The Columbus Blue Jackets made a blockbuster trade Monday afternoon grabbing defenseman Milan Jurcina and veteran forward Chris Clark from the Washington Capitals for former longtime Blue Jackets winger Jason Chimera.

Clark is signed through the end of the 2010-11 season and Jurcina’s contract expires at the end of this season.

Clark will add a leadership presence to the Blue Jackets’ locker room. He was injured for most of the 2008-09 season, however he comes to Columbus having a solid 2009-10 campaign with four goals and 11 assists notched. Clark has captained the Capitals to back-to-back Stanley Cup Playoff appearances.

Jurcina was considered expendable by Washington as they had a problem the Blue Jackets wished they had; too many defensemen.

“We just thought it was the right trade for us right now as we have had an extra defenseman all year,” Capitals general manager George McPhee said.

Jurcina was brought in to add depth to a depleted defensive group. Defenseman Rostislav Klesla is injured and is said to be out for at least another four weeks according to Blue Jackets general manager Scott Howson. Also injured is Marc Methot. Jurcina is in his fifth NHL season and appears to be a top-four defenseman for Columbus.

“We needed to solidify (our defense) because we were one injury away from being decimated back there,” Howson said.

The move came as no surprise. Rumors began circulating late Sunday that the Blue Jackets were ready to trade a forward for a defenseman. With Columbus returning home after a four game road trip which included the annual holiday roster freeze and the team in the midst of a nine game losing streak, Monday was a good chance for Howson to make the call. Howson said that he has been in discussion with Washington for nearly three weeks.

“At first, it started out as they have an extra defenseman, Rusty (Klesla) got hurt, I started talking about this,” Howson said.

Chimera played in all 39 of the Blue Jackets’ matches until Monday night with 17 points for the season but a glaring minus-7.

Chimera’s departure is just one of many veteran players to be traded or whose contracts were allowed to expire since the off-season.

“We lost a big gap in losing (Michael) Peca last year just in the room,” Blue Jackets captain Rick Nash said. “On ice, it doesn’t matter, but with Peca, he was a huge loss in the room and I think Clark will fill that gap.”

Blue Jackets head coach Ken Hitchcock said he was ‘excited’ by the addition of Clark and Jurcina and said the pair will play in Tuesday’s game against the New York Islanders in the Big Apple.

“We couldn’t wait on the health of Klesla,” Hitchcock said. “Jurcina is going to give us good minutes and Clark is a good pro. Clark knows what it takes to win. We need his type of presence.”