{"id":400371,"date":"2026-01-10T22:39:29","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T22:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/400371\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T22:39:29","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T22:39:29","slug":"columbus-blue-jackets-activate-reassign-luca-marrelli-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/400371\/","title":{"rendered":"Columbus Blue Jackets Activate, Reassign Luca Marrelli \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Columbus Blue Jackets have activated<\/a> defenseman Luca Marrelli<\/a> off of injured reserve, and reassigned him to the club\u2019s AHL affiliate, the Cleveland Monsters.<\/p>\n

Marrelli, 20, underwent offseason shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum. The Athletic\u2019s Aaron Portzline reported in September<\/a> that Marrelli\u2019s recovery timeline had him slated to return at some point in December, so his ultimate return date has fallen just a bit later than the original projections.<\/p>\n

This activation allows Marrelli to begin his professional career. The 2024 third-round pick spent the last four years manning the blueline for the Oshawa Generals of the OHL. He steadily developed over the course of his junior hockey career, going from reserve blueliner to Oshawa\u2019s key offensive generator from the back end. Marrelli helped Oshawa make deep playoff runs in each of his final two years in the OHL, with the Generals falling to the London Knights in the OHL finals in back-to-back years.<\/p>\n

Marrelli\u2019s final season in Oshawa was, as expected, his best. He managed 74 points in 67 regular-season games, and added on 36 points in 21 OHL playoff contests. That playoff performance set a Generals record for most points by a defenseman in a single playoff run, and he ended the year named a CHL Second-Team All-Star. That performance allowed Marrelli to enter the 2025-26 campaign as one of Columbus\u2019 more highly-regarded prospects. Before the season, he was ranked as the club\u2019s No. 7 prospect by The Athletic\u2019s Corey Pronman<\/a>, No. 8 by Elite Prospects<\/a>, and No. 8 by Daily Faceoff<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now with his pro career set to begin in Cleveland, it\u2019s unclear at this moment where exactly on the Monsters\u2019 defense Marrelli will slot in. With 2021 first-rounder Corson Ceulemans<\/a> already in the lineup and veteran top-four stalwart Dysin Mayo<\/a> recently reassigned, there does not appear to be a clear spot for Marrelli on the right side of the team\u2019s top two pairings.<\/p>\n

With that said, the club could shift left-shooting veteran Will Butcher<\/a> back to the left side, which could keep open a spot for Marrelli on the team\u2019s third pairing.<\/p>\n

It will also be interesting to see if Marrelli, whose offensive ability defined his game in junior, will be able to unseat Butcher or Mayo on the Monsters power play. Butcher has 14 points in 28 games this season, while Mayo has seven in 19 games. Worth noting with the power play is that until 2025-26, Mayo has not consistently featured on an AHL power play, meaning he could be a clear candidate to surrender his role there to Marrelli.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Columbus Blue Jackets have activated defenseman Luca Marrelli off of injured reserve, and reassigned him to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5108],"tags":[401,3644,5180,897,230,5179,5,6025,4],"class_list":["post-400371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-columbus-blue-jackets","tag-ahl","tag-blue-jackets","tag-bluejackets","tag-columbus","tag-columbus-blue-jackets","tag-columbusbluejackets","tag-hockey","tag-luca-marrelli","tag-nhl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115873210351771507","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400371\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}