Columbus Blue Jackets Recall Kent Johnson
Only a blip on the radar for top prospect Kent Johnson, who has been recalled by the Columbus Blue Jackets after missing their first game. The team has sent Jet Greaves, last night’s backup goaltender, back to the minor leagues to make room.
While Johnson had made the team out of camp, an illness for Elvis Merzlikins necessitated the early change. Things could be very different 24 hours later, as the Blue Jackets watched Patrik Laine leave last night’s game with an injury. If Laine is out for any length of time, it could be Johnson stepping into a top-six role, as his offensive skillset plays better there than lower in the lineup.
Selected fifth overall in 2021, the 19-year-old forward was a dominant offensive player at the University of Michigan and has shown his skills at the World Juniors, World Championship, and Olympics. In nine games down the stretch with Columbus last season he recorded three assists, a total that is indicative of his pass-first mentality.
That’s a much different style than Laine, but if the Finnish sniper is out, the Blue Jackets will need someone else to help Jonny Gaudreau carry the load. They were thoroughly outplayed by the Carolina Hurricanes last night en route to a 4-1 loss, with only Laine scoring for Columbus before exiting (he totaled 7:49 of ice time). The Blue Jackets are back in action tomorrow night but things won’t get any easier. They welcome in the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Columbus Blue Jackets Loan Kent Johnson To AHL
In a move that they certainly didn’t want to have to do, the Columbus Blue Jackets have loaned star prospect Kent Johnson to the minor leagues. The reason? Jet Greaves has been recalled under emergency conditions as Elvis Merzlikins is out with an illness. Greaves will serve as backup for Daniil Tarasov as the team opens the season.
While losing Merzlikins is noteworthy, the headline here will be Johnson’s demotion. It had been trending this way already during the preseason, as he appeared to be on the outside looking in as the final roster cuts approached. But then when things were finalized, Johnson was staying with the Blue Jackets after all. Head coach Brad Larsen told reporters that “Kent is here because he deserves to be here, period” and that even if he is a scratch for the first few games he was “not gonna sit on the shelf long.”
Now, with this emergency recall of Greaves, it shows how precarious Johnson’s position on the roster really was. As a waiver-exempt player due to his young age (Johnson will turn 20 in a few days), he can be bounced back and forth without issue. That yo-yo-ing isn’t usually a good strategy for a player of his skill level, but perhaps it will only happen for a few days as they get Merzlikins healthy enough to return to action.
Either way, how Columbus develops Johnson will have a huge effect on their future, as his offensive ceiling is as high as any other prospect in the league. Selected fifth overall in 2021, his time will come soon.
Columbus Blue Jackets Extend ECHL Affiliate
The Kalamazoo Wings will continue to be the Columbus Blue Jackets’ ECHL affiliate for next season, after signing an extension today. Blue Jackets director of player personnel Chris Clark released a statement explaining the new agreement:
We enjoyed working with Head Coach Nick Bootland and the K-Wings organization last season as they offered a great place for some of our prospects to play and develop. The Blue Jackets and Monsters are pleased to continue that relationship as Kalamazoo will once again be our ECHL affiliate for the 2022-23 campaign.
As part of a three-tiered development system, the ECHL is important for maintaining the depth and success of an AHL program, while also providing playing time to raw prospects. In this case, Kalamazoo saw Jet Greaves for 15 games, an undrafted netminder that ended up signing an NHL contract partway through the season.
Greaves, 21, could be back in the ECHL at some point during next season, given the goaltending depth that the Blue Jackets have built by re-signing Joonas Korpisalo and extending Daniil Tarasov. The low minors give an organization more playing time for netminders, given the relative lack of opportunities at the position.
The Wings had previously been affiliated with the Blue Jackets between 2014-16, and have been in operation since 1974 (though not always in the ECHL). The team went 36-35-1 last season and did not qualify for the postseason.
Columbus Blue Jackets Sign Jet Greaves
The Columbus Blue Jackets have signed Jet Greaves to a three-year entry-level contract, and will recall him to serve as backup for this evening’s game. Greaves will be behind Jean-Francois Berube, who gets his first NHL start in several years as both Joonas Korpisalo and Elvis Merzlikins deal with injury.
Greaves, 20, had been playing on a minor league contract, splitting the season between the Kalamazoo Wings and Cleveland Monsters. In the AHL, the undrafted goaltender put up a 4-6 record in 13 starts, posting an .898 save percentage. This is his first year of professional hockey after two years with the Barrie Colts, neither of which were all that exceptional. Suddenly he finds himself on the way to the NHL, with the Blue Jackets dealing with a depth issue at the position.
The only other goaltender that could have been recalled by the Blue Jackets is Cam Johnson, who is on a one-year, two-way deal himself. But Johnson has spent most of the year in the ECHL and actually played last night for Cleveland, allowing three goals on 18 shots. Given the lack of options, Greaves finds himself the beneficiary of a three-year deal that makes him an NHL goaltender, at least for the day.
The entry-level contract will keep him in the organization through 2023-24, not bad for a 6’0″ goaltender that has just 28 games of professional experience under his belt.