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Snapshots: Kane, Zub, Werenski

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In the most recent 32 Thoughts podcast episode, Elliotte Friedman added credence to the idea that star free agent Patrick Kane could sign with the Dallas Stars. Friedman says that a very reliable source shared the likelihood of Kane landing in Dallas, adding that the stylistic fit could be good for the aging veteran.

The Stars rapidly rise up the power rankings of teams likely to land Kane, leapfrogging the New York Rangers, Florida Panthers, and Buffalo Sabres. Dallas has flexed a very deep forward group this season, providing nearly identical ice time to each of their top three lines. The only weak spot is likely 34-year-old winger Evgenii Dadonov, who’s spent the year alongside Wyatt Johnston and Jamie Benn. This could be the role that Kane takes over if he joins the Stars; bringing a little more mobility and finesse to the line.

Only three forwards in Dallas’ top nine have scored a goal at this point in the year: Joe Pavelski, Benn, and Roope Hintz. Kane’s all-out-offensive style may be enough to kickstart the Stars’ scorers.

Other notes from around the league:

Jet Greaves Returned To Minors

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  • After being recalled to the Columbus Blue Jackets on an emergency basis yesterday morning, the team has announced they have returned goaltender Jet Greaves back to their AHL, the Cleveland Monsters. Greaves served as the backup option behind Spencer Martin last night against Detroit, giving regular starting netminder, Elvis Merzļikins, a bit more time to recover from a bout of the flu.

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Blue Jackets Recall Jet Greaves Under Emergency Conditions

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The Columbus Blue Jackets have announced that goalie Jet Greaves has been recalled from the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters under emergency conditions. The move suggests that starter Elvis Merzļikins, who left Saturday’s win over the New York Rangers after two periods due to flu symptoms, is not healthy enough to dress for tonight’s contest against Detroit. Greaves will likely back up Spencer Martin, who’s in line to make his first start as a member of the Blue Jackets after making 15 saves on 17 shots in relief on Saturday.

Greaves, 22, made his NHL debut late last season when injuries ravaged the Blue Jackets’ crease. An undrafted free agent signing out of the OHL’s Barrie Colts in 2021, Greaves has quickly worked his way up a thin organizational depth chart and has claimed the starting role in Cleveland. He’s off to a good start this season in the minors, stopping 29 of 31 shots in a 5-2 win over Lehigh Valley over the weekend.

It’s a tough early-season interruption for Merzļikins, who has excelled thus far after a rough 2022-23 campaign. Despite taking a season-opening loss against Philadelphia last week, Merzlikins has allowed just three goals on 60 shots faced and boasts a sparkling .950 save percentage through 1 2/3 outings. If the Blue Jackets are going to make any headway in a tough Eastern Conference battle, they’ll need a big bounce-back effort from Elvis, who finished near the bottom of the league with a .876 save percentage and 4.23 goals-against average in 27 starts last season.

Latest On Elvis Merzļikins

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  • Columbus Blue Jackets head coach Pascal Vincent said via team reporter Jeff Svoboda that netminder Elvis Merzļikins “has a stomach bug” and missed today’s practice after leaving last night’s game. Per Vincent, Merzļikins’ status for tonight’s game is in question, and as a result, Spencer Martin (who saved 15 of 17 shots last night in relief against the New York Rangers) could start his first game as a Blue Jacket tomorrow night when the team hosts the Detroit Red Wings.

Blue Jackets Activate Mathieu Olivier, Eric Robinson Clears Waivers

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10/15/23 1:00 PM: Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that Robinson has cleared waivers, and The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline reports that the Blue Jackets will be sending Robinson to the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters.

10/14/23 1:02 PM: With winger Mathieu Olivier expected to come off injured reserve tonight, the Blue Jackets needed to open up a roster spot.  That spot is being vacated by winger Eric Robinson as the team announced that Robinson has been placed on waivers.  He has been designated as waivers/non-roster, opening up the spot immediately even though he’ll be on waivers until 1 PM CT on Sunday.

Olivier missed the season opener for Columbus due to a leg injury and with an IR placement being able to be back-dated, they were able to stash him on there even though he winds up missing less than a week of action.  The 26-year-old played in a career-best 66 games last season for the Blue Jackets, picking up five goals and ten assists along with 81 penalty minutes and 178 hits while logging 11:38 per night.  That was enough to earn him a two-year, $2.2MM deal back in June, one that bought out his final season of RFA eligibility while giving them an extra year of club control.

As for Robinson, he has done well in a slightly elevated role the last couple of years, putting up a career-high 27 points in 2021-22 while following that up with 24 points and a career-best 12 goals last season despite averaging less than 14 minutes per night in each year.  On the surface, it would seem like someone with that production might be a candidate to be claimed.  However, the 28-year-old has a $1.6MM cap charge this season and with so many teams tight to the cap, there’s a good chance he’ll go through unclaimed.  If that happens, Columbus can clear a pro-rated $1.15MM of his contract by sending Robinson to the minors.

Columbus could have elected to send one of their five waiver-exempt players down with the logical candidate being David Jiricek who was just recalled yesterday.  However, with the Blue Jackets down to just seven defenders including Jiricek, they decided that waiving Robinson was the safest route to take to get Olivier back into the lineup.

Blue Jackets Place Zach Werenski On Injured Reserve, Recall David Jiricek

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The Columbus Blue Jackets announced a pair of roster moves this morning, placing defenseman Zach Werenski on injured reserve after sustaining a quad contusion in last night’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers on a hit from forward Garnet Hathaway, which resulted in a minor penalty and $5,000 fine. Werenski will miss between one and two weeks. In response, the team recalled top defense prospect David Jiricek from AHL Cleveland.

This continues to be a tough stretch of injury luck for Werenski, who missed the last 69 games of last season with a shoulder injury. Werenski skated 13:43 last night and recorded a -1 rating before exiting the game, which ended up being a 4-2 loss for Columbus in their home opener. It was the start of a four-game homestand for the Jackets, who don’t play on the road until October 21st at Minnesota.

It opens the door for Jiricek, the sixth-overall pick in 2022, to force his way onto the roster over the next few games. The Blue Jackets are reportedly shopping a defenseman to make room for Jiricek on the active roster, but a trade might now wait until later in the month with Werenski on the sidelines. Jiricek was one of the best rookies in the AHL last season, logging 38 points in 55 games for the Cleveland Monsters and earning a look in four NHL games with Columbus. He’s still looking for his first NHL point, however.

Columbus head coach Pascal Vincent confirmed earlier this morning that it wasn’t likely to be a long-term absence for Werenski, the team’s undisputed number-one defender. However, Jiricek, a right-shot defenseman, won’t be able to directly replace the role of Werenski, who plays on the left side. While Jiricek could get some significant minutes over the next few weeks, the most direct effect of this injury will be on offseason addition Ivan Provorov, who will now likely slide up to the top pairing alongside Damon Severson. Provorov had a tough outing against his former team last night, recording just two shot attempts and a -2 rating in over 25 minutes of ice time.

Latest On Zach Werenski

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As reported by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, Columbus Blue Jackets franchise defenseman Zach Werenski exited last night’s game after suffering a quad contusion. Werenski was injured on an apparent knee-to-knee collision with Philadelphia Flyers forward Garnet Hathaway, and Blue Jackets head coach Pascal Vincent told reporters that Werenski’s injury is not believed to be one that will cause a long-term absence.

This development is extremely unfortunate, as Werenski, 26, was limited to just 13 games played last season due to injury. Although this injury may not keep Werenski out “long-term,” it is not clear exactly when he’ll be able to return to the ice for Columbus. That alone is a major blow for the club, as Werenski is the best player in an organization dripping with desperation to return to the playoffs after a nightmarish 2022-23 campaign. In what is expected to be a cutthroat Metropolitan Division playoff race, the Blue Jackets will have to hope Werenski can return to full health quickly so they can avoid falling behind.

Blue Jackets Notes: Boumedienne, Boll, McCarthy

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A day before they kick off their 2023-24 schedule, the Columbus Blue Jackets have filled the assistant coaching vacancy on their bench. The team hired Josef Boumedienne today to fill the role vacated by Pascal Vincent’s sudden recent promotion to head coach, per a team announcement.

It’s a nice promotion for the former NHL defenseman, who has been a member of the Blue Jackets since retiring from his playing career a decade ago. First joining the squad as a European scout for the 2013-14 season, he was promoted to the team’s Director of European Scouting three years later. He jumped up the ladder again in 2021 to serve as their Director of Professional Scouting, and now, two seasons later, he’ll be behind an NHL bench for the first time.

This is not Boumedienne’s first coaching experience, although his previous résumé in coaching roles is limited. He briefly served as the head coach for SHL club Brynäs IF for the league’s play-out round in 2021, and he held a coaching role within the Blue Jackets’ youth program last season. Now 45, Boumedienne skated in 47 NHL contests between 2001 and 2004 with the Capitals, Devils and Lightning.

Some other coaching news out of Columbus today:

  • Columbus also announced one-year extensions for their other assistants, starting with longtime Blue Jackets enforcer Jared Boll. The 37-year-old has been a member of the Blue Jackets coaching staff since 2018. He initially started as an assistant development coach before transitioning into the role of an assistant coach for this season. Between playing in Columbus and shortly in Anaheim, Boll accumulated 28 goals, 38 assists, and 66 points, along with 1,298 penalty minutes, over the course of 579 games played during his 11-year tenure in the NHL.
  • Steve McCarthy, also once an NHLer, received a one-year extension to match Boll. The 42-year-old has been in the Columbus organization since 2016 when he was brought on as an assistant coach for the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters. He was promoted to the NHL bench in 2021. The 42-year-old was once a first-round pick of the Chicago Blackhawks and skated in over 300 NHL games across eight seasons.

Columbus Signs Justin Danforth To One-Year Extension

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The Columbus Blue Jackets have signed Justin Danforth to a one-year, $1.1MM contract extension, carrying him through the 2024-25 season. Danforth played in his first NHL season in 2021-22 but missed all but six games of the 2022-23 season with a shoulder injury that required surgery.

Danforth, now 30, took roughly a year to rebound fully from the injury. But he made a strong enough impression at the team’s training camp to earn an NHL roster spot once more. He’s had a winding road to the NHL, originally going undrafted and pursuing collegiate hockey with Sacred Heart University. After four years of college, Danforth transitioned into the minor leagues – although he struggled to maintain a presence in the AHL. Rather than continuing to work his way up through the ECHL and AHL, Danforth instead signed with Lukko in the Liiga, Finland’s top league. He played in 59 games for their 2018-19 squad, recording a team-high 52 points. Danforth built his comfortability up enough to take on an alternate captain role with the club in 2019-20. He led Lukko in scoring again that year, tallying 60 points through 56 games.

After two years in Finland, Danforth then appeared in one season with Vityaz Podolsk of the KHL, Russia’s top league. He played in 58 games and, once again, led his team in scoring with 55 points. This burgeoning trend of scoring upside earned Danforth a spot on Canada’s 2021 World Championship roster. He appeared in nine of the team’s 10 games but only recorded one point playing alongside NHL talent.

It wasn’t until after his sole season in the KHL that Danforth finally received his first NHL contract – a one-year, league-minimum $775K deal with the Blue Jackets signed in May of 2021. Danforth appeared in his first NHL games during the 2021-22 campaign, scoring 10 goals and 14 points in 45 appearances. In response, Columbus signed Danforth to a two-year, one-way, $1.95MM contract that carries him through the end of the 2022-23 season. And while he hasn’t yet played more than 10 games on this contract, Columbus is clearly confident in what they have – extending Danforth through next season and providing him his first salary north of $1MM.

Kent Johnson Potentially Healthy Scratch For Opener

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2021 fifth-overall pick Kent Johnson had a stellar rookie season in 2022-23, scoring 16 goals and 40 points. The British Columbia native is one of the most purely skilled players in the NHL and is capable of creating highlight-reel plays on a nightly basis. Despite that stellar first campaign, it appears Johnson currently sits on the outside of new head coach Pascal Vincent’s nightly lineup.

Team reporter Jeff Svoboda relayed confirmation from Vincent that Johnson is currently considered an extra skater, and although Vincent added that he is “not sure [Johnson’s] not going to play” he maintained that he could only dress so many forwards. At the moment, players such as Emil Bemström and Justin Danforth are projected to hold positions on the team’s second and third lines, respectively, but one would think that Johnson will end up back in the nightly lineup sooner rather than later.

Some other notes from the Metropolitan Division:

  • The Athletic’s Cory Lavalette reports that Carolina Hurricanes star Andrei Svechnikov remains in a yellow non-contact jersey, and as a result, is presumably out for tomorrow’s season-opening game. Svechnikov is still working his way back from a torn ACL that cut his 2022-23 season short. When healthy, he’s among the Hurricanes’ best players, and last season was on pace to score a career-high 70 points.
  • The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s Seth Rorabaugh reports that defenseman Will Butcher skated this morning, a positive development for a player who missed all of training camp and preseason due to injury. Butcher has begun this season on season-opening injured reserve, but when he eventually becomes ready to play it’s likely he’ll find himself waived and sent to the AHL. Butcher signed a one-year, league-minimum deal in Pittsburgh likely with the hope that he would compete for a depth role on the Penguins’ NHL defense, but due to this injury it’s now likely that he’ll have to work his way into NHL consideration with the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins. 2022-23 was Butcher’s first in the AHL, and he impressed scoring 43 points in 67 games.
  • Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen is currently on injured reserve, though his stay there could be coming to an end. PHLY Sports’ Charlie O’Connor reports that Ristolainen was on the ice for Flyers practice today, and NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Jordan Hall relays word from Flyers GM Daniel Brière that Ristolainen’s IR placement can be backdated, and he therefore could become eligible to play the team’s season-opening contest against Columbus on Thursday. Ristolainen showed improved form under head coach John Tortorella last season and if he plays his activation could mean rookie Emil Andrae is assigned to the AHL or Felix Sandström gets placed on waivers.

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