At this point in his tenure with Columbus, Nathan Horton has been paid $289,474 per point. He’s played 36 games – missing the start of his first season with the team after offseason shoulder surgery, and then basically missing the rest of the season after suffering an abdominal tear in March.

The Blue Jackets were obviously excited to have a healthy Horton to start this season. Instead, they not only don’t have a healthy Horton, they won’t have Horton at all.

According to Puck-Rakers, Horton has a back injury that will force him out of training camp and potentially the first part of the regular season. Again.

From Aaron Portzline:

"He signed a big contract – I signed almost the same contract (this summer) – and you feel like you have a lot to prove," Dubinsky said. "We certainly feel for him. We hope he gets better. But we certainly want him to take his time. Because a 100 percent Nathan Horton for 60 or 70 games -- or however long it’s going to be -- is better than a 70 percent guy for 82 games. Hopefully he can have a speedy recovery."

The Blue Jackets will likely look at several different options to make up for Johansen's absence. One consideration is to move Boone Jenner from left wing to center, his natural position. That would give the club Dubinsky, Jenner, Artem Anisimov and Mark Letestu down the middle. Or, the Blue Jackets could keep Jenner on the wing and simply move each of Dubinsky, Anisimov and Letestu up a line. In that scenario, they'd probably look at Alexander Wennberg, Marko Dano or Michael Chaput as the fourth line center.

Or they could be without Nathan Horton and Ryan Johansen for the first part of the season, which looks like it’s going to be the case for the Blue Jackets.