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Columbus Blue Jackets Considering Pascal Vincent For Coaching Vacancy

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After firing Brad Larsen as head coach last month, the Columbus Blue Jackets are searching for a new leader behind the bench. According to general manager Jarmo Kekalainen, associate coach Pascal Vincent is one internal candidate being considered for the position.

Kekalainen revealed this to the public during an interview with 97.1 The Fan’s Rothman & Ice show, stating that Vincent’s internal status would not hinder his chances in the search process. Kekalainen also acknowledged that Larsen, promoted from within the organization when they named him head coach in June 2021, did not work out as well as hoped but expressed confidence in Vincent’s potential.

Kekalainen also said his list of candidates for the coaching vacancy is short, but have yet to begin the interview process.

Vincent joined the Blue Jackets coaching staff in 2021 after serving as head coach of the AHL’s Manitoba Moose for five seasons. Before that, he spent five seasons as an assistant coach with the Winnipeg Jets, making it 10 straight seasons coaching in the Winnipeg organization. He also has extensive head coaching (and general managing) experience in the QMJHL, spending nine seasons with the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles and three more seasons with the now-relocated Montreal Juniors.

While he may not have head coaching experience in the NHL, Columbus would be hard-pressed to find a candidate with more general coaching experience than Vincent. He’s held a coaching position at various levels every season since the 1994-95 campaign, dating back to his days as an assistant in juniors. The 51-year-old has earned Coach of the Year honors in both the AHL and QMJHL levels, having success with young players. Given the state of Columbus’ rebuild and their on-ice success revolving around a wave of prospects, few would bat an eye at the hire given Vincent’s résumé.

Lukáš Sedlák Signs Multi-Year Extension In Czechia

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After making a short-lived attempt at an NHL return earlier this season, veteran Czech forward Lukáš Sedlák has signed a five-year contract extension with HC Dynamo Pardubice in the country’s top league, as announced today.

Sedlák played for three different teams in two different leagues in 2022-23. The 30-year-old forward signed a one-year deal with the Colorado Avalanche in free agency but played just three games before the team placed him on waivers on October 18, 2022. The Philadelphia Flyers claimed him the following day, where he recorded eight points in 27 games over two months before mutually terminating his contract with the team. This paved the way for him to play professionally in his home country for the first time, where he excelled down the stretch with 27 points in 24 games.

Sedlák had previously spent three seasons in the NHL with the Columbus Blue Jackets from 2016 to 2019. However, after seeing his ice time and role steadily decrease, Sedlák headed overseas for the 2019-20 campaign, beginning a successful three-year stint with the KHL’s Traktor Chelyabinsk.

Now, Sedlák will likely play out the remainder of his career at home. He hasn’t played in a Czech league since his draft year, splitting time between the Czech U18 and U20 levels in 2010-11. He played in North America from then onwards, including two seasons in the QMJHL and three in the AHL before earning his full-time opportunity with Columbus.

In a translated statement, Sedlák expressed excitement about the opportunity:

I am very happy for the [past] six months in Pardubice and I am glad that I can continue here. I think that we got on very well with the people in the cabin and around, and I hope that we will continue our cooperation, work even better and achieve some successes. I hope to restore the confidence of the management and at the same time meet the expectations of the fans, fulfill what they expect from me and be an important part of the team. Wearing the Pardubice jersey is unreal. The way hockey fans live and push us forward exceeded all my expectations. It’s great for us players that we can rely on them every game.

Pardubice also agreed on five-year contract extensions with former Vegas Golden Knights forward Tomáš Hyka and netminder Roman Will, who appeared in one game with the Colorado Avalanche in the 2015-16 season.

Barring a very unexpected return, Sedlák wraps up his NHL career with 18 goals, 17 assists, 35 points, and a +6 rating in 192 games. He’s currently representing Czechia at the 2023 IIHF Men’s World Championship.

Chicago Blackhawks Win 2023 NHL Draft Lottery

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One of the most highly anticipated nights on the NHL calendar has finally arrived as the annual NHL Draft Lottery was held to determine which team would have the honor of selecting first and second overall at the 2023 NHL Draft. The 16 teams that failed to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs all had a chance to win the lottery, though teams can only move up a maximum of ten slots, so the bottom 11 teams in the NHL standings all had a chance of landing the top draft pick.

The results are now in and the Chicago Blackhawks have won the first overall selection in the 2023 NHL Draft. They had the third best odds entering the night, but jumped ahead of the Anaheim Ducks and the Columbus Blue Jackets to win the top pick. The Ducks won the second overall pick and will now step to the podium second at the draft after entering the lottery with the best odds at winning the first overall pick. The Blue Jackets had the second best odds of winning the lottery, but have dropped to third overall.

The now official order of the first 16 picks in the 2023 NHL Draft will go as follows:

  1. Chicago Blackhawks
  2. Anaheim Ducks
  3. Columbus Blue Jackets
  4. San Jose Sharks
  5. Montreal Canadiens
  6. Arizona Coyotes
  7. Philadelphia Flyers
  8. Washington Capitals
  9. Detroit Red Wings
  10. St. Louis Blues
  11. Vancouver Canucks
  12. Arizona Coyotes (via Ottawa Senators)
  13. Buffalo Sabres
  14. Pittsburgh Penguins
  15. Nashville Predators
  16. Calgary Flames

The prize for winning the first overall pick is a big one this season. Connor Bedard is slated to go with the top selection at the 2023 NHL Draft and he promises to be an exceptional NHL player.

Bedard will not turn 18 years old until July, but he did lead the WHL in goals, assists and points this past season. He scored 71 goals, 72 assists and 143 points in just 57 games. He was away from the team for a few weeks around Christmas to suit up at the World Juniors where he brought his world-class skills to the biggest stage yet. He was named MVP of the tournament after scoring nine goals and 23 points in just seven games, helping Canada claim a gold medal.

Adam Fantilli is likely to be the second player off the board at the draft, but he is an exceptional consolation prize. He won the Hobey Baker Award as the best player in college hockey during his freshman season. Fantilli scored 30 goals and 65 points in just 36 NCAA contests, showing he is ready to take the next step to the NHL immediately after being drafted.

The 2023 NHL Draft will be held in Nashville, Tennessee on June 28.

Ole Julian Bjorgvik Holm To Play For Norway At World Championship

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  • With the World Championship fast approaching, Norway was the latest country to reveal its roster for the event. As expected, it doesn’t feature much in the way of NHL content with Blue Jackets prospect Ole Julian Bjorgvik Holm being the only player on an NHL deal.  Winger Andreas Martinsen, who played 152 games with Colorado, Montreal, and Chicago over a four-year NHL career, is also on the roster.  The tournament gets underway on Friday.

USA Hockey Announces First 22 Players For 2023 Worlds

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The first 22 players that will compete for Team USA at the upcoming IIHF World Hockey Championship have been named, with an interesting mix of NHL experience and college excitement.

Lane Hutson is the youngest player in the group at just 19 years old, and he’ll be sharing the ice with 35-year-old Nick Bonino, the oldest. General manager Chris Clark released the following:

The depth of our player pool is reflected with our team and we’re excited about the group we have to represent our country at the world championship. We’ve got a great mix of experience and youth and most of our players have represented the U.S. before and know what it takes to be successful at a world championship.

The team will start training on Saturday in Munich, before a pre-tournament game on Tuesday. The tournament schedule for the U.S. begins next Friday, against Finland.

Here’s a look at the 22 players that have made the team so far:

G Casey DeSmith
G Drew Commesso
G Cal Petersen

D Henry Thrun
D Connor Mackey
D Ronnie Attard
D Dylan Samberg
D Scott Perunovich
D Lane Hutson
D Nick Perbix

F Samuel Walker
F Drew O’Connor
F Luke Tuch
F Nick Bonino
F T.J. Tynan
F Cutter Gauthier
F Sean Farrell
F Anders Bjork
F Matthew Coronato
F Conor Garland
F Alex Tuch
F Carter Mazur

Offseason Checklist: Columbus Blue Jackets

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The offseason has arrived for half of the league’s teams that aren’t taking part in the playoffs.  It’s time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming months.  Next up is a look at Columbus.

Last season, the Blue Jackets were more competitive than a lot of people expected and GM Jarmo Kekalainen responded by making a big splash on the free agent market, inking Johnny Gaudreau to a seven-year deal.  In doing so, expectations shifted.  However, things certainly didn’t go according to plan as they finished last in the Eastern Conference so changes are on the horizon for them in the coming months.

Find A New Coach

Not surprisingly, after the summer they had and how things went this season, Brad Larsen’s tenure as head coach came to an end as he was let go after two years as the bench boss.  The team posted a 62-86-16 record with him at the helm.  At the time he was promoted after serving as an assistant to John Tortorella, Larsen felt like a logical choice in the sense that the team was beginning a rebuild.  Are they going to take a step back again now?

That’s a question that Kekalainen is going to have to ponder.  This team has ample cap space (nearly $20MM per CapFriendly) this summer which could give them some key additions to try to win now.  If that’s the direction they’re going to go, then a veteran bench boss with a track record of short-term success is likely what they’re going to want to look for.  After all, adding Gaudreau on the richest free agent deal in franchise history only to turn around and rebuild again a year later would be a bit of a surprising turnaround.

On the other hand, with how they struggled this season, it would be surprising to see Columbus push for playoff contention in 2023-24.  Accordingly, another first-time coach with an eye on prospect development might be the better way to go.  While this number is certainly exacerbated by injuries and late-season recalls, Columbus used 30 players that are 25 or younger this season.  Most of them will still be in the organization next year and with a lot of future core pieces in the group, a longer-term build might be the better long-term play.  Who they hire as their next head coach might signal which way they’re leaning on the roster front.  Whichever way they go, it’s likely they won’t make a move right away as they’ll likely want to speak to some assistants that are on teams still in the playoffs.

Bring In New Goalie Coach

Generally, a team needing a goalie coach wouldn’t typically get much more than a passing mention here.  However, with how poorly Elvis Merzlikins played this season, finding the right hire to replace Manny Legace is going to be quite critical.

To put into context how much Merzlikins struggled, there were 62 goalies that played 20 games or more in 2022-23.  He was 62nd in GAA (4.23) and 61st in SV% (.876).  The good news is that he can really go up from there but he has a long way to go to even get back to being league average.

The 29-year-old has four years left on his contract which carries a $5.4MM AAV.  Right now, that deal would be difficult to trade with how he performed this season and Daniil Tarasov isn’t ready to take over as the full-fledged starter just yet; he has just 21 career NHL appearances under his belt.  Accordingly, the new goalie coach will be a key addition as if he can help Merzlikins turn things around, it would go a long way toward helping them get back in the playoff picture sooner than later.

Add Center Help

Locking down a true top center has been a challenge for Columbus in recent years with their best candidate, Pierre-Luc Dubois, eventually being traded to Winnipeg for Patrik Laine and Jack Roslovic.  The end result is that Columbus was using Boone Jenner as their top middleman this season.  Jenner is a quality player, no doubt, but he is not a true top-liner.  Roslovic, meanwhile, was inconsistent throughout the season and he is likely to be in trade speculation this summer.

The good news for the Blue Jackets is that they have young centers in the system in Cole Sillinger and Kent Johnson.  They’re certainly hoping that one of them will be able to emerge as a top-liner down the road.  And, who knows, they could land one in the draft as they’re able to hold down a top-three spot.  But any of those players are still likely a couple of years away from really emerging as reliable top-six options.  If they intend to try to get back into the playoff picture before then, they’re going to have to add a center or two.

It will be interesting to see if the Blue Jackets decide to continue their late-season experiment with playing Laine down the middle next year.  If he can hold his own in that role, that would take some pressure off Jenner and at least get them a short-term stopgap.  They’re also likely to add Dmitry Voronkov for next season although he won’t be ready to play in the top six right away either.  But even with those, more help is needed, especially if Laine isn’t able to play there full-time.

Landing a true number one pivot will be difficult for Columbus this summer as frankly, there aren’t likely to be any available.  Instead, Kekalainen will have to settle for adding a second-line option.  They’ve been speculatively linked to Philadelphia’s Kevin Hayes and perhaps that’s the type of move they should be targeting, adding a player that can help but whose cap hit is high enough that the other team can’t command a significant return.  Depending on the player, Columbus could be compensated for taking on the deal.  If they want to use their cap space this summer, that’s one creative way to try to fill a need without losing much of consequence.

Creative Spending

Speaking of that cap space, the Blue Jackets will be one of only a handful of teams with significant room under the cap this summer.  They currently project to have around $18MM per CapFriendly with only a handful of roster spots to fill.  Notably, there aren’t any free agents of note to deal with either that will cut into that amount by a significant amount.

Granted, Columbus is typically a budget team, not a cap team so it remains to be seen how much of that roughly $18MM will actually be at their disposal.  But at a minimum, a good chunk of it should be spendable for Kekalainen.

If they want to try to make another splash in free agency, the money should be there.  But that might not be the best move for them, especially with the market not being as strong as last year and the center options not exactly being top-notch.  Instead, if they can pick up an unwanted short-term contract or two and pick up draft picks or prospects for doing so, that’s a scenario that would be the best of both worlds, helping them build for the future while helping them now as well.  Cap space is an asset that few teams will have so it’s important that the Blue Jackets use it wisely and get creative if they need to.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Snapshots: Laine, Jagr, Perreault

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Columbus Blue Jackets winger Patrik Laine is heading to the World Championships per a team release. The tournament is taking place in Riga, Latvia and Tampere, Finland which is Laine’s hometown. The tournament begins May 12 and gold medals will be handed out on May 28. Laine has represented his country in the past, but not since the World Cup of Hockey in 2016. He last played at the World Championships in 2016 where he scored seven goals and 12 points in 10 games.

Laine is available due to Columbus finishing the regular season near the bottom of the NHL standings. The 25-year-old sniper scored 22 goals and 52 points in 55 games this season, but the Blue Jackets ended up in 31st with 59 points in the standings. Laine dealt with a number of injuries this season, including an elbow injury that caused him to miss a couple of weeks in October, an ankle injury that knocked him out for another couple weeks in November and an arm injury that caused him to miss the final three weeks of the regular season. A trip to the World Championships in his hometown is a nice way to end a bumpy season that was filled with nagging injuries and many losses.

  • Another player who will be playing again in his hometown is veteran winger Jaromir Jagr. Derek O’Brien of IIHF.com reports Jagr will return to Kladno’s lineup next season, during such time he will turn 52 years old. The veteran superstar last played in the NHL in 2017-18, but has been playing in Czech Extraliga ever since where he scored 14 points in 26 games. Jagr scored 766 goals and 1921 points in his NHL career.
  • Per Chris Peters of FloHockey reports Gabe Perreault has broken an impressive USA Hockey record. The 17-year-old forward is playing at the World Under-18 Hockey Championships for USA and had a five point effort against Norway today. In the process, he broke the single-season points record by a U.S. National Team Development Player. Perreault now has 121 points on the season. The previous record of 117 was held by Auston Matthews. Will Smith, another draft eligible forward on the team this season has 113 points. The only others to ever score 100 points for the program are Jack Hughes, Clayton Keller and Cole Caufield.

Alexandre Texier Will Return For 2023-24

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Citing personal issues and needing to be closer to family, Alexandre Texier spent the 2022-23 season in Switzerland, playing for Zurich SC. The French-born forward stepped away from his NHL life with the Columbus Blue Jackets, and it was unclear what his future would hold.

After all, this season was supposed to be the second and final year of the contract he signed in 2021, meaning he would be a restricted free agent this summer. That’s not the case, though, as yesterday, the Blue Jackets announced that Texier’s deal would toll to cover the 2023-24 season instead of this one. That means he didn’t earn any of the $1.75MM salary but will return to the NHL in the fall to resume that contract.

In a statement, general manager Jarmo Kekalainen explained:

Alexandre Texier is an outstanding, young player who is an important part of our team and we are excited that he will be rejoining the club as expected next season. His well-being has been our sole priority and we couldn’t be happier that he is ready to resume what is a very promising NHL career at this time.

Today, Texier was back in Columbus with the organization and met with the media. He explained that he was excited to resume his career, and happy to see some familiar faces around the building. The young forward last appeared in an NHL game over a year ago. He suffered a finger injury in January 2022 that kept him out of the lineup before eventually departing following the “loss of people very close to him.”

Now, he has nothing but good things to say about how the organization handled his situation:

I’m just glad that the Blue Jackets and Zurich helped me to go through that, and now my goal is to get ready for September. (The Blue Jackets) were great. I have nothing bad to say. They just helped me, and they came all the way during the season to watch me. It means a lot that they were following me. Now everything is done and I have to play some hockey.

A second-round pick in 2017, Texier burst onto the scene as a high-flying rookie in 2019, playing a handful of minor league games before jumping into a playoff run with Columbus. He had a career-high 11 goals and 20 points in 36 games before his season ended in 2021-22, and appeared to be well on his way to becoming an impact talent in the league.

Normally, a year away from the team might be considered a step back in development. But Texier wasn’t away from hockey entirely. He scored 35 points in 46 games for Zurich, and will soon participate in the World Championships. He confirmed today that he will play for France at the tournament set to start three weeks from now.

Elvis Merzlikins Not Going To World Championships

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  • Aaron Portzline of The Athletic reports goaltender Elvis Merzlikins of the Columbus Blue Jackets will not play in the upcoming World Championships. This is of note since one of the host cities, Riga, Latvia is also the hometown of Merzlikins. The 29-year-old goaltender claims his focus remains completely on becoming a number one goaltender in the NHL, something he fell well short of this season. He posted a 4.23 GAA and a .876 SV% in 30 games for the Blue Jackets. That is a far cry from what his contract dictates he should be doing. Merzlikins has four more years remaining on a contract that carries a $5.4MM cap hit.

Blue Jackets Assign Six Players To AHL

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Following the conclusion of their regular season last night, the Blue Jackets wasted little time making some roster moves.  Following that contest, they announced (Twitter link) that they’ve returned defensemen Samuel Knazko, Stanislav Svozil, and Billy Sweezey along with forwards Tyler Angle, Joona Luoto, and Mikael Pyyhtia to AHL Cleveland.

Knazko made his professional debut in North America this season and has suited up in 49 games with the Monsters this season, picking up a goal and 20 assists.  He got into two contests with Columbus this month, averaging a little under 16 minutes per night of playing time.

Svozil spent most of this season with Regina of the WHL where he had a very productive season, picking up 11 goals and 67 assists in 56 games; his 78 points were the third-highest in the league.  He actually has yet to play in the AHL but also has suited up twice for Columbus, recording an assist in his debut on Thursday while logging over 20 minutes a night.

As for Sweezey, he has had a bit more experience in Columbus, suiting up in nine games for them this season, picking up an assist along with 39 hits and 20 blocked shots in his first taste of NHL action.  He has 11 assists in 55 contests in the minors this year.

Angle is nothing if not consistent.  He has 11 goals with Cleveland this season, matching his output from 2020-21 and 2021-22 in the process.  He also now has his first NHL tally in the books after scoring on Friday against Buffalo.

Luoto has been back and forth between the two clubs in recent weeks.  He got into seven games with the Blue Jackets this year in his first NHL action since the 2019-20 campaign with Winnipeg while he has collected 14 goals and 11 assists in 45 games with the Monsters.

Lastly, Pyyhtia spent the bulk of the year playing in Finland with TPS Turku of the SM-liiga before being assigned to Cleveland last month.  He has played in six games with the Monsters so far, scoring three times while he picked up an assist in his two games with Columbus.

All six players will have an opportunity to play in two more games this weekend as the Monsters wrap up their season.  However, with none of them available to play for Cleveland last night, they lost to Utica, eliminating them from playoff contention.

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