Garland hadn’t scored a goal in 23 games, but it just seemed like he needed a change of scenery.
Now, it looks like the Canucks traded Garland just in time before his value completely cratered.