Blue Jackets Reassign Tyler Angle

The Blue Jackets have returned center Tyler Angle to AHL Cleveland, according to a team announcement Friday.

Angle, 23, played in Columbus’ last two games after they recalled him under emergency conditions Tuesday. The 2019 seventh-round pick averaged 8:20 per game but was held without a point. He went 3-for-9 in the faceoff dot and recorded five hits with no shots on goal. It wasn’t his first showing in the NHL, though – he scored his first major league goal in a two-game trial last season.

His return to Cleveland suggests a couple of currently injured Blue Jackets forwards may re-enter the lineup Saturday in the second half of their home-and-home against the Penguins. Yegor Chinakhov and Alexander Nylander are listed as day-to-day with upper-body injuries and have not been ruled out of tomorrow’s contest.

Angle is already in his fourth season of professional hockey. One of the older players in his draft class with a Sep. 30 birthday, the Niagara Falls native made the jump to pro hockey with Cleveland in the COVID-shortened 2020-21 campaign, where he burst onto the scene with 11 goals and 24 points in only 23 games. Angle’s offensive production has been much more conservative in the seasons following, though, averaging less than half a point per game. He’s notched seven goals and eight assists for 15 points in 34 games this season.

The speedy 5’10” forward is in the final season of his entry-level contract, which carries a cap hit of $851K. While in the minors, he earns a $70K salary. If the Blue Jackets extend him the $814K qualifying offer he’s due this summer, they’ll retain his signing rights as an RFA.