- The OHL rights to Blue Jackets prospect Luca Del Bel Belluz have been acquired by Saginaw, per a team release. The 20-year-old is in his first professional season with AHL Cleveland and has fared well in his limited action so far, collecting two goals and three assists in six games. Saginaw is hosting the Memorial Cup this year and if Columbus decides that they want Del Bel Belluz to go back and get top-line minutes, they’ll be sending him to a team that’s loading up for what should be a long playoff run.
Blue Jackets Rumors
Columbus Expected To Recall Trey Fix-Wolansky
The Columbus Blue Jackets are expected to recall forward Trey Fix-Wolansky from the Cleveland Monsters of the AHL. Fix-Wolansky has recorded 16 points through 11 games with the Monsters, leading the team in both points and assists. He also ranks fifth in the AHL in points, despite being tied for the fewest games played of anyone in the top 10.
Fix-Wolansky has appeared in 15 NHL games over the course of the last two seasons, scoring two goals and one assist. It’s been a modest showing at the top level, despite Fix-Wolansky showing consistent scoring ability in the minors. In addition to his team-leading tallies this year, Fix-Wolansky also scored 71 points in 61 games last season, again good for the lead spot in Cleveland. In fact, Fix-Wolansky scored over 30 points more than Justin Richards, who ranked second.
The Blue Jackets bring Fix-Wolansky to the NHL lineup in response to centerman Jack Roslovic suffering an ankle injury that’s expected to hold him out for the next six weeks. Roslovic has appeared in 14 games this season, scoring six points and recording a -6. The 24-year-old Fix-Wolansky will become the fourth rookie in the Blue Jackets lineup, if he’s able to slot in, joining Adam Fantilli, Dmitri Voronkov, and David Jiricek. Columbus has gotten exciting play out of their rookie forwards so far, with Fantilli ranked second on the team in scoring with nine points in 16 games and Voronkov not far behind with seven points in 10 games. Jiricek hasn’t found the same early success, though, netting only three points in the 11 games that he’s played this year.
Blue Jackets Place Emil Bemström On Waivers
The Columbus Blue Jackets placed winger Emil Bemström on waivers Wednesday, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports.
Bemström, 24, was a fourth-round pick of the team in 2017 and has since become a familiar face in the Blue Jackets’ forward group, amassing 184 games over the last five seasons. Now in the second season of a two-year, $1.8MM contract, Bemström made the team out of camp after not doing so last year, playing in 12 games thus far with three goals, an assist and a -7 rating.
However, he has begun to fall out of favor with first-year head coach Pascal Vincent. Bemström has been scratched in three out of the last five games and posted a -2 rating in 13:29 of ice time in the Blue Jackets’ 5-3 loss to the Penguins on Tuesday.
Bemström’s linemates have changed frequently this season, although he’s spent the most time on the wing with Adam Fantilli and Alexandre Texier. In 26 minutes together across six games, it’s been one of the Blue Jackets’ worst forward lines defensively, allowing 4.68 expected goals against per 60 minutes, according to MoneyPuck.
There is no pending injured reserve activation that would force the opening of a roster spot. If the Blue Jackets decide to fill Bemström’s spot on the 23-man roster after he’s claimed or assigned to the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters, it will likely be in the form of a call-up. That could go to 2021 fifth-overall pick Kent Johnson, who’s done well in a brief stint with Cleveland. He’s posted five points in four games after getting sent down at the beginning of November.
That said, Bemström is a decent candidate for a claim, and there are likely to be a few teams considering it. He’s quite affordable, carrying a cap hit of $900K, and will be a restricted free agent at the end of the season. He posted a career-high 22 points in 55 games with the Blue Jackets last season – a 33-point pace – after starting the year with 31 points in 21 games with Cleveland.
Blue Jackets Recall David Jiříček, Place Jack Roslovic On IR
The Columbus Blue Jackets brought top defense prospect David Jiříček back up from the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters on Monday, per a team release. In a corresponding move, forward Jack Roslovic was placed on injured reserve and is expected to miss four to six weeks with a fractured ankle.
Roslovic, 26, sustained the injury in Sunday’s 4-3 shootout loss at the hands of the New York Rangers. Playing in 14 out of 15 games for Columbus this season, Roslovic has two goals and six assists for eight points with 29 shots on goal and has averaged 16:30 of ice time per game.
The 2021 trade acquisition from the Winnipeg Jets has been working his way up the lineup after starting the season in a bottom-six role, yesterday skating on a line with Johnny Gaudreau and Cole Sillinger. In his place, 24-year-old Emil Bemström, who has three goals and an assist in 11 games this season, will likely slot into the lineup Tuesday against the Penguins.
A hometown son, Roslovic has been inconsistent throughout his NHL career but has provided decent secondary scoring on the whole since arriving in Columbus, notching 47 goals, 84 assists and 131 points in 220 games with the Blue Jackets. The 2015 first-round pick is in the final season of a two-year, $8MM deal and will be an unrestricted free agent next summer.
Jiříček, meanwhile, earns a deserved ride back to the NHL roster after being sent down Saturday to make room on the 23-man roster to activate Patrik Laine off IR. His ice time has been rather limited this season at 13:34 per game, a curious move by head coach Pascal Vincent considering his pairing with Ivan Provorov has been decent, as he’s registered a goal and two points along with 19 shot attempts.
Columbus selected Jiříček, who will be 20 later this month, with the sixth overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft. Playing in the AHL during his rookie pro season, a rare feat for a player fresh off his draft season, he notched 38 points in 55 games for the Monsters last year and was named the AHL’s Rookie of the Month for December. Jiříček, now the eighth Blue Jackets defenseman on the NHL roster, could return to the lineup tomorrow.
Blue Jackets Activate Patrik Laine, Send Jiříček To AHL
The Columbus Blue Jackets have announced that they’ve activated forward Patrik Laine off the IR and sent defenseman David Jiříček to their AHL affiliate the Cleveland Monsters. Laine suffered an upper-body injury on October 20th and has missed the Blue Jackets past nine games.
The news means that Laine will most likely dress for Columbus when they take on the Detroit Red Wings this afternoon. It is welcome news for the Blue Jackets as they currently sit eighth in the Metropolitan Division with a 4-6-3 record in their first 13 games. Laine has been a point-a-game player over the past two years but started slowly this year registering a goal and an assist in four games thus far.
The Blue Jackets were carrying eight defensemen and needed to move someone out to facilitate Laine’s return to the lineup. However, the Jiříček demotion is perplexing for several reasons. The 19-year-old has already exceeded the games played limit for his entry-level contract slide meaning that Columbus will burn a year off his deal regardless and according to Aaron Portzline of The Athletic the team told him to find a place to live in Columbus just last week. The native of Klatovy, Czech Republic has been okay in ten games this season with a goal and two assists while keeping his head above water at 5 on 5. He hasn’t seen any time on the powerplay thus far and just over one minute in time on the penalty kill.
Columbus can always recall Jiříček from the AHL if they sustain another injury, but for a team that is developing a lot of young players, demoting a 19-year-old after telling him to find lodging might not sit well in their dressing room.
Snapshots: Darcy Kuemper, Carter Hart, Patrik Laine
Washington Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery shared that Darcy Kuemper got banged up in the team’s last game. He will sit out of the team’s Friday game with an undisclosed injury. The Capitals recalled Hunter Shepard in response. He will serve as the backup behind Charlie Lindgren on Friday.
Kuemper has been in and out of the lineup to start the season, appearing in eight games with the Capitals. He’s managed a 3-3-2 record through that span, recording a .892 save percentage. That’s a step down from the .902 save percentage that he ended the 2022-23 season with – a mark he set en route to a 22-26-7 record in 57 games.
Charlie Lindgren has found himself with the best save percentage on the team, currently sitting with a .929 through the two games he’s appeared in, saving 65 of the 70 shots that he’s faced so far. Shepard also stepped in for one game, allowing four goals on 22 shots but nevertheless managing his first NHL win.
Other notes from around the league:
- Carter Hart will miss the Philadelphia Flyers’ Friday night game with illness. Samuel Ersson is set to start in his place. Ersson has recorded a .830 save percentage and 1-3-1 record through five games this season. Hart has tallied a .913 save percentage and 4-3-0 record in eight games.
- Columbus Blue Jackets head coach Pascal Vincent shared that star winger Patrik Laine could return from his concussion at some point this weekend. The Jackets play on both Saturday and Sunday. Laine has managed two points and a -2 through four games this season.
Laine Resumes Skating; Vincent Undecided About Returning Him To Play Center
Blue Jackets forward Patrik Laine has skated over the past couple of days as he works his way back from an upper-body injury, notes Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch (Twitter link). The 25-year-old got off to a quiet start to his year with a goal and an assist in his first four games while also making the adjustment to playing down the middle on a regular basis. Head coach Pascal Vincent noted that Laine responded well after today’s skate which could be a sign that he could be back sooner than later. When that happens, Hedger notes that the team hasn’t decided if they will move Adam Fantilli back to the wing or if they’ll leave him in his natural center role and put Laine back in his natural wing position.
Blue Jackets Still Looking To Make A Trade
Going into the regular season, there was no question that the Columbus Blue Jackets were dealing with a roster glut, and have been keen on moving players up and down regularly given their current level of play. This was evidenced most recently on Friday, as the Blue Jackets decided to send down top-center prospect, Kent Johnson, in exchange for Yegor Chinakhov from the Cleveland Monsters.
In a Sunday article, Aaron Portzline of The Athletic touched on a few of these issues, most notably pointing out that Blue Jackets General Manager, Jarmo Kekalainen is still working the phones to move out a few players, and that scouts from the Philadelphia Flyers and Winnipeg Jets organizations were seen at the team’s game this past Thursday.
Columbus Blue Jackets Recall Yegor Chinakhov, Assign Kent Johnson To AHL
The Columbus Blue Jackets have recalled forward Yegor Chinakhov from the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters, per a team release issued Friday. In a corresponding transaction, the team has assigned forward Kent Johnson to Cleveland.
Chinakhov’s return from AHL assignment will likely result in his 2023-24 Blue Jackets debut tomorrow against the Capitals. The 2020 first-round pick missed a handful of games at the beginning of the season with a back injury sustained during training camp, and the Blue Jackets opted to assign him to the Monsters last week when he returned to health. Chinakhov, who signed a one-year, $800K deal to remain in Columbus last summer, had three goals and an assist in three games with Cleveland since returning from injury.
His next NHL game will be his first since December 19, 2022, when he sustained an ankle injury against the Stars that kept him out for multiple months. Expected to slide into a middle-six role on the wing, Chinakhov has 11 goals, 16 assists and 27 points in 92 NHL games dating back to his debut in the 2021-22 season. He has been extremely productive in limited action with AHL Cleveland, though, registering over a point per game.
This is disappointing for Johnson, however, who was selected fifth overall by Columbus just two years ago. He’s been given a reduced role by new head coach Pascal Vincent out of the gate, serving as a healthy scratch on two occasions and only averaging 12:43 when in the lineup, notching three points in eight games. That’s coming off the heels of a strong 16-goal, 40-point rookie season in 2022-23. Johnson has not done particularly well this season, however, with poor possession numbers backing up the dip in production. He’ll now head to the Monsters, off to a strong 5-2-0 start, and work toward regaining an everyday spot in the NHL lineup.
Snapshots: Haydn Fleury, Olivier, Ponomarev
The Tampa Bay Lightning have sent defenseman Haydn Fleury to the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch on a conditioning assignment. Fleury has only played in two NHL games this season, serving as a healthy scratch seven times.
Fleury has recorded one assist in his two games with Tampa this year, matching the scoring totals that he reached in 29 games with the club last year. In fact, Fleury has scored fewer than five points in each of the 2020-21, 2021-22, and 2022-23 seasons despite playing in at least 29 games in each season. The low scoring has represented a fall from grace for the 2014 seventh-overall selection, who was taken one pick ahead of star winger William Nylander. This AHL assignment will provide Fleury with the first AHL games he’s played since the 2018-19 season when he scored 10 points in 28 minor league games with the Charlotte Checkers. The 27-year-old defender has totaled 246 career NHL games and 33 career points since making his NHL debut in 2017-18.
Other notes from around the league:
- The Columbus Blue Jackets are healthy-scratching forward Mathieu Olivier, replacing him with Kirill Marchenko. The duo are alternating nights in the lineup versus the press box, although Columbus will need to be mindful in icing Marchenko, as he loses his waiver exemption status with four more NHL games.
- The Carolina Hurricanes have removed Vasily Ponomarev from season-opening injured reserve and assigned him to the AHL’s Tuscon Roadrunners. Carolina remains without an AHL affiliate, meaning their assignments are scattered around the league. That’s why Ponomarev will join the Arizona Coyotes’ affiliate, after appearing in his rookie AHL season last year – scoring 46 points in 64 games with the Chicago Wolves, a mark that ranked second on the team. Ponomarev has looked strong in his North American play since coming over in 2021-22 and will look to continue working his way into the NHL lineup now that he’s healthy.