The Columbus Blue Jackets announced that they’ve placed goaltender Spencer Martin on waivers today and sent defenseman David Jiricek to the Cleveland Monsters of the AHL. Martin was placed on waivers for the purpose of sending him to the AHL, but he will need to clear waivers first before he can be sent there.
Martin has struggled this season after he was acquired on waivers from the Vancouver Canucks back in September 2023. He has not appeared in a game since a loss on January 2nd to the Boston Bruins. For the season, Martin has dressed in 13 games and has a 3-8-1 record with a 3.65 goals-against average and a save percentage of .887%. Those numbers are not great, and some might speculate that they are being dragged down by playing on a bad team in Columbus, however, Martin’s numbers are only slightly worse with the Blue Jackets as his career average goals against is 3.63 and his career save percentage is lower at .886. Martin’s demotion could lead to Elvis Merzļikins getting more playing time in the coming days, which could be interesting given his recent trade request.
Jiricek heads to Cleveland after dressing in 36 games this season for the Blue Jackets. The former sixth overall pick in the 2022 NHL entry draft has played okay this season, although he hasn’t posted much in the way of offense with just a goal and eight assists this year. The Blue Jackets tried to give the 20-year-old the bulk of his zone starts in the offensive zone and did appear to be sheltering him as best they could. With his demotion to Cleveland, he will likely see more minutes and have an opportunity to play in more high-leverage situations which could help his development long-term.
Martin is better than Me-first Elvis.
It’s starting to look like the Jackets will be making a couple of trades possibly in the near future. Martin is out, Elvis wants out, Tarasov will likely backup who? Will the Jackets try and acquire someone like Murray in Montreal? The Jackets have lots of assets to right the ship in net.
The Jackets are going to hire Ron Wilson and then trade Elvis to Edmonton for Ted Nugent Hopkins.
This is obviously a move to increase Merslikins’ playing time in hope of a bounce back on his part, creating a trade market for him where little to none exists. And Martin is not the future for them so no loss there.
Is it just me or does the GM’s situation in CBJ remind you of the untouchable nature of Garth Snow with NYI years ago.
Jarmo is done the day the season ends. JD too. Firing them now is too much for the franchise after the Babcock debacle. Gotta wait til season ends. Adios Pascal.
Air Jammer road rammer, it’s a car that runs on air, no batteries inside of there.
Air Jammer road rammer.
That’s an excellent observation.