- The Blue Jackets have brought back Craig Hartsburg, he revealed in a podcast for the team’s website (audio link). Hartsburg spent parts of six seasons in Columbus over two separate stints, spending time as both an assistant coach and a scout. Now, he’ll work with the team roughly once a month for a week at a time. The 62-year-old has plenty of NHL coaching experience and has stints as the head coach in Chicago, Anaheim, and Ottawa in the past.
Blue Jackets Rumors
Snapshots: Laine, Bozak, Giroux
Columbus Blue Jackets forward Carson Meyer was supposed to make his NHL debut tonight, but it’ll have to wait for another day. Patrik Laine took warmups with the team and is playing for Columbus in tonight’s game against Buffalo, per team reporter Jeff Svoboda. Laine was dealing with an undisclosed issue in between games, but it turned out that he wouldn’t miss any time. That’s good for the team, as he’s already missed plenty this season. Through just 25 games, he’s still having a very good season in Columbus, posting 12 goals and 24 points. The pending restricted free agent is quietly producing at the highest rate of his NHL career.
More notes from around the league on this Thursday night:
- Tyler Bozak isn’t a go tonight for the St. Louis Blues, per NHL.com’s Lou Korac. He wasn’t at morning skate, either, so it’s likely an undisclosed injury keeping Bozak out of the lineup. Returning to the Blues on a one-year deal this offseason, the veteran center has three goals and nine points in 37 games while taking on a fourth-line center role. Dakota Joshua will draw in against the New Jersey Devils.
- Ahead of the trade deadline, rumours around Philadelphia Flyers captain Claude Giroux will continue to swirl. Colorado Hockey Now’s Adrian Dater reports that Flyers scouts are present at tonight’s game between the Colorado Avalanche and Tampa Bay Lightning, fuelling the fire that the Avalanche have interest in the prized forward. Giroux is in the final year of his contract and tied for the lead in points among Flyers with 36 points. His leadership and all-around acumen would become immediately invaluable to the Avalanche, presumably back as a winger in the top-six. It would give the already stacked Avalanche forward core options galore, potentially allowing head coach Jared Bednar to have Nathan MacKinnon and captain Gabriel Landeskog on separate lines.
Emil Bemstrom Added To COVID Protocol
The Columbus Blue Jackets have lost another young forward for the time being, as Emil Bemstrom has entered the COVID protocol. The team has recalled Trey Fix-Wolansky under emergency conditions to replace him on the roster.
Bemstrom, 22, has played in just 13 games for the Blue Jackets this season, recording two goals and four points. The fourth-round pick became a top prospect a few years ago when he was dominating in Sweden, and looked like he would quickly become a regular at the NHL level when he recorded 20 points in 56 games during the 2019-20 season. Unfortunately, things haven’t gone smoothly for him since, and now he finds himself fighting for ice time. An absence, however short, won’t help his case.
Fix-Wolansky meanwhile could be making his NHL debut should he get into the Blue Jackets lineup, one that is a long time coming for the 22-year-old forward. A seventh-round pick in 2018, the 5’7″ winger was a dominant offensive presence in the WHL, scoring 102 points in 65 games during the 2018-19 season with the Edmonton Oil Kings. He has been excellent in the minor leagues as well, though a torn ACL limited him to just 74 AHL games to this point. In 22 matches this season he has 17 points, once again showing he can drive offense at the professional level. Whether he can do it on a regular basis for the Blue Jackets is another thing entirely but with Bemstrom–along with Alexandre Texier and Eric Robinson–sidelined for the next few games he might get a chance to prove it.
Blue Jackets Move Three To Injured Reserve
- The Columbus Blue Jackets have moved Jake Bean, Eric Robinson, and Alexandre Texier to injured reserve, recalling Brendan Gaunce from the AHL under emergency conditions. All three players are dealing with long-term injuries that were announced over the past few weeks and aren’t expected back for a little while. The placements on IR are all retroactive as well–Bean to January 30, Robinson to January 31, and Texier to January 26.
Danill Tarasov Resumes Skating, Blue Jackets To Have Return Timeline Next Week
- Blue Jackets goaltender Daniil Tarasov has resumed skating as he works his way back from a lower-body injury sustained more than a month ago, GM Jarmo Kekalainen told Mark Scheig of The Hockey Writers (Twitter link). The team hopes to know more about his timeline for a return in about a week. The 22-year-old has impressed in four appearances with Columbus this season with a .937 SV% and is the contender to be the full-time backup in 2022-23 so a chance to get in some more NHL work down the stretch would be ideal.
Eric Robinson Out Six Weeks With MCL Injury
The Columbus Blue Jackets seem to announce a serious injury every week these days. Eric Robinson is the latest to hit the shelf, as the team announced that he will miss six weeks with an MCL sprain in his right knee. The winger was injured in Monday’s game against the Florida Panthers on a hit from Radko Gudas, one that did not draw a penalty or any supplementary discipline from the league.
Robinson, 26, has gone from undrafted college free agent to full-time NHL forward in a few short years and has 17 points in 42 games with the Blue Jackets this season. He averages 14 minutes a night in a bottom-six role, with a good chunk of that coming on the penalty kill. He and Sean Kuraly lead all Blue Jackets forwards in shorthanded ice time this season, and given the recent injuries to Alexandre Texier and Jake Bean, the team has lost a lot of the options they’re comfortable with when down a man.
Six weeks doesn’t rule him out for the rest of the season but does take him right up against the trade deadline. Any chance the Blue Jackets had to try and chase down a playoff spot before then is slipping further away with every injury that chips away at the organizational depth. The team now sits 18 points behind the Washington Capitals for fourth in the Metropolitan Division and 14 points behind the Boston Bruins for the final wildcard spot.
Jake Bean Out Four Weeks With Groin Injury
The Columbus Blue Jackets have lost another young player to injury, this time announcing that Jake Bean will miss four weeks with a groin strain suffered last night.
Bean, 23, was acquired from the Carolina Hurricanes last offseason in exchange for a second-round pick after he was passed over in the expansion draft by the Seattle Kraken. The young defenseman has played in 41 games for Columbus this season, normally averaging more than 21 minutes a night. He played just 6:53 yesterday before leaving and will be a big loss for a Blue Jackets team that is still trying to chase down those Eastern Conference wildcard spots.
A win against Montreal left them at 20-21-1 on the season, still 12 points behind Boston for the final playoff position. After announcing Alexandre Texier’s injury just recently, the team’s depth is certainly going to be tested in the next few weeks. Luckily for the Blue Jackets, tonight’s game against the Florida Panthers is the last before the All-Star break, meaning they have a full week of rest for any other bumps and bruises.
Bean meanwhile is in the first season of a three-year deal and was playing well enough to be considered a legitimate part of the future in Columbus. Even if the team struggles and decides to sell at the deadline, he seems an unlikely candidate to be traded even if healthy.
Alexandre Texier Out Four Weeks With Fractured Finger
The Columbus Blue Jackets will be without young forward Alexandre Texier for the next month, as he suffered a fractured finger in last night’s game. He is expected to miss approximately four weeks, keeping him out through most of February.
Texier, 22, has turned things around since a disappointing 2020-21 campaign, and now sits with 11 goals and 20 points in 36 games. Both of those numbers are career highs, though he still hasn’t found a lot of consistency even with the increased production. Playing almost exclusively on the wing, the second-round pick is averaging fewer than 15 minutes a night and hasn’t scored a goal since the beginning of the month.
He’ll now face a long period out of the lineup and likely miss upwards of ten games. The Blue Jackets will have to find someone else to find those minutes and hope to help pull them out of their recent skid. Columbus now sits 18-21-1 on the season and 3-7 in their last ten, well behind the Washington Capitals for fourth place in the Metropolitan Division.
Oilers Have Shown Interest In Joonas Korpisalo
With Mike Smith injured once again, Mikko Koskinen struggling, and the Oilers in a tailspin at the moment, they’re on the lookout to try to shore up their goaltending. To that end, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reported in the latest TSN Insider Trading segment that Edmonton has kicked the tires on Blue Jackets goaltender Joonas Korpisalo.
With Elvis Merzlikins inking a five-year, $27MM contract extension at the start of the season, he cemented himself as the starter of the present and future in Columbus, basically making Korpisalo expendable. The 27-year-old is also on an expiring contract with a $2.8MM AAV and while Edmonton’s salary cap situation doesn’t exactly give them much in the way of flexibility, some retention and some good fortune on the injury front could make a move doable.
Prior to this season, Korpisalo’s track record had been decent with a .905 SV% and a 2.90 GAA over his first six NHL campaigns. Those aren’t numbers that scream a sizable upgrade but mediocrity would still be an upgrade on what Edmonton has had at times over the past few years, Smith’s strong 2020-21 campaign notwithstanding.
However, this season has been another story. Korpisalo has a 3.95 GAA and a .882 SV% in 14 games, the worst numbers of his career by a significant margin. Edmonton’s goaltending has struggled this season but the trio of Smith, Koskinen, and youngster Stuart Skinner have done better than that. In that sense, there’s some question on how much he’d move the needle for the Oilers and whether or not that’s the best use of their very limited cap room.
While Edmonton needs a longer-term upgrade, affording one with their cap situation would be a significant challenge. Even a higher-end rental starter would be tricky with the Oilers in a money-in, money-out situation and the fact that few are available; TSN’s Darren Dreger noted in the same segment that Chicago’s Marc-Andre Fleury wouldn’t be a great fit for that reason.
In the end, all that GM Ken Holland may be able to afford is a nominal improvement at best and when you factor in Korpisalo’s track record, that’s about all he’d be. While there wouldn’t be a ton of upside with such a move, he’d at least give them some insurance between the pipes and with Holland not being interested in moving top young assets, this would be a move that could be made without moving those future pieces. With Edmonton not in a position to accrue cap space since they’re well into LTIR, it’s also a move that they wouldn’t have to necessarily wait until closer to the trade deadline to try to make and with the Oilers struggling, Holland may be forced to try to do something sooner than later.
Boqvist, Gavrikov Added To COVID Protocol
The Columbus Blue Jackets are down a pair of defensemen, as both Adam Boqvist and Vladislav Gavrikov have been added to the COVID protocol. The release notes that Boqvist actually entered the protocol yesterday, meaning his timer will be slightly ahead of his teammate.
Boqvist, 21, is having a nice season for the Blue Jackets, scoring seven goals and 14 points through 26 games. The young defender played more than 20 forgettable minutes on Saturday against the Florida Panthers though, as the team was blown out by the Eastern Conference powerhouse. Unfortunately, that’ll be the last action he sees for a few days as he faces a minimum of a five-day isolation period.
Gavrikov meanwhile played 18:35 on Saturday, which is actually close to a season-low for the 26-year-old defenseman. Usually playing more than 21 minutes a night, he too is having a strong offensive season for Columbus with 17 points in 36 games. That solid point total has been backed up by some analytical success too, as Gavrikov is given the hardest defensive deployment on the Blue Jackets roster but remains almost even in terms of goals for and against.
With both out, the Blue Jackets have elevated Gavin Bayreuther to the second pair with Jake Bean and will insert Gabriel Carlsson back into the lineup. The team already had Cole Sillinger and Jakub Voracek in the protocol, but should get the latter back at least if he can test out in the coming days. Columbus doesn’t play again until Thursday.