Columbus Blue Jackets News Clips
January 11-13, 2020
Columbus Blue Jackets PAGE 02 The Columbus Dispatch: Flaws come back to haunt Columbus Blue Jackets as long points streak ends
PAGE 04 The Columbus Dispatch: Carlsson patient despite limited NHL time
PAGE 05 FOX Sports Ohio: Local ratings for Blue Jackets games on FOX Sports Ohio up 41%, pacing best in franchise history
PAGE 06 The Athletic: Portzline: Failure to launch, and other observations from the Blue Jackets’ loss to San Jose
PAGE 11 The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Blue Jackets determined to get off to better starts
PAGE 13 The Columbus Dispatch: Blue Jackets 3, Golden Knights 0 | Elvis Merzlikins gets hot in Vegas, recording first NHL shutout
PAGE 14 The Columbus Dispatch: Blue Jackets 3, Golden Knights 0 | 3-2-1 postgame breakdown
PAGE 18 The Athletic: Portzline: Viva Las Elvis! … and more observations from Blue Jackets’ shutout win over Vegas
Cleveland Monsters/Prospects
PAGE 23 The Athletic: Wheeler’s 2020 NHL prospect pool rankings: No. 31 Columbus Blue Jackets
NHL/Websites PAGE 28 Sportsnet.ca: Q&A: CapFriendly's founders on signing trends, building an online giant
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The Columbus Dispatch: Flaws come back to haunt Columbus Blue Jackets as long points streak ends
By Brian Hedger – January 10, 2020
SAN JOSE, Calif — It started awhile ago, but the Blue Jackets have overshadowed their diminishing play with a run of great goaltending and a lot of gutsy wins.
Despite a flood of injuries that threatened to submerge the season in adversity, the Jackets rattled off 12 straight games with at least a point to claw back into the Eastern Conference playoff picture. The Jackets went 8-0-4 between Dec. 9 and Jan. 2, finally losing in regulation to the San Jose Sharks a week ago in Columbus.
But trouble lurked.
The Jackets didn’t have much zip in that one, and the funk lagged into back-to-back games to start this week at Los Angeles and Anaheim. The Blue Jackets won both in find-a-way fashion, but the problems persisted.
Poor starts. Goals allowed early in periods. Difficulty clearing their own zone. Intermittent offensive pressure.
It all finally caught up with them Thursday night at SAP Center, where the Jackets weren’t able to mask their flaws in another loss to the Sharks — a 3-1 defeat in a disjointed game.
“I think the big part of the night was we just didn’t get a sustained forecheck until the end of the game,” captain Nick Foligno said. “We got running around a little bit in our end. That’s what they do, though. They funnel a lot of pucks at the net so it gets you scrambling as a defense, and we allowed that too much tonight.”
Actually, they’ve allowed it too much, period.
Going back to New Year’s Eve at Nationwide Arena, when the Jackets thumped former teammate Sergei Bobrovsky and the Florida Panthers 4-1, the Blue Jackets have been outshot in five of their past six games, including 37-28 in that game.
They were also outshot by the Kings (37-24) and Ducks (40-27) but won each game after falling behind early. The Sharks — a team that averages close to three shots more per game than it allows — also outshot the Blue Jackets twice in a six-day span, including 33-31 Thursday.
That’s not a brand of hockey the Jackets want to continue. Having nine injured players is part of it, as the roster stays afloat on the inspired play of replacements from the Cleveland Monsters, but how long can that last?
The Jackets have put together a memorable run to claw their way back into the playoff race amid a sea of adversity, but time has a way of exposing deficiencies. If the Jackets can’t correct theirs quickly, it will be even tougher Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, where the Jackets will conclude their four-game western trip against the Golden Knights, who have a slow-start issue of their own to fix.
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“I don’t think we were sharp,” coach John Tortorella said of the loss to the Sharks. “I don’t think we sustained enough constant forechecking. My biggest concern is just the start of periods. It’s an epidemic right now with our club, even though we’ve won some games.”
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The Columbus Dispatch: Carlsson patient despite limited NHL time
By Brian Hedger – January 10, 2020
SAN JOSE, Calif. — One of the offshoots of the Blue Jackets’ injury plague is hard to miss.
He’s a blond Swede who stands 6 feet 5, 192 pounds and was selected 29th overall by the Blue Jackets in the 2015 NHL draft. In case you’ve forgotten, his name is Gabriel Carlsson and he’s a rangy defense- oriented defenseman who’s still striving to make his NHL goals a reality.
“Sometimes it takes time,” said Carlsson, 23, who was recalled from the Cleveland Monsters on Dec. 26 along with Swedish forward Jakob Lilja. “Everyone develops differently, but my dream coming here is always to play in the NHL, and that’s what I just keep building for, even when I’m in the minors.”
Including this season, the “minors” is where Carlsson has spent the bulk of the past three seasons. After starting 2017-18 in the NHL, he’s been sidetracked by injuries — including a back issue last season — and has slugged it out with the Monsters in the American Hockey League.
It’s not the way he envisioned his career path going, especially after making his NHL debut in 2017 and logging five playoff games against the Pittsburgh Penguins, but it’s become his road to the show.
“You’ve just got to stick with the process,” said Carlsson, who hasn’t scored in six games since being recalled. “Usually, as they say, it’s not a sprint. It’s kind of a marathon. It usually takes defensemen a little bit longer, and I’m still pretty skinny. I can develop that part of my body more.”
Until he does, Carlsson has a challenge to overcome.
In the NHL, winning one-on-one defensive battles is paramount to success. Assistant coach Brad Shaw said the job can be done without brute physicality — look no further than Markus Nutivaara — but Carlsson still needs to adapt.
“He has really put on a lot of strength, but he’s not a grizzly bear out there,” Shaw said. “He’s not going to maul a guy to death in the corner and, ‘Boy, look at that wrestling match.’ That’s not going to happen. So he has to find a way to go against a team’s best players because as much as we try and match things up, there’s always minutes you play against the top guys. You’ve got to find a way to not be on the wrong side of those equations.”
Ratings on the rise
The Blue Jackets might have lost a gaggle of star players to free agency last summer, but their interest locally continues to grow.
The latest Nielsen ratings for their broadcasts on Fox Sports Ohio are an example, showing an increase of 41 percent in average game rating from the same point of the season a year ago.
If their average audience rating of 2.12% of television households holds up through the end of the season, it would top the 2.09% rating in 2016-17 as the highest-rated season in franchise history.
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FOX Sports Ohio: Local ratings for Blue Jackets games on FOX Sports Ohio up 41%, pacing best in franchise history
By Staff – January 10, 2020
According to Nielsen, the FOX Sports Ohio’s 2019-20 Blue Jackets regular season average game rating to date is 2.12 HH, which is up +41% to last year at the same number of games. Last season’s average of 1.61 HH is the third highest ever for the Jackets on FSO.
Their second highest rated season currently is their 2008-09 season (1.86 HH), when the Jackets had their first playoff berth.
The highest rated season in franchise history is the 2016-17 season (2.09 HH), when the club set numerous team records and made their third trip to the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The current average is up +10% to the average rating at the same number of games in 2016-17 (1.94 HH).
2019-20 mid-season ratings highlights
#1 highest rated game of the season to date is the game from Nov. 29 against the Penguins, which posted a 3.08 HH.
#2 highest rated game this season to date is the game from Nov. 19 vs. Canadiens, which posted a 2.94 HH.
Games in the month of December averaged a 2.33 HH, on pace with the average December game rating in 2016 and up +50% to the average December game rating last year.
Five of the top 10 rated games so far this season came in December:
12/23 vs. Islanders 2.93 HH (3rd)
12/31 vs. Panthers 2.87 HH (6th)
12/19 vs. Kings 2.8 HH (7th)
12/3 vs. Coyotes 2.78 HH (8th)
12/5 vs. Rangers 2.77 HH (9th)
STREAMING & SOCIAL
All Blue Jackets programming televised on FSO streams live on FOX Sports GO. FOX Sports GO is currently available on mobile and tablet devices, including iOS and Android as well as foxsportsgo.com. FOX Sports GO is also available on connected devices including, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV, Google Chromecast, Roku Players and Roku TV, and Xbox One. Fans can download the app for free from the iTunes App Store, Google Play, Amazon App Store, Roku App Store, XBOX One App Store and Windows App Store. Fans can also stream the games directly through the Blue Jackets official mobile app.
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The Athletic: Portzline: Failure to launch, and other observations from the Blue Jackets’ loss to San Jose
By Aaron Portzline – January 10, 2020
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Ten observations from the Blue Jackets’ 3-1 loss to the San Jose Sharks on Thursday in SAP Center:
1. One of those nights
Slow starts have hurt the Blue Jackets on this road trip, not just slow starts to games, but also slow starts to periods.
The Blue Jackets started this trip by falling behind 1-0 and winning in Los Angeles and Anaheim, but they couldn’t snap out of their funk Thursday long enough to muster a comeback.
“My biggest concern is just the start of periods,” Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella said. “It’s an epidemic right now with our club, even though we’ve won some games.
“Even though they didn’t score in the first period, they started really fast on us. They scored a goal early in the second. Third period we killed off a penalty and then, right away, we get scored on.”
The Sharks scored only 1:01 into the second period and 2:09 into the third. It continues a trend on this trip.
Monday in Los Angeles, the Kings scored just 1:26 into the game. Tuesday in Anaheim, the Ducks scored 3:06 into the game and 24 seconds into the second period.
“I don’t know what’s going on with the starts,” said Jackets forward Sonny Milano, who scored Columbus’ only goal. “Each period the starts aren’t there. I don’t know what’s going on.”
That’s two losses to the Sharks in six days after a 3-2 loss in Columbus on Saturday.
2. The back-breaker
Milano’s goal with 1:18 remaining in the second period figured to give the Blue Jackets some momentum.
The Sharks, after all, have been a horrible third-period team. Entering Thursday’s game they’d been outscored by 25 goals (59-34) in the third period, one of the worst numbers in the league.
The Blue Jackets managed to kill off 54 seconds of a Sharks power play to start the third, but just when they should have hit launch sequence, the Sharks scored again.
Brent Burns scored off a rebound as he skated across the hashmarks at 2:09 of the third, pushing the lead to 3-1.
“You kill the penalty off and you hope you get going there,” Tortorella said. “I still think we’re right there. Even at 3-1, we’re right there, but that hurts to kill the penalty off and get scored on right away.”
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3. Fight, but fizzle
This has been a rough season offensively for Nick Foligno. He has only four goals and 17 points, on pace for his lowest output since his early years in the NHL with Ottawa.
He’s gone 20 games since he last scored a goal, Nov. 29 against Pittsburgh. So frustration comes easily for the captain, one can safely assume.
At 4:56 of the third, less than three minutes after the Sharks pushed the lead to 3-1, Foligno flattened San Jose’s Kevin Labanc with a clean face-to-face hit along the wall.
Foligno didn’t pull up on the hit, per se, but it could have been much worse if he wanted.
Still, Foligno was greeted by Sharks rugged defenseman Brenden Dillon, who immediately tossed his gloves and grabbed Foligno.
Give Foligno the decision, but neither player appeared to land any significant punches.
“(Dillon) just came at me,” Foligno said. “I don’t know. Trying to get some energy, trying to get us to go play a little more assertively.
“Didn’t work.”
Foligno led the Blue Jackets with four blocked shots and was tied for first with three hits.
4. Shooter’s touch
Sharks defenseman Brent Burns committed a massive turnover that led to the Blue Jackets’ only goal.
Burns tried to connect with Barclay Goodrow on a soft pass deep in his own zone, but he clearly misjudged Milano’s speed as he rocketed through the left circle.
Milano gathered the puck on the dot, switched to his backhand and feathered the puck between the pads of Sharks goaltender Aaron Dell, scoring an unassisted goal at 18:12 of the second.
Milano read that Dell was going for a poke-check so he adjusted accordingly. He adjusted in a way that only elite hockey goal-scorers would probably adjust.
“When you see the stick come out, usually the five-hole opens up,” Milano said. “It’s pretty much automatic. If I see a poke-check, that’s where I’m going.”
That’s Milano’s fifth goal of the season.
5. Elvis on a high wire
In an otherwise dull first period, Blue Jackets goaltender Elvis Merzlikins provided a chaotic scene that miraculously didn’t result in an early 1-0 lead for the Sharks.
Merzlikins, as he is wont to do, came out of his crease to play a puck below the goal line. Merzlikins might have misread how slowly the puck was coming to him along the woodwork. He might also have misread how quickly Labanc was arriving.
Either way, we can only guess that Merzlikins was screaming some variation of “sūdi, sūdi, SŪDI!”
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Merzlikins confronted Erik Karlsson with the puck against the wall momentarily before realizing he needed to high-tail it back into position. As he scurried, Labanc fired the puck into the slot.
The puck caromed off the left skate of Vladislav Gavrikov and shot into the slot, where Nathan Gerbe was coming in so hot he couldn’t avoid kicking the puck back toward the net.
Merzlikins went full-on Superman, diving past Gavrikov at the near post, dropping his stick in midair so that he had full use of his right arm as he sailed across the goalmouth.
It appeared that Merzlikins’ elbow grazed the puck, sending it along the goal line. He then swatted the puck out of harm’s way near the far post, his stick bouncing on his back and coming to a rest in the crease.
San Jose’s Evander Kane lifted his arms as if to celebrate a goal.
6. … on such a winter’s day
This trip is the 20th time in Blue Jackets history that they’ve played all three California teams — San Jose, Anaheim and Los Angeles — on the same road trip. Only once have they swept.
Believe it or not, the 2010-11 team, which did very few things right, pulled off the feat in November 2010.
Ever since the Blue Jackets have been in the league, at least one of these teams has been a powerhouse. Some years getting through California has been a murderer’s row.
But that’s not the case this year. The Sharks, Kings and Ducks are sixth, seventh and eighth, respectively, in the Pacific Division.
7. The secret? Ice cream
Zach Werenski can’t be sure where his current superstition began exactly, but he guessed it was 20 games ago, or thereabouts.
“My pregame meals change every day because it gets old eating the same thing,” Werenski said. “But I always finish with ice cream.
“This year, maybe over the last 20 games, I’ve been eating even more ice cream.”
More?
“Yeah, like two or three scoops,” Werenski said. “Well, three scoops, yeah. Which … that’s a lot.
“A lot of guys will reach in there with their spoons and have a taste of it, but I eat a lot of it. Like most of it.”
It’s vanilla with chocolate sauce, nothing fancy. But the more Werenski eats the better he plays, or at least the better the results.
He didn’t score Thursday against the Sharks, but he has nine goals in his past 12 games and leads NHL defensemen with 15 goals.
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Asked whether Blue Jackets director of high-performance Nelson Ayotte was aware of his caloric boost, Werenski smiled.
“I don’t know; I hope not,” he said. “I’ve just been going all out. I feel good during the game, though. I’m not changing anything.”
Werenski’s playing more than 23 minutes per game this season. He’s probably earning his carbs.
Thursday, he led the Blue Jackets with 13 shot attempts, six of them on-net.
8. Face the music
It’s been a sore point for the past several seasons: the inability of the Blue Jackets centers — those not named Boone Jenner — to consistently win faceoffs.
But it’s rarely been this bad.
The Blue Jackets have been beaten soundly on the dot in each of the past six games, winning just 39.7 percent of draws (121 of 307) during that span. That includes 39 of 103 on offensive-zone faceoffs.
If you take Jenner (52 of 101) out of the overall equation, it drops to 33.5 percent.
9. Next: Elvis plays Las Vegas
Merzlikins had 30 saves and continued to play well in Joonas Korpisalo’s absence. He’s 4-0-2 with a .935 save percentage and 2.20 goals-against average.
There has been significant improvement in at least two areas:
• Merzlikins struggled earlier this season with shots to his glove side, but now he’s flashing the leather with confidence. After making saves on Evander Kane and Erik Karlsson on Thursday, he snapped his glove like Dave “The Cobra” Parker.
• The quickness of the North American game took some adjustment for Merzlikins, but his anticipation looks much smoother now as he picks up on NHL tendencies.
He’s expected to make his seventh consecutive start Saturday when the Blue Jackets play the Vegas Golden Knights.
It will be the first time Elvis has played Vegas since Dec. 12, 1976.
10. Subsidiaries
Tortorella moved to 12th on the NHL’s all-time games coached list at 1,302, passing Mike Babcock. … San Jose’s Joe Thornton played in his 1,612th NHL game, tied with Ray Bourque for 11th on the all-time list. … The Blue Jackets had their nine-game road point streak (6-0-3) snapped. It was the third longest in franchise history. … Thursday was the fifth consecutive game in which the Blue Jackets have allowed the first goal. … The Blue Jackets spent Thursday in San Jose and will travel to Las Vegas on Friday morning. They won’t practice Friday but will hold a full morning skate in T-Mobile Arena on Saturday.
Alison Lukan’s analytics
The Athletic’s Alison Lukan provided these insights into the Blue Jackets’ loss:
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• The Blue Jackets suffered an anticipated fate in San Jose. On the game, Columbus created 47.78 percent of all five-on-five shot attempts and had just 36.44 percent of five-on-five expected goals, so while the quantity was close to that of the opponent’s, the quality was not.
• The expected goal total fell more or less in line with the final score as the Sharks were projected to beat the Blue Jackets 3.38 to 1.56. Money Puck’s ‘deserve to win o’meter’ had the Blue Jackets winning the game 17.5 percent of the time.
• Elvis Merzlikins performed above expectations compared with league average. He was plus-1.59 in terms of save percentage, meaning he prevented .68 goals against.
• Quality chances were an issue for the Blue Jackets, but a familiar name, Zach Werenski, led the team in terms of individual expected goals (.39). No other Columbus skater was above .2, while five San Jose skaters were plus-.2 expected goals.
• Werenski continues to prove he’s more than just a “defenseman.” In addition to leading the way in shot quality, the rover had nine shot attempts and five individual scoring chances, both of which were team highs for the game.
• The top skaters according to game score: Sonny Milano (1.84); Alexander Wennberg (.78); Kevin Stenlund (.21); Nick Foligno (.54); Boone Jenner (.39).
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The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Blue Jackets determined to get off to better starts
By Brian Hedger – January 11, 2020
LAS VEGAS — It wasn’t just an annoying little trend any longer.
The Blue Jackets had struggled starting games and periods in their previous four games, so it was time to address it before playing the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena in the finale of a four-game West Coast trip.
“We have some thoughts, yes,” coach John Tortorella said at the morning skate. “It’s epidemic. It’s not just the start of a game, but periods. So it has been addressed, it will be addressed again (before the game) and we’ll try to figure out different ways there.”
They had to do something.
The Blue Jackets went into the game having trailed 1-0 in their previous five games. They figured out ways to win three of the five but also lost twice to the San Jose Sharks in that span, including a frustrating 3-1 defeat Thursday.
Rather than dipping their toes in the water, Tortorella and his coaching staff want to see more of a cannonball approach. Vegas coach Gerard Gallant preached the same message to his team, so the environment was prime for a fast-paced start.
“It’s readiness,” Tortorella said. “One of the biggest pluses of our competing and finding a way to play the right way is dictating a game and not waiting to see how the game is going to be played. So, to me, it’s just a mindset change.”
Nutivaara adjusting
This hasn’t been an easy season for Markus Nutivaara in any aspect.
The defenseman got off to a slow start, was a healthy scratch as an early message from Tortorella, and then injuries hit. A lower-body injury cost him a couple of games to start November, and then he was struck in the right ear by a puck in a 2-1 loss to Vegas on Nov. 5 at Nationwide Arena.
That one caused a concussion that cost him 13 games, and then a separate undisclosed health issue tacked on 14 more before he eventually returned Monday against Los Angeles.
“It’s a really tough spot for him,” Tortorella said of Nutivaara, who played against the Golden Knights in his fourth straight game. “He just hasn’t played a lot of hockey in a position that you need to play. But in watching his tape, you can see that he’s beginning to make more plays. I think he’s beginning to see the ice.”
Nutivaara confirmed it, which surprised even him.
Despite missing 27 games over nearly eight weeks, his mind was still pretty sharp in assessing situations and making plays.
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His legs and other muscles were a different story.
“I thought it would be what’s going on inside the head, but I think the toughest part were the legs,” said Nutivaara, who has skated on the right side of a third defense pairing with Scott Harrington since his return. “Just keeping them moving and playing the speed of what they’re playing on the ice, I think that was the toughest part.”
Gavrikov still impressing
Tortorella didn’t know a whole bunch about rookie Vladislav Gavrikov before assessing the beefy Russian defenseman firsthand. What he’s seen this season has backed up the reports put together by the Jackets’ scouting department.
“He’s very similar to (David Savard) in just the way he plays,” Tortorella said. “He’s in the way, finishes his checks, I think he has really improved this year — as the year has gone on — with his stick-on-puck (defense). He’s a good defenseman.”
Not just defensively, either. Gavrikov had four goals and four assists in 44 games entering the Vegas game.
“The thing that surprised me, just because I didn’t know much about him, is I think he has a really good sense of when to jump into the offense,” Tortorella said. “I think he reads the ice very well offensively.”
Familiar face
Keegan Kolesar made his NHL debut for the Golden Knights, who acquired his rights from the Blue Jackets at the 2017 NHL draft. The Jackets, who selected Kolesar in the third round (No. 69) in 2015, used Vegas’ pick to take forward Alexandre Texier in the second round (No. 45 overall).
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The Columbus Dispatch: Blue Jackets 3, Golden Knights 0 | Elvis Merzlikins gets hot in Vegas, recording first NHL shutout
By Brian Hedger – January 12, 2020
LAS VEGAS — Elvis made a triumphant appearance on The Strip, but the “Big E” wasn’t the only star of the show.
Elvis Merzlikins got the first shutout of his NHL career Saturday night in the Blue Jackets’ 3-0 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena but got plenty of welcome help from the band.
Accompanying Merzlikins’ 27 saves, the Blue Jackets (22-16-8) blocked 13 shots and got goals from rookie Emil Bemstrom, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Alexander Wennberg. Marc-Andre Fleury made 19 saves for the Golden Knights (24-18-6), who head on a long trip sandwiched around the all-star break and won’t return to their hockey palace until Feb. 8.
Once the puck dropped, a recurring storyline unfolded for the Blue Jackets. They were outskated, outplayed and overwhelmed for the first eight minutes, getting outshot 5-0 and trailing 14-1 in attempts. Where they didn’t trail was goals thanks to more strong defensive play in their own zone and Merzlikins making five of his seven first-period saves.
The Blue Jackets didn’t get their first shot until 8:57 in, when Nathan Gerbe just flipped a shot on goal from the left wing that Fleury scooped up with no problem. The period took a sudden shift from there, as the Blue Jackets outshot the Golden Knights 12-2 in the final 11:03 and took a 1-0 lead on Bemstrom’s rocket of a one-timer at 16:38 to cap a power play.
It was Bemstrom’s fourth goal of the season and first in four games since returning from a rib injury that kept him out almost a full month (13 games). It was also the first 1-0 lead the Blue Jackets have held since the calendar flipped to 2020, ending a string of five straight games allowing the first goal.
The second period wasn’t nearly as productive for the Jackets in terms of scoring chances, but they still added a goal without allowing one. Dubois tipped a shot by Scott Harrington past Fleury at 2:06.
The Golden Knights outshot the Blue Jackets 11-2 in the second, aided by two power plays, but Merzlikins didn’t let a one past, including one immediately after the second man-advantage that he covered up with a snow angel in the crease.
Fleury countered in the third with a jaw-dropping stop on Seth Jones at 6:08, making a diving glove save to prevent the Blue Jackets from taking a 3-0 lead.
The Golden Knights, however, couldn’t steal the momentum. Wennberg made it 3-0 just 2:18 later, beating Fleury clean with a wrist shot from the left-wing circle for his third goal of the season and first since Oct. 21 against Toronto.
The goalie named “Elvis” and the defenders in front of him took it from there, polishing off the second straight season the Jackets pulled off a victorious caper in “Sin City.”
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The Columbus Dispatch: Blue Jackets 3, Golden Knights 0 | 3-2-1 postgame breakdown
By Brian Hedger – January 12, 2020
LAS VEGAS, Nev. – Sometimes, it writes itself.
The storylines in sports just happen on occasion and it all makes perfect sense.
That’s what we saw late Saturday night in "Sin City," where the Blue Jackets skated off victoriously over the host Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena, 3-0, for their second straight win in as many years here to cap a West Coast road trip with a 3-1-0 record.
The guy who got the shutout?
Oh, just some guy named "Elvis," playing before a packed house inside an arena just off the Vegas Strip. Just some guy named "Elvis," a rookie goalie from Latvia with the last name of "Merzlikins," who notched the first shutout of his NHL career with 27 big saves in "Vegas, baby, Vegas!"
Of course, that happened. Of course, it did.
Makes all the sense in the world considering his name, the setting, the kid’s engaging personality and just the way this season has inexplicably turned for these Blue Jackets (22-16-8) – who are now 11-2-4 since losing four straight games in regulation (Nov. 30 to Dec. 7) and have put themselves squarely back into the Eastern Conference playoff picture despite a hospital ward full of injured bodies.
Sometimes, it writes itself – and not even a grizzled hockey coach doing his level best to keep a straight face about it all can ignore it.
"I’m happy for him," John Tortorella said of Merzlikins, who improved to 5-2-0 since taking over the net after Joonas Korpisalo’s knee injury (torn meniscus). "It’s Elvis winning his … he has a shutout in Vegas. I mean, that should be your headline."
Sure, why not?
Here is the 3-2-1 from the Vegas Strip … three takeaways, two questions and one more thing:
Three Takeaways
1) What a trip
Surely, their 12-game point streak was merely a fluke. Surely, a four-game road trip out West would bring the Blue Jackets crashing back to Earth, right where most of the experts picked them to reside all season.
Surely, you can’t be serious that downing the Golden Knights was the Jackets’ sixth point earned of eight possible on the trip?
Well, yes, they are serious. And stop calling them Shirley. Call them contenders instead, with 36 games left and slew of injured regulars still on the mend.
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"We’re feeding off each other, we’re having smiles and we’re battling hard – and that just makes it easier to play," said Alexander Wennberg, whose first goal since Oct. 21 in Toronto added insurance with a 3-0 lead in the third. "It isn’t always pretty, but in this league it’s a "find a way to win" league."
The Jackets found ways to take three of four and now have just one road game, Jan. 19 at the New York Rangers, left this month.
2) Goalie gems
The Blue Jackets came into this season with no Sergei Bobrovsky, no "proven" veteran free-agent acquisition to replace him and a lot of questions about Korpisalo and 25-year old rookie Elvis Merzlikins.
Well, 46 games into the season, things are looking good with both of them – despite Korpisalo’s injury setback. Prior to going down with a meniscus tear in a shootout that shouldn’t have happened Dec. 29 against the Chicago Blackhawks, Korpisalo was on a roll.
The 25-year old Finnish netminder had made nine straight appearances, starting eight, and had a sterling 6-0-3 record with a 1.72 goals-against average, .942 save percentage and one shutout.
After his injury, national pundits expected Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen to orchestrate a trade for a veteran goalie – even as an insurance policy in case Merzlikins wasn’t up to the starting role.
Instead, Jarmo let it ride and the Jackets’ "Big E" has delivered a handsome payout. Along with going 5- 2-1 in Korpisalo’s place (counting the shootout loss in which he only faced Patrick Kane), Merzlikins also has a 1.88 GAA, .943 save percentage and his first NHL shutout in those games.
Korpisalo and Merzlikins together have given the Jackets’ a record of 11-2-4 with a 1.79 GAA, .942 save percentage and two shutouts.
Is that good? Yes?
Well, it gets even better for the Blue Jackets. Since they decided against adding a veteran, in free agency or the trade market, the Jackets’ combined salary-cap hit between Korpisalo ($1.15 million) and Merzlikins ($874,125) is just $2.02 million – or roughly $8 million less than what the 31-year old Bobrovsky costs the Florida Panthers against the cap this season plus six more.
Korpisalo and Merzlikins are also intense on the ice and gregarious off it, "Korpi" with an understated dry sense of humor and Elvis a true showman.
There are still 44 games left, plus the playoffs are a possibility, so it’s still too early to say the Jackets have an embarrassment of riches in net – but it’s sure starting to look that way, isn’t it?
3) Savard’s block party
Saturday was a day for Tortorella to talk anatomy again.
First, at the morning skate, he said defensemen Vladislav Gavrikov and David Savard each had testicular fortitude stepping in front of pucks to block shots. Then, after the game, he credited Savard with another great "ass block" among the five blocked shots credited to him.
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That one happened right before he first period expired, as Savard blocked a slapshot by Nick Holden from the high slot with just eight seconds left. The bulky defenseman also came up with a big block on Max Pacioretty in the third, prior to Wennberg’s goal at 8:26 that made it 3-0.
"If there’s a person that sees him that understands hockey in any sense, they can see what he does, because he’s fearless as far as defending," Tortorella said. "He’s a huge plus to us, as far as building a bench, a camaraderie of a bench, just with his shot-blocking alone. He’s a guy everybody pulls for."
Two Questions
1) Did Elvis live up to his name after the final horn?
In a word, yes.
It’s commendable that Tortorella and Elvis himself are trying as hard as humanly possible to keep the young goalie’s electric personality in check, but with all due respect to them both … sometimes Elvis is just going to Elvis, and there’s not a whole heck of a lot that can contain it.
He’s friendly, charming, funny and speaks multiple languages – including goaliespeak. So, after finishing off his first NHL shutout, in Vegas, Elvis let his inner "Elvis," out for a little walk.
And it was perfectly fine.
In fact, it was fun in a sport that has a tendency to take itself a little too seriously.
It started in his crease, where he flipped his goal stick around after the horn sounded and turned it into a makeshift guitar.
A couple "strums," later, it was off to celebrate with his team, including an Elvis dance pose before hugging defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov. The best was yet to come, though, as Merzlikins nearly toppled captain Nick Foligno with a leap into the air to start their victory hug.
"I had to do it, because we’re in Vegas and I had to," he said, smiling. "It was my toughest three minutes of my life, I think, because I was already seeing the movie in my eyes, the ending celebration. Today, I jumped really high. I thought I (was) gonna break his back, so it was probably a little bit dangerous. I was really pumped up, so I should maybe calm down a little bit before I jump on him. But this was really high, so I have to be careful."
Here are some other gems from Merzlikins’ postgame press conference:
On his mother and deceased father being Elvis fans:
"Yeah, my father, he really liked the Elvis. He was a pretty big fan of him. I really don’t remember what he had in the house from Elvis or not, but my mom told me that he was listening to Elvis. So, uh, yeah … I will dedicate this win for him. I believe that from up there he helped me."
On his favorite Elvis song:
"Oh, I don’t know the names of the songs, but it’s really old music for my generation. I remember once at Christmas I was dancing with my mom with Elvis songs, but that’s all that I can tell you."
Hound Dog? Blue Suede Shoes? Viva Las Vegas?
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(smiling) "Yeah, Viva Las Vegas, I know."
On Marc-Andre Fleury’s diving save against Seth Jones in the third, reminiscent of saves that made Merzlikins a Fleury fan:
"It was fun, in real life, to see the huge, huge save, what he did. I felt sorry that he didn’t catch it. I would be (happier) if he would catch it in the glove … that’s sick. I mean, you feel good about it, but it was fun (playing against him)."
On his pride in overcoming a tough start to his NHL career plus his relationship with Blue Jackets’ goaltending coach Manny Legace:
"I didn’t reach anything yet. I don’t want to think about anything. I just want to play hockey. I want to enjoy every game. I want to have fun and that’s all that matters – and, of course, practice a lot with Manny, because he’s great coach. Like, he … I love him. He helped me a lot. He’s helping me a lot and every day after practice, I feel better and better thanks to him. He’s teaching me really well, so I just want to enjoy this moment, what can happen."
2) What did Vladislav Gavrikov tell Elvis during his press conference?
Elvis held court at his locker, but Gavrikov got the final say.
As Merzlikins talked about rebound control toward the end of his scrum, he noticed his friend open a nearby door and say something in Russian. Merzlikins, who is fluent in Russian, laughed and shook his head.
Asked what Gavrikov said, he played translator for the English-speaking reporters gathered around.
"Uh, ‘We are, like, in Vegas," Merzlikins said, laughing. "We have to go.’"
So, they did.
One More Thing
Two of the Jackets’ three goals were scored on great shots by Swedish forwards who missing front teeth.
Rookie Emil Bemstrom hammered the first one home with a one-timer for a 1-0 lead to cap a power play in the first period and Alexander Wennberg made it 3-0 in the third.
It was Bemstrom’s first goal in four games since returning from a rib injury that kept him out almost a month and Wennberg’s first goal since Oct. 21 in Toronto.
Both had lost teeth before the season, but Bemstrom refuses to get replacements until after his career ends and Wennberg had a replacement tooth knocked off its metal post last month in Detroit, which he has yet to fix.
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The Athletic: Portzline: Viva Las Elvis! … and more observations from Blue Jackets’ shutout win over Vegas
By Aaron Portzline – January 12, 2020
LAS VEGAS — Ten observations from the Blue Jackets’ 3-0 win over the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday in T-Mobile Arena:
1. Elvis … Las Vegas … you can’t make it up
When Blue Jackets goaltender Elvis Merzlikins lay down to nap Saturday afternoon, he allowed himself a brief moment to visualize a dream scenario on the Vegas Strip.
First, we should make it clear that Merzlikins was, in fact, named for Elvis Aaron Presley, the King of Rock ’n’ Roll, by his late father, who was a huge fan.
“When I power-napped, I was saying, ‘Why not?'” Merzlikins said. “It would be fun to make the first shutout of my career here in Vegas, especially with the people who were all pumped up that I was playing here tonight. It was just a dream.
“My father, he really liked Elvis. He was a pretty big fan of him. I really don’t remember what he had from Elvis in the house, but my mom told me he was all the time listening to Elvis.
“I dedicated this win for (my father), and I have a feeling that from up there he helped me.”
Merzlikins made 27 saves for his first shutout. Then he stood in the crease as the final horn sounded and strummed his stick like Elvis would have strummed his Gibson SJ-200.
He even twisted his hips and launched his right hand to the sky, another signature Elvis Presley move.
“I had to,” Merzlikins said. “I had to do it because we’re in Vegas. Really, I had to.
“Those were the toughest (final) three minutes of my life, I think. I was already seeing the movie in my eyes, doing that celebration.”
2. A showman, just like his namesake
Presley’s career spanned from 1953 until his death in 1977, meaning his last record was cut nearly two decades before Merzlikins was born in Latvia in 1994.
But he’s heard many of The King’s songs.
“I don’t know the names of the songs,” Merzlikins said, when asked whether he had a favorite. “It is old music for my generation. I do remember one Christmas I was dancing with my mom to Elvis songs.”
When the song Viva Las Vegas was mentioned, Merzlikins’ eyes lit up.
“Now, Viva Las Vegas, I know,” he smiled.
Merzlikins once did a photo shoot (not printed here out of respect for copyright) standing in front of a hockey goal wearing the kind of one-piece jumper Elvis Presley was known to wear.
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Clearly, this is a moment Merzlikins has long anticipated.
At the end of his media scrum, Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella couldn’t resist the moment.
“It’s Elvis. He has a shutout in Vegas,” Tortorella said to a reporter. “That should be your headline.”
3. What a trip!
The Blue Jackets took six out of eight points on this trip through Los Angeles, Anaheim, San Jose and Vegas. Their performance Saturday was the perfect capper because their play felt like it was starting to erode as the trip endured.
Emil Bemstrom scored a power-play goal in the first, Pierre-Luc Dubois scored a deflected goal in the second, and Alexander Wennberg scored the clutch 3-0 goal at 8:26 of the third to ice it.
But the game was defined by the kind of strong individual performances that are indicative of strong team chemistry.
Defenseman David Savard had five blocked shots, including one early in the third period after an egregious turnover kept the puck in Columbus’ zone for Vegas.
The fourth line — center Riley Nash, flanked by wingers Eric Robinson and Jakob Lilja — was particularly strong, but almost every line had a big moment.
Boone Jenner’s line had a pivotal shift in the third period, at a time with Vegas was carrying the play, to help balance the ice. Shortly thereafter, Wennberg scored.
“I don’t think we were awful in San Jose (a 3-1 loss Thursday), but it was one of those games,” Tortorella said. “I just didn’t know who we were. We were kind of like ghosts.
“We got back to how we have to play. We checked. We were above the puck. But the biggest thing was gaining the zone and giving ourselves a chance to forecheck.”
4. Wennberg ends slump
The Blue Jackets carried a 2-0 lead into the third, but they had to withstand a major push by Vegas in the early stages of the period.
The block by Savard was huge. The shift by Jenner’s line was huge. Then came Wennberg scoring off the rush from the left circle, giving Columbus a 3-0 lead and a chance to breathe.
The starch left T-Mobile on Wennberg’s goal, his third of the season.
“It’s a huge goal,” Tortorella said. “It’s a really good play by (Nathan Gerbe) in the neutral zone, a little chip play. (Kevin) Stenlund makes a great pass. I was double-shifting Stenlund tonight in the third.
“It’s a huge goal. I think Wenny’s looking to pass. He’s got (Seth Jones) coming down the other lane. Obviously 2-0 to 3-0 is a big difference.”
Wennberg hadn’t scored in 35 games. His last goal came Oct. 21 at Toronto.
“It felt good; really good,” Wennberg said. “Obviously it had been a while.
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“We played pretty smart at the end. It’s nice to have a three-goal lead instead of two. It gives you a little more breathing room at the end.”
Wennberg was asked whether the goal gives him summer bragging rights against his best friend, Vegas center William Karlsson.
“I’m going to go talk to him now,” Wennberg said. “I think maybe he’s the guy teaching me to shoot a little bit more.”
5. Bemstrom’s blaster
Emil Bemstrom arrived in Columbus with lofty expectations centered on his blistering one-timer.
But that’s only one reason the Blue Jackets enjoyed his power-play blaster at 16:38 of the first period. Bemstrom was on the left dot when Seth Jones teed up a puck for him.
It was Bemstrom’s fourth goal of the season, and his third on the power play.
But it also gave the Blue Jackets their first 1-0 lead in five games, dating back to the New Year’s Eve game versus Florida.
“It had been a while,” Tortorella said.
It was part of a strange first period.
The Blue Jackets, who were looking for a strong start after wading into too many periods on this trip, went the first 8:57 without a shot on goal until Gerbe put one on Vegas’ Marc-Andre Fleury from 40 feet.
Then, in the final 11:03 of the first period, the Jackets outshot the Golden Knights 13-1.
6. Merzlikins’ idol … no, not him
The whole Elvis/Las Vegas connection is only part of what made this night special for Merzlikins. On the other end of the ice was Fleury, his favorite goaltender when Merzlikins was a child.
“He was my idol,” Merzlikins said. “Even when I was 14, 15, 16, 17, I was really looking a lot at him. He is still my idol, I think. He’s a great goalie. He wins a lot. I like his attitude and his passion (for) the game. I think he’s a great example for the young goalies.
“It was fun to play against him. It was fun to see some real, live, huge saves that he did.”
Fleury had 19 saves on 22 shots. He probably wants Wennberg’s goal back, but he didn’t play poorly.
7. Backbreaker
Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno used to share rigorous hugs with goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky after wins. With Bobrovsky gone to the Florida Panthers, Foligno has started chest-bumping Joonas Korpisalo.
But these postgame celebrations with Merzlikins … somebody’s going to get hurt.
Saturday, Foligno literally recoiled as Merzlikins approached at high speed and jumped at least a couple of feet in the air, a pretty remarkable feat considering the weight of goaltending gear.
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“Today I jumped really high,” Merzlikins said. “I thought I was going to break his back. It was probably a little bit dangerous. I was really pumped up, so I should maybe calm down a little before I jump on him.
“But this was really high. I need to be careful.”
8. Positive math
The Blue Jackets are 11-2-4 since Dec. 8, an impressive run of getting points in 15 out of 17 games. The only two regulation losses in that span came versus San Jose.
When the run started, the Jackets were 11 points out of the playoffs. As of Sunday, they have the same number of points as Philadelphia (52), but the Flyers own the second wild card because they’ve played one fewer game than the Blue Jackets.
Put another way: It took the Blue Jackets 29 games (11-14-4) to earn their first 26 points of the season. It’s taken them only 17 games (11-2-4) to earn the second 26.
The Jackets now have five games before their 10-day break, including the All-Star Game, at the end of January. Four of those five games are in Nationwide Arena, the exception being Jan. 19 at New York Rangers.
9. Uh, let’s go
Merzlikins is one of the most personable and engaging players ever in the Blue Jackets’ dressing room. About six minutes into his postgame chat session with media, the door to the room where players showered opened up just to Merzlikins’ left.
It was Blue Jackets defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov, who jokingly rolled his eyes and delivered a message to Merzlikins that made him laugh hard enough to forget what question he was answering.
What did Gavrikov say? Merzlikins, who speaks Latvian, Russian, Italian and English, quickly translated for reporters.
“He said, ‘We are in Vegas. We have to go!’”
There are few stops on the NHL circuit that players look forward to more than Las Vegas, especially after a win.
The Blue Jackets planned to fly home Sunday, an off day.
10. Extra chips
Blue Jackets forward Sonny Milano did not play after the 1:27 mark of the third period because of an apparent wrist laceration. … Vegas allowed 15 first-period goals during their just-completed seven-game homestand. … Former Blue Jackets forward Jonathan Marchessault missed the game due to injury. … Vegas forward Keegan Kolesar made his NHL debut against the club that drafted him. The Jackets picked Kolesar in the third round (No. 69) in 2015, then traded him to Vegas at the 2017 draft for a second- round pick. They used that pick to select Alexandre Texier. Kolesar played 12:06, had one shot and was sent back to the AHL after the game. … RW Cam Atkinson (high ankle sprain) traveled with the Blue Jackets but did not play on this road trip.
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Alison Lukan’s analytics
The Athletic’s Alison Lukan provided these insights into the Blue Jackets’ win:
• The Blue Jackets put on a strong start, got two goals and then locked down the game in a primarily defense-first contest. In five-on-five play, Columbus earned 48.21 percent of all shot attempts and 43.85 percent of expected goals. In all situations, the expected outcome was 2.66 goals to 1.89 in favor of Vegas. Money Puck’s ‘deserve to win o’meter’ had the Blue Jackets winning the game 37.4 percent of the time.
• In his first NHL shutout, Elvis Merzlikins not only kept the net empty, but he also put on his best NHL performance to date. His save percentage was 5.54 percent above expectations based on the shots he faced, meaning he prevented 2.49 goals that should have gone in the net.
• A very strong night for the fourth line consisting of Riley Nash, Eric Robinson and Jakob Lilja. In 10:58 of five-on-five play, the trio was the only line to the ice the Jackets’ way (plus-2 shot attempts) and gain a quality advantage (62.33 percent of expected goals).
• The top skaters in terms of game score: Kevin Stenlund (2.71); Nathan Gerbe (1.53); Seth Jones (1.37); Pierre-Luc Dubois (1.28); Scott Harrington (1.26).
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The Athletic: Wheeler’s 2020 NHL prospect pool rankings: No. 31 Columbus Blue Jackets
By Scott Wheeler – January 13, 2020
Nobody wants to be that team. And believe me, I don’t love being the guy who has to label an organization as that team.
Last place. Thirty-first. Etc.
The good news, if I have any for Blue Jackets fans on the prospects front, is that I’m a big, big fan of recent graduates Alexandre Texier and Emil Bemstrom. Both have a lot more to offer than you’ve seen to date and should factor in as top-nine forwards on a contending team someday. I’m so intrigued by Bemstrom that I included him in The Gifted, my annual video series on fascinating prospects. When I released my annual top 50 drafted prospects ranking in July, Texier landed at No. 39.
The bad news is that there isn’t a whole lot more coming. This shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. Not only did the Blue Jackets select just three times in the 2019 draft, but I wasn’t particularly fond of the kids they did take.
1. Kirill Marchenko, LW, 19 (SKA St. Petersburg)
At this point, Marchenko has followed the trajectory you’d hope every Russian prospect does. He dominated the under-18 worlds two years ago, he made the under-20 team as an 18-year-old last year, he tore up the MHL, he has now shown he can do the same in the VHL and he’s beginning, before his 20th birthday, to establish himself as an offensive threat in the second-best pro league in the world. While I’m not sure Marchenko has true star power, he’s a dangerous scoring threat who has experience playing both wings, size, high-end four-way skating ability and excellent hands for his size. I’d like to see him use his size more (he did a great job of that at the world juniors) at the pro level, but he’s still filling out and he does a nice job attacking from the outside, even if he can get caught on the perimeter in stretches. With some organizational patience, he’s going to be a good middle-six winger who can contribute on the power play.
2. Liam Foudy, C/LW, 19 (London Knights)
I have two trains of thought on Foudy. The first says that he’s not the type of prospect I tend to like. Beyond his world-class speed off the rush and his effectiveness as a forechecker, there’s just not a ton of talent there. The Blue Jackets shouldn’t have taken him 18th overall in 2018, and that’s still true today. He often bubbles pucks, his puck handling needs major work, and his peripheral vision and awareness are both lacking. As a result, he’s fairly one-dimensional. But that one-dimension is so darn effective. When Team Canada made its final cuts for the world juniors and left off significantly more talented players like Alex Newhook, Foudy’s inclusion wasn’t the one I faulted them for because he fit the fourth- line energy role so well and he’s a great penalty killer. Then he exceeded my expectations with Team Canada, where he showed more flash than I expected. Even as the game changes, there’s room for a player like him. Just because he shouldn’t have been a first-round pick doesn’t mean he’s not going to be a useful bottom-six forward in the NHL.
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3. Veini Vehvilainen, G, 22 (Cleveland Monsters)
I’d normally be hesitant to have a goalie this high in any team’s prospect rankings but a combination of the lack of depth in the Blue Jackets’ prospect pool and his track record made that impossible. Vehvilainen has been not just good but really good since he was 15 years old. He literally hasn’t had a single bad season. That was true in Finland’s junior ranks and it has been true ever since in Mestis, Liiga (leading the league in save percentage and winning goaltender of the year twice!) and now the AHL. While he’s not the biggest goalie in the world at 6-foot-1, he’s controlled and that prevents him from swimming in his net and having to make big recovery saves. Vehvilainen isn’t a flashy goalie, but he’s efficient; and if he can see the first shot, you can count on him to save it. Both Elvis Merzlikins and Joonas Korpisalo are pending RFAs, but even if they’re both back with the Blue Jackets, I’d expect Vehvilainen to challenge them for starts in 2020-21.
4. Andrew Peeke, RHD, 21 (Cleveland Monsters)
Peeke is one of those players who looks like he’s on the brink of sticking in the NHL, which would exclude him from consideration for this list, but I opted to include anyways. Consider it a gift, Blue Jackets fans! Though Peeke’s talent level doesn’t leap off the page, he plays a steadying, patient, efficient game. He’s got NHL size and physical tools, he does a good job head-manning the puck through the middle of the ice, and he wins man-on-man battles with active feet and a strong stick. He’s just a smart, no-fuss defender who has progressed year-to-year to the point where it’s not a matter of if he can be an NHL defenseman, but what kind he might be. I think at his floor he’s a fine third-pairing guy. But I could also see him playing a more prominent 5-on-5 role as a complementary partner to a more talented defenseman.
5. Dmitri Voronkov, C/LW, 19 (Ak Bars Kazan)
Voronkov has followed an interesting path. Because of an early growth spurt (he’s 6-foot-4 and 190-plus pounds after turning 19 in September), he bypassed the MHL level altogether. The result of that trajectory is twofold. On one hand, it prevented him from really developing his offensive touch and confidence against his peers. On the other, it has already made him a fine depth option in the KHL and he’s ahead of many of his peers in that way. While nothing about his skill really leaps out at me (he’s an OK skater who has decent puck skills), there’s also nothing about his game that screams “that’s going to hold him back.” He also showed at the world juniors that, when tested against his peers, he can be a dominant offensive presence.
6. Eric Hjorth, RHD, 19 (Sarnia Sting)
The Blue Jackets took a swing when they selected Hjorth in the fourth round (I expected he’d be more of a sixth or seventh-round flier) after he played just 10 games last season due to a knee injury – only one of which was at Sweden’s under-20 junior level. And while Hjorth is definitely a long-term project, he just turned 19 and he’s a smooth skater. While I still don’t have a real grip on his upside, his ability to play in transition and get going north-south as a 6-foot-3 right-shot defender immediately makes him intriguing.
7. Daniil Tarasov, G, 20 (Assat)
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If Vehvilainen is the controlled goalie on the smaller end of the goalie scale, Tarasov is the giant who still has some work to do on controlling his gangly size. Because Ufa, his KHL club, already had veterans Andre Kareyev and Juha Metsola signed for this season, he was loaned out to Liiga where he has followed up consecutive standout seasons in Russia with an OK year on an underwhelming team. Tarasov needs to play a couple of full seasons of pro hockey before trying his hand at the AHL, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s an NHL option by age 23 or so. He moves really well in the net for a 6-foot- 5 goalie; now it’s about condensing those movements and staying center.
8. Marcus Karlberg, RW, 19 (Leksands IF/AIK)
I have always been a big fan of Karlberg’s game. He can fly wide, he can beat defenders with directional changes, he’s crafty with the puck on his stick, you can rarely fault his effort and he does a wonderful job delaying to allow lanes to open up as a passer. But he’s also 5-foot-8. I’m not sure his pure talent is enough to overcome that, and I’d like to see him use his shot (which is actually pretty dangerous in the slot) more than he does. Though he hasn’t had a successful season at the pro level, I suspect that he’d be able to contribute if Leksands ever gave him an opportunity in the top nine with some usage on the second power play unit. I wouldn’t call him a perimeter player, either, despite his ability to drive the outside lane. He’s willing to attack into the middle too.
9. Trey Fix-Wolansky, RW, 20 (Cleveland Monsters)
Fix-Wolansky is my favorite Blue Jackets prospect. I loved watching him in junior, he really impressed me in the Monsters’ series against the Marlies last spring and he was outstanding in Traverse City at the start of the season. While his stops and starts are impressive, and he really hustles, I don’t see his straightaway speed is particularly explosive. Still, he’s quick (rather than fast) and I like his ability to hang onto the puck and beat goalies one-on-one with his hands. Though he also has a good shot, I wouldn’t say it’s a world-beating skill if he ends up at the NHL level. His rookie season in the AHL hasn’t gone as planned after he missed nearly two months with a lower-body injury, and he’s one of the smallest players in pro hockey at 5-foot-6, but I just can’t rule him out.
10. Tim Berni, LHD, 19 (ZSC Lions)
You don’t often see kids who are developed in Switzerland stay in Switzerland. Normally, if they’re talented enough, they go elsewhere, like the CHL or SuperElit. But times are changing. We’re increasingly seeing kids reap the benefits of staying close to home. Mortiz Seider did in Germany. Tim Stutzle could’ve gone anywhere but decided to stay in Germany, too. So maybe Berni (who doesn’t exist anywhere near their realm but is trying to take a relatively unique path) can follow suit. He has looked good as a teenaged defenseman on one of the best teams in Europe this year. While he’s on the smaller side for a defenseman and he doesn’t have any one elite offensive skill, he plays a cerebral, modern, puck-possession game that helps him spend more time on offense than on defense. That was certainly true at the world juniors, too, where he really impressed me for the way he settled things down as Switzerland’s captain.
He does two things particularly well. The first is his lateral footwork. He walks the blue line effectively.
The second is he’s not shy. He attacks. It’s not uncommon to find Berni roving off the blue line to the front of the net.
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11. Gabriel Carlsson, LHD, 22 (Cleveland Monsters)
Carlsson’s trajectory was kind of predictable when the Blue Jackets used a first-rounder on him in 2015. He was mature for his age as a defender back then, but he had no track record producing offensively and limited puck skills to build upon. Five seasons later he’s a good, 6-foot-5 defensive defenseman whose skating and outlet passes are good enough to make him a strong calming presence in the AHL. But he’s an NHL tweener and, at his very best, a third-pairing guy. Like Foudy, he’s not the kind of player teams should be targeting in Round 1.
12. Kole Sherwood, RW, 22 (Cleveland Monsters)
Sherwood is one of those rare kids who was never the top player on his team but made things work anyways. He’s not overtly skilled and he doesn’t use his teammates particularly well. But he isa strong north-south skate who can flat out score. And while he’s probably not going to be more than a fourth- line guy at the NHL level, he may be useful with a center who can get him the puck in the offensive zone. I wouldn’t hold your breath, though.
13. Carson Meyer, RW, 22 (Ohio State University)
When the Blue Jackets took Meyer in the sixth round in 2017, I liked the pick. He’d just come off an impressive freshman year at Miami University (Ohio), a year after a strong single season showing with Tri-City in the USHL, where he led the Storm in scoring before helping them to a championship with 11 points in as many playoff games. But then the tape worm thing happened, his sophomore season got derailed, and he has been working to find his form back. And now he’s 22, his collegiate career is about to come to an end, and he’s still unsigned. If I’m the Blue Jackets, I give him a chance to continue to re- establish himself in the AHL next year. He’s got a deceptive shot and decent puck skills with sound defensive instincts. And he’s an Ohio kid!
14. Maxime Fortier, RW, 21 (Cleveland Monsters/Jacksonville IceMen)
Fortier is one of those kids whose trajectory I will never, for the life of me, understand. I had him ranked in my final draft ranking in two consecutive years and he wasn’t picked in either. Then the Blue Jackets signed him and I figured he’d get a chance to play in a regular top-nine role in the AHL. But he didn’t and despite impressive ECHL numbers he still hasn’t. Fortier’s got NHL speed (his bread and butter), he’s stronger on his feet than his 5-foot-10 stature might have you believe, and he’s fearless going to the net to make plays. Maybe I’m holding on too tight to old assessments and I just need to admit I was wrong about this kid deserving to be a mid-round pick.
15. Tyler Angle, C, 19 (Windsor Spitfires)
Angle was always a useful, versatile OHL player but he was never a great one. This year, after moving onto Windsor’s first line with Predators prospect Egor Afanasyev, that has begun to change. He leads the Spitfires in shots, goals and points, and he has done it while playing a responsible defensive game against some tough competition – and in usage that has asked him to take a lot of draws. My big concern with his game is one of strength. Angle is too easily pushed off the puck when he’s matched against bigger, stronger players and he doesn’t have the high-enough-end elusiveness he’d otherwise need as he progresses up levels.
The Tiers
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Each of my prospect pool rankings will be broken down into team-specific tiers in order to give you a better sense of the talent proximity from one player to the next (a gap which is sometimes minute and in other cases quite pronounced).
Though some of my rankings will feature half a dozen groups of players within the ranking, the Blue Jackets pool breaks down in a bit of a unique way. That’s because I don’t see much of a gap between Hjorth at No. 5 and a defenceman like Berni at No. 14. I wouldn’t be surprised if the latter becomes the better player long term. After Peeke, the rest of the field is players I view as somewhere between established tweeners and intriguing long shots.
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Sportsnet.ca: Q&A: CapFriendly's founders on signing trends, building an online giant
By Sonny Sachdeva – January 10, 2020
TORONTO — Long before they launched what wound up an online staple for hockey lovers, CapFriendly’s founding duo’s earliest forays in the sport looked much like those of the players whose names eventually populated their site.
Early trips to the rink, and an unfiltered love of the game.
“I was introduced to skating at three years old,“ says Jamie Davis, one half of the duo at the head of the CapFriendly operation. “I started playing Timbits hockey when I was four or five, played competitive hockey, so I’ve been playing my whole life. Both my brothers were the same. They’ve been playing hockey and skating pretty much since they could stand and walk.”
The same goes for the website’s original founder, Dominik (who requested his last name be omitted). “Very similar for me,” he says. “I played hockey as a kid, I would watch hockey all the time — Saturday nights were always Hockey Night with my dad, watching the Habs here in Montreal. … As I got a little bit older, that would translate into collecting hockey cards, because I wanted to get to know more about my favourite players and my favourite clubs.”
That was where it all began. Before websites like CapFriendly became the corner of the internet at which NHL fans’ interest often pools, the relationship between them and the players they loved was restricted to the tangible — hockey cards, posters, a signed stick here and there. The past few decades have changed that relationship significantly, though, and when it comes to the financial side of the game, it was one site in particular that altered a generation’s interest in the league.
“That was the way to know more about these guys. And then time went on and things evolved and sites like CapGeek came out, and introduced us to new ways to fall in love with our favourite game, with our favourite clubs and our favourite players,” says Dominik of the late Matthew Wuest’s seminal cap- focused site.
“That was just like candy for me — I soaked it all in.”
He was far from alone, as the proliferation of NHL salary information unlocked a new avenue for fan engagement with the game. And it was always about far more than just understanding how hefty a paycheque star players were collecting.
“It allows the average fan to play the role of GM, the role of coach, to see how he or she thinks that they could do better,” says Dominik. “Everything that’s come out over the years, all the new ways for fans to interact with their favourite clubs, it’s given them an opportunity to fall in love with their favourite players and their favourite teams all over again.”
Nearly five years into their effort to spur that love story via CapFriendly, the preeminent source for fans looking to indulge in the financial side of the game, Dominik and Jamie spoke to Sportsnet about the journey of building the online giant.
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This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Sportsnet: It’s incredible to see how much the site has grown and the level it’s reached — what was the first moment for each of you where it dawned on you just how big this was getting?
Jamie: For me personally it was the day that Dion Phaneuf was traded from Toronto to Ottawa, because our site went down. And it went down hard. That was the first time we ever had an issue with dealing with scale, the scalability of a website. So that’s when I kind of realized, ‘Oh, we might have something here.’
Dominik: I think on my end, it was gradual. It was always around, how much interest there was in player contracts and the salary cap. Just watching the daily traffic on the site and seeing how the progression chart was always a constant up arrow — there was no up and then down and then back up again. It was one direction and one direction only. We continue to see that every year. This is going to be five years in June, and every year we think, ‘Oh this is unbelievable, we’ve hit x amount of users or x amount of page views this year, whoever thought that would be done. It’s probably going to start flat-lining a little bit.’ And then the next year rolls around and we just completely obliterate those numbers and we’re shocked all over again.
SN: Take us back to the beginning — how did CapFriendly begin and how did you two decide to work together?
Dominik: I started CapFriendly — or the idea of CapFriendly — in January 2015, shortly after CapGeek went down. Obviously, CapGeek was the site in terms of the salary cap, CBA, player contracts. When it went down, I kind of found myself lost in terms of where to go to find that information that, as a fan, I really valued. I thought it was something I could take on.
In the beginning, it wasn’t really something I planned on having go up on the web or become what CapGeek was — it was more really for myself, for the challenge, if you will, to see if I could do it. So I started building it with a friend of mine who helped me out on the development side. We launched in June of 2015 and it quickly started to gain traction — we started to get quite a few followers right off the bat. I think in our first day, our Twitter had somewhere in the range of 5,000-6,000 followers.
It quickly escalated — in terms of time and effort, I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into at the beginning. But I quickly realized how much work it was.
That’s actually how I met Jaime. He was working on a similar site at the time, it was called Hockey’s Cap — same idea, same principle, player contracts, the salary cap, the Collective Bargaining Agreement. He had a really good site going, which was also gaining a lot of traction. Jamie reached out to me first to see if there was a fit there, if we could kind of join forces and bring it all together under one umbrella. I think in January 2016 we merged our sites under the banner of CapFriendly, and we’ve been working together ever since.
Jamie: Me and my two brothers were all fans of CapGeek, too. We had used the site for a couple years when we saw the announcement that it was going to shut down, and we were all very bummed about that. At the time, I was experimenting with some web design, just as a hobby, and working on a site that was music-related. My brother suggested we try to create a similar site —- there were some sites that
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had similar features, but we didn’t feel they were as in depth as CapGeek, so we went ahead and started designing the site.
We were kind of expecting another site to pop up to fill CapGeek’s void, and it never really happened, so we started working on it a little bit harder. We ended up releasing the site in May, I believe, one week after General Fanager released his site — he released, we released a week later, and then Dom released CapFriendly two weeks after that. So within a month, three sites all popped up.
I knew how much work went into creating a cap site, so I reached out to Dom to congratulate him on the release. As time went on, we realized that we both have strengths and they’re different from each other. Dom’s strength was definitely a weakness of ours — he’s excellent at networking and meeting people and getting information. And then we felt that Hockey’s Cap had some features that we had set up, like ArmchairGM, that he didn’t have developed at that point. So after a couple months, we got into bigger discussions and decided a merger would make sense.
SN: Looking at it now, it’s become a staple of the hockey world, one of the daily go-to sites for hockey fans. What are your thoughts on where it stands now and how far the project has come?
Dominik: For me personally, I still find it surreal sometimes when I take a look at the people that follow us on Twitter or the people that reach out to us on a daily basis, asking for an opinion or for some help. It’s hearing our site’s name on the radio, or in a magazine or newspaper, or occasionally on television — even though it’s been four years going on five, any time it happens, I’m still kind of at a loss for words. That’s really been something that I would’ve never ever imagined. I thought that maybe it would have a degree of success – it was never my goal or my intention, but I figured there’s always that possibility, there’s always some people that would like it and visit it. But I never ever thought it would gain the kind of popularity that it has over the years. It’s really mind-blowing.
Jamie: Surreal is a great descriptor of the feeling. It’s pretty unbelievable how much interest there actually is. And it’s an honour to have people rely on us — it’s something we take very seriously.
SN: What does a day in the life of the CapFriendly team look like? Tell me about the team you have in place and what the process looks like when a signing breaks.
Dominik: For the day-to-day, Jamie is around to take care of most of what happens, weekdays 9-5. I’m also fortunate enough that because of my day job and the way I’m set up, I’m also pretty available during the day to monitor any kind of action going on in the hockey world. And we’re really fortunate to have several other people that help us out, especially over the evenings and on weekends, whether that’s monitoring Twitter or other websites to see if anything has gone down, or to help out with the actual website itself and everything that goes into making sure that’s up and that nothing goes wrong.
[Aside from Dominik and Jamie, the CapFriendly team is rounded out by Ryan Davis, Chris Davis and Joe Mazza]
So we have a great little team here — we all complement each other really well, we have fun working together. It’s never a chore. We’re really fortunate that we get to do this — this is not any of our day jobs. We all have day jobs. Jamie’s the only one who works on the site full-time, but for the rest of us, it’s all in our spare time. So it’s a lot of hours, but it’s definitely a lot of fun.
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SN: One thing that fans have taken note of is how fast you guys update the site when new signings or trades drop — how have you developed a system to manage that while most of you have so much other stuff going on?
Jamie: We’re always in contact with each other — we have a messaging system where we’re always talking to each other, and honestly, the conversation that we have doesn’t go quiet for more than a couple hours every day. We try to have somebody always paying attention to the hockey world to make sure we’re on top of the news, and if something’s coming down, then we’re ready in case it actually does.
Dominik: We’ve also gotten to a point where there’s so many people that love the site and are interested in making sure we’re up to date and have all of the information as quickly as possible. If we miss something — and when I say ‘miss something,’ I mean it could’ve happened five minutes ago and we don’t have it up on our site yet — we’ll get people tweeting at us, we’ll get emails, we’ll get text messages saying, ‘Hey, you missed this, it happened three minutes ago, it’s not up yet.’ We really appreciate that, because it’s happened, where we might’ve missed something for whatever reason, and thanks to the fans we were able to pick up on it and add it to the site.
SN: There must be a different sense of pressure now compared to when you first started, with fans now having an expectation that CapFriendly will have all the details, and instantly. How has the pressure on you guys changed over the years?
Dominik: I think it’s definitely gone up over the years, that kind of pressure. I won’t say that it hasn’t — it definitely has. I think it’s gotten now where people expect everything to be up to date within minutes of news breaking and being as accurate as possible. They rely on us and want to see how a trade or a signing or a move might impact their team because it’ll trickle down. Or if it’s a reporter in the media it might impact a story they’re writing. We’ll have people in the hockey community as well that are looking at the site and using it for certain things each and every day.
We’ll get people working for clubs that will call us and say, ‘Hey, I just want to let you know, this is just slightly off, you might want to change that. Or agents will contact us and say, ‘Hey, you know, this player’s contract here, you’ve got just this little thing wrong here, we just wanted to let you guys know.’ So we definitely feel a little bit of pressure I guess, but it also pushes us forward. It encourages us to know that people are interested.
SN: The financial side of the game has obviously proven to be fascinating for fans, probably to a bigger degree than the league expected. Why do you think that is? Has the level of interest surprised you at all?
Dominik: I’m not surprised. I like to tell people, back in the ‘90s, the way that you could get to know your favourite player was collecting a hockey card, looking at the back of that card and seeing what that player’s points were. Or maybe buying a poster and putting it up on your wall. And now we have access to player contracts with sites like ours. We have access to advanced stats thanks to sites like Evolving- Hockey and NaturalStatTrick. With social media, with everything that we have now on television and radio, fans are just soaking it up, and have more and more ways to know everything they need or want to know about their favourite players or their favourite clubs.
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So I think the desire has always been there for fans, I just think that now, with everything we have at our fingertips, they’re getting more ways to do it.
Jamie: To add to that, I don’t find it surprising because of the importance that the salary cap has on every single move that is made in the NHL. You have your upper limits, you have your lower limits and teams have to abide by those limits at all times. Every time you make a trade, every time you sign a player, or call a player up from the minors, you have to consider, ‘Do I have enough cap space?’ Every single time there’s a move made in the NHL, the salary cap always comes into play. I think people are really interested in that aspect, because it is such an important factor.
SN: Have you ever felt any pushback from anyone in the league or elsewhere for providing the resource you provide?
Dominik: I haven’t felt any pushback — if anything, I think because of the interest that fans have in this kind of information, it maybe opened it up a little more, to be a little bit more transparent, for providing a little more information because they see that it helps them engage with their fans. It drives the interest up. So if anything I’d say it’s helped clubs maybe share a little bit more and be a little more transparent with their fans because they’re really starting to see the importance with their fans.
SN: Given you guys have been watching signing trends closer than probably anyone outside of those in the league, what are some of the most interesting overall shifts you’ve noticed when it comes to player signings?
Dominik: I’d say the trends kind of shift every two years. The type of contracts that would be signed say four, five years ago are no longer what we’d see today — for example, prior to the last Collective Bargaining Agreement, we’d see those long contracts that would be back-diving, trying to lock up players as long as you possibly could. And then with the new Collective Bargaining Agreement in 2012 they abolished that, and you started to see kind of a new way of thinking, of maybe we can break this up into tiers — we’ll have entry-level contracts, and then maybe out of entry-level we’ll see about signing a bridge deal, and then from a bridge deal maybe we’ll go on to a longer-term deal.
Now you’re seeing maybe less bridge deals, and clubs signing players either to longer terms right out of entry-level or maybe signing them to one- or two-year deals. But every year you’ll see a new trend. The perfect example is this past year — in July, one of the biggest things that stood out to us is how many shorter-term deals were signed. A few years back on July 1st, you saw longer-term deals and big dollars. This past year you saw a lot of one-year deals, two-year deals, for a lot lower money.
Jamie: And the three-year bridge deal with the third year being all salary and significantly higher than the first two years.
Dominik: That’s another thing that we saw a lot of this year that we didn’t see as much of in the past years. You’d get those deals that would take a player to one year from being an unrestricted free agent but all salary in that last year, so that the qualifying offer would be high, to kind of force the team’s hand, to see what they’d do. So every year we see new trends, and it’s really interesting to watch.
SN: How has the site changed since you first started up, with all the growth that’s come?
Dominik: I think when we first started the site, a lot of what we built were ideas or features that we wanted to see. Things that we were interested in, that we thought would really improve the site. But I
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would say the last year or so, a lot of the features and a lot of the new tools that we’ve added to the site, have come from the fans.
And in some cases have come from people in the actual hockey community who reach out to us and say, ‘Hey, what would you think if you added this kind of feature? What would you think if you added this kind of information to the site?’ So that would then spawn ideas for us, we’d obviously add our own flavour to it, to try and make it as user-friendly as possible, as simple as possible, because sometimes it could get overcomplicated.
But a lot of the tools and the features that we have on the site now, they come from ideas offered to us by the fans and people in the hockey community.
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