The Columbus Blue Jackets have signed former University of Michigan forward Josh Eernisse to a one-year, Entry Level contract for the 2026-27 season, club President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Don Waddell announced today. Eernisse (pronounced EARN-ih-see) signed a professional tryout contract with the Cleveland Monsters, the Blue Jackets\u2019 American Hockey League affiliate, on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Eernisse, 24, has played the past three seasons at Michigan, where he registered 20-24-44, 116 penalty minutes and a cumulative +12 plus\/minus rating in 115 games. In 2025-26, he tallied a career-high 11-8-19, 37 penalty minutes and was +17 in 38 outings, helping Michigan win the Big Ten Tournament title and earn a berth in the NCAA Frozen Four. He also received the Elite Scholar-Athlete Award for the 2026 NCAA Men\u2019s Division I Ice Hockey Championships, which is presented annually to the student-athlete with the highest grade-point average among athletes participating at each of the NCAA\u2019s championships. A sport management major with a 3.97 GPA, he earned Academic All-Big Ten honors in 2023-24 and 2024-25 and the league\u2019s Sportsmanship Award in 2025-26.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we looked at a number of college free agents we identified those that could fill an organizational need and Josh does just that,\u201d said Waddell. \u201cHe is a big, strong right winger who skates well and has great character, and we are excited to welcome him to the Blue Jackets.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 6-2, 217-pound native of Eagan, Minnesota participated in the Blue Jackets\u2019 development camp in July 2025. He began his college career at the University of St. Thomas, collecting 14-7-21 and 54 penalty minutes in 36 games in 2022-23. Prior to that, he spent two years with the Tri-City Storm of the United States Hockey League, registering 10-14-24 and 73 penalty minutes in 85 games from 2020-22.<\/p>\n
The Blue Jackets return to action on Tuesday against the Washington Capitals. Game time from Nationwide Arena is 7 p.m. ET with live coverage on ESPN. The game will also be heard on the Blue Jackets Radio Network, including Sports Radio 97.1 The Fan in Columbus, and online at BlueJackets.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Columbus Blue Jackets have signed former University of Michigan forward Josh Eernisse to a one-year, Entry Level…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5108],"tags":[3644,5180,897,230,5179,5,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-551448","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-columbus-blue-jackets","8":"tag-blue-jackets","9":"tag-bluejackets","10":"tag-columbus","11":"tag-columbus-blue-jackets","12":"tag-columbusbluejackets","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116394520288387877","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551448","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=551448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}