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Mathieu Olivier

Blue Jackets Place Mathieu Olivier On IR, Recall Luca Del Bel Belluz

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The Columbus Blue Jackets announced that Mathieu Olivier has been placed on injured reserve, and forward Luca Del Bel Belluz has been recalled from AHL Cleveland on an emergency basis. Thankfully the team will have some time to settle, as they are not in action again until Thursday when they host Detroit. 

Olivier is thought to be week-to-week, absent since leaving mid-game against Washington on November 24th with an apparent upper-body injury. The 28-year-old epitomizes the modern-day grinder. Undrafted out of the QMJHL, he caught on with the Predators organization but never broke out. After the 2021-22 season, Olivier got a fresh start as Columbus gave up a fourth round pick for the winger, which at the time felt like a lot for a grinder with limited NHL upside. Instead, Olivier established himself as a Jacket in 2022-23, playing in 66 games and setting career highs across the board. He took a massive step last season with 18 goals and 32 points, earning a well deserved six-year extension worth $3MM per season. 

With three goals in 23 games so far, the scoring touch has fallen a bit, but once healthy, Olivier will return as a vital cog in the Jackets’ bottom six, a role he will likely hold for years to come. 

On the other hand, Del Bel Belluz, 22, is a top prospect for Columbus after being selected in the second round of the 2022 draft. The Ontario native’s path to the NHL has been a bit clouded with the additions of veterans such as Charlie Coyle and Miles Wood, along with their group of exciting young forwards, but he has certainly held his own in the AHL. Del Bel Belluz has 11 points in as many games with Cleveland this year, and had 53 in 61 games last season. The center got into seven games with the Jackets already this season, but in a limited fourth line deployment, it wasn’t the best scenario for the youngster. 

Now, with Olivier down for the time being, Del Bel Belluz has another crack to make his mark, with seven NHL points to his name at this point, and help the Blue Jackets close out 2025 on the right note. 

Snapshots: Werenski, Olivier, Karmanov

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The Columbus Blue Jackets suffered a tough 5-1 loss to the Washington Capitals on Monday night, and a further blow was dealt to the team when veteran Zach Werenski was forced to leave the game due to an injury. The club announced tonight that Werenski suffered an upper-body injury during the game, and after, Columbus head coach Dean Evason told the media (including NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti) that it was too early to tell the extent of the injury. Evason did say that the team will evaluate Werenski’s status tomorrow.

Werenski has a strong argument as the Blue Jackets’ best player. The 28-year-old is a Norris Trophy-caliber all-around defenseman who scored 82 points in 81 games last season and finished as the Norris Trophy runner-up. He has 21 points through 23 games this season, good for second on the team in scoring. He plays just over 26 minutes per night, and is relied-upon by Evason in just about every key situation. While it’s too early to tell if Werenski’s injury is anything serious, if the Blue Jackets have to go without their most important player for any extended amount of time, that absence would likely deal a significant amount of damage to their ability to keep pace in a hotly-contested Eastern Conference Wild Card race.

Other notes from around the hockey world:

  • Werenski wasn’t the only Blue Jackets player to leave the game with an upper-body injury; the team also announced that forward Mathieu Olivier would miss the rest of the game with his own upper-body ailment. While Olivier isn’t nearly as crucial to the Blue Jackets’ lineup as Werenski is, his loss would also be felt by the team should his injury sideline him for any notable period of time. Olivier is one of the game’s more intimidating physical wingers, and he also showed some goal-scoring touch last season, scoring a career-high 18 times. The Blue Jackets will evaluate Olivier’s status tomorrow, as they will with Werenski.
  • The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler reported tonight that prospect blueliner Alexander Karmanov will sign with the OHL’s North Bay Battalion tomorrow, registering as the team’s third import player. Karmanov, 17, is notable as he stands 7’0″ tall and weighs 278 pounds, according to Elite Prospects’ listing. There are no defensemen in the NHL (or AHL, for that matter) with that kind of size profile, and in an NHL that has become increasingly focused on size and strength for defensemen, that alone is enough to help Karmanov garner interest as a pro prospect. A Penn State commit who is repped by Dan Milstein’s Gold Star Sports Management, Karmanov’s reported signing in the OHL gives him a greater platform to raise his stock as a prospect in advance of the 2026 NHL Draft, which he is eligible to be selected in.

Blue Jackets Sign Mathieu Olivier To Six-Year Extension

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March 5: It took slightly more than 24 hours, but Olivier’s extension in Columbus is done. It’s a six-year, $18MM deal with a $3MM cap hit, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports. It’s a slightly front-loaded contract with a base salary of $4MM in 2025-26 that drops to $2.4MM by the end of the deal in 2030-31, per Renaud Lavoie of TVA. The contract does not include any signing bonuses but has a 10-team no-trade clause, Lavoie adds.

March 3: The Blue Jackets are hoping to have an extension finalized with pending UFA winger Mathieu Olivier “in the next 24 hours or so,” general manager Don Waddell told Aaron Portzline of The Athletic. A team source tells Portzline that Olivier’s deal will be for at least four seasons.

Olivier isn’t the most notable of Columbus’ pending free agents, but he has been the topic of the most discussion in the last few weeks. Darren Dreger of TSN reported back in December that the two sides had opened negotiations, adding last week that talks were heating up.

Now in his third season with the Blue Jackets, the 28-year-old is flourishing. The first player in NHL history from Mississippi has set career-highs with 12 goals, 21 points, 99 PIMs, 76 shots, and 228 hits, all while seeing legitimate top-nine usage for the first time in his career.

Olivier’s professional career began with the Predators’ AHL affiliate in Milwaukee. They signed him to a minor-league deal after he went undrafted over five Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League seasons with the Moncton Wildcats, Shawinigan Cataractes, and Sherbrooke Phoenix. He posted a 4-8–12 stat line with 91 PIMs in 54 games in his rookie year, enough to earn him an entry-level deal with Nashville the following offseason.

The 6’1″, 226-lb righty bounced between Tennessee and Wisconsin over his two-year rookie deal, but he did see a more regular NHL role in 2020-21. He spent a tad bit of time on the taxi squad but made 30 appearances in an enforcer role for the Preds after spending most of 2019-20 back in the minors, entering the 2021 offseason with six points and 74 PIMs in 38 career NHL games.

That was enough to earn him a two-year, one-way deal for the league-minimum $750K annually. Unfortunately, it didn’t signal a full-time job on the NHL roster like a one-way contract would typically yield. He suited up just 10 times for Nashville in 2021-22, instead relegated to Milwaukee for most of the year. Columbus still liked what they saw in his previous NHL minutes, paying a fourth-round pick to Nashville to acquire him before the 2022 draft.

Olivier hasn’t seen the minors since. He was only a healthy scratch twice in his first season with the Jackets, although an illness and a lower-body injury still limited him to 66 contests. He posted 5-10–15 that year – more offense than he provided in the minors the year prior – and finished third on the team with 178 hits. That earned him a two-year, $2.2MM extension, which is now in its final season.

Now on pace for 16 goals and 29 points this year, he’s bound to more than double his previous $1.1MM AAV. One limiting factor will be a recent three-year, $7.5MM extension for Keegan Kolesar in Vegas – a player historically cast in a similar role with a longer track record of offensive success. Seeing his AAV climb much higher than Kolesar’s $2.5MM would be a surprise.

Once Olivier’s extension is finalized, 15 of the Blue Jackets’ 23 players on the active roster will be under contract through next season.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Metropolitan Notes: Olivier, Joseph, Hathaway

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The Columbus Blue Jackets are closing in on an extension with forward Mathieu Olivier (as per David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period). The 28-year-old is in his sixth season with Columbus and has set career highs in many statistical categories, registering 12 goals and nine assists in 60 games. While he will never be an analytical darling, Olivier has made his presence known this season, posting 228 hits and 66 blocked shots.

Olivier is in the second season of a two-year $2.2MM contract and was set to become a UFA on July 1st. He picked an excellent time to have a career year and will surely earn a raise on the $1.1MM he is making this season.

In other Metropolitan Division notes:

  • Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Pierre-Olivier Joseph left yesterday’s game against the Boston Bruins with an upper-body injury (Twitter Link). The injury occurred when Bruins forward Mark Kastelic hit Joseph with a thunderous body check that sent the Penguins defender to the ice and ultimately out of the game. It was an unfortunate end to an eventful day for Joseph who had earlier laid a hit that sent Bruins forward Brad Marchand out of the game. It’s been a tough stretch this season for the 25-year-old who was dealt mid-season from St. Louis back to the Penguins for future considerations and has been exposed defensively for much of the time since his return.
  • Philadelphia Flyers forward Garnet Hathaway was unavailable for last night’s game against the Winnipeg Jets due to an upper body injury (Twitter link). Hathaway last played on Thursday against Pittsburgh, and likely suffered the injury after taking a late hit from Penguins forward Boko Imama. Imama was assessed a minor penalty for interference on the play and Hathaway needed assistance to get off the ice. The 33-year-old Hathaway has eight goals and 10 assists in 60 games this season and has continued to provide a physical presence for the Flyers, handing out 218 hits.

Columbus Blue Jackets, Mathieu Olivier Discussing Extension

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Shortly before their all-important win last night against the Detroit Red Wings, TSN’s Darren Dreger reported the Columbus Blue Jackets are working on an extension with one of their forwards. Dreger shared that progress has been made with Mathieu Olivier on a new deal, and there’s virtually no chance he’ll be traded before next Friday’s deadline.

The Blue Jackets acquired Olivier from the Nashville Predators before the 2022-23 season for a fourth-round pick. Despite being limited to 66 games in his first year with the team and posting a ghastly -20 rating, Columbus signed Olivier to a two-year, $2.2MM contract the following summer.

Olivier was again limited by injuries last season, scoring five goals and 12 points over 54 games. Still, he made notable improvements, increasing his shooting percentage by 2.4%, hits per game by 0.32, his CorsiFor% at even strength by 3.4%, and his on-ice save percentage at even strength by 2.2%.

He won’t threaten to lead the team in scoring, but the pending unrestricted free agent became integral to the Blue Jackets’ turnaround this season. He’s already posted the best offensive season of his career with 11 goals and nine assists in 59 games. The Biloxi, MS native has additionally raised his shooting percentage to 14.9% and posted a career-high 99 PIMs due to several fighting majors throughout the regular season.

His possession metrics have declined slightly, largely due to a three-minute bump in average ice time. Still, Olivier’s physicality is entering a new realm this year, averaging 3.78 hits per game and sitting second in the NHL behind Vancouver Canucks’ Kiefer Sherwood with 223 total hits.

Dreger didn’t mention any specifics for the potential extension. Keegan Kolesar’s three-year, $7.5MM extension with the Vegas Golden Knights is a reasonable comparable, given his similar playstyle to that of Olivier. Since Olivier is three years younger than Kolesar, the Blue Jackets may entertain giving Olivier a fourth year and bumping his AAV closer to the $2.75MM range.

Blue Jackets Open Extension Talks With Mathieu Olivier

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Rugged winger Mathieu Olivier is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent for the first time this summer.  However, it appears he’s open to remaining in Columbus as TSN’s Darren Dreger reports that Olivier’s camp and the Blue Jackets have engaged in preliminary discussions about a contract extension.

The 27-year-old is in his sixth NHL season and over the first five, he rightly earned a reputation as a typical fourth-line pugilist.  While he chipped in a bit more offensively after being acquired by Columbus back in 2022, his career-high in goals heading into this season was only five.

However, Olivier has found another gear offensively in 2024-25.  He already has eight tallies through the first 26 games of the season and while his 25.8 shooting percentage is certainly bound to come down, there’s a good chance he’ll pass the double-digit mark in that regard while also eclipsing his previous best for points (15 set back in 2022-23).  On top of that, Olivier is also seeing a bit more shorthanded action per game, logging a little under a minute a night on average, helping boost his overall ATOI past 13 minutes a night, another benchmark.

Heading into the season, it looked like Olivier might be in line for a small raise on his current $1.1MM price tag, potentially landing him in the $1.25MM to $1.5MM range on a multi-year deal.  Now, while his current start is likely unsustainable, it wouldn’t be shocking to see his new AAV start with a two.  Though that’s a higher price to pay for someone who is arguably best suited as a fourth liner, the Blue Jackets could certainly afford to pay a premium for Olivier’s services in the short term with the team having less than $47MM on the books for 2025-26, per PuckPedia.  We’ll see in the coming weeks if the two sides can find common ground on a deal to keep him in Columbus for the foreseeable future.

Evening Notes: Olympics, Smith, Laine

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On TSN’s Insider Trading today, Pierre LeBrun relayed some of the reservations the NHL might be having about a potential NHL return to Olympic hockey participation in 2026. The NHL hasn’t taken part in the Olympics since the 2014 Sochi Olympics in Russia, a tournament in which Canada took gold. The league did not participate in the events in 2018 and opted not to return in 2022 due to COVID concerns as well as concerns surrounding travel.

LeBrun told viewers that NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman spoke to the NHL board of governors and had concerns about the Olympic arena in Milan, Italy which is not built yet and has a projected timeline that would see construction conclude just six to eight weeks before the Olympics begin.

On top of that, there remains no agreement on many important details such as families travelling to the Olympics as well as an agreement on the players’ insurance.

Lebrun added that he believes this is the most negative he has heard the NHL talk about 2026 Olympic participation but he does add that NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly is not pessimistic towards NHL players returning to the Olympics.

In other evening notes:

  • The Nashville Predators announced that forward Cole Smith missed tonight’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks with an apparent illness. The 28-year-old is currently listed as day-to-day, and it is unknown whether he will be able to suit up on Thursday when the Predators take on the Tampa Bay Lightning. Smith has just one full NHL season under his belt and has started this year at a solid pace with four goals and five assists in 24 games while averaging nearly three hits a game.
  • Aaron Portzline of The Athletic is reporting that Columbus Blue Jackets forward Patrik Laine was a scratch tonight due to an illness. No word yet on any timeline for Laine to return as the news came out just before the start of the Blue Jackets’ game against the Los Angeles Kings. Mathieu Olivier was expected to be scratched for the game but took Laine’s place in the lineup and scored his first goal of the season in the 4-3 loss. Laine has struggled out of the game this season and has been a healthy scratch at times, he has just five goals and two assists in 16 games thus far which is well short of the numbers he has put up in recent years where he has been a point-a-game player.

Snapshots: Haydn Fleury, Olivier, Ponomarev

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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.

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.

Columbus Blue Jackets Assign David Jiricek To AHL, Make Other Roster Moves

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The Columbus Blue Jackets have their final 23-man roster in place to start the season, making a flurry of camp cuts today to do so. Those cuts are headlined by defenseman David Jiricek, who’s been assigned to the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters for the second straight season after the club selected him sixth overall in the 2022 NHL Draft. Defenseman Nick Blankenburg and forward Dmitri Voronkov were also assigned to the AHL, while their other top pick in 2022, defenseman Denton Mateychuk, has been returned to the WHL’s Moose Jaw Warriors. Lastly, Columbus placed forwards Yegor Chinakhov and Jordan Dumais, as well as goaltender Daniil Tarasov on the season-opening injured/non-roster list. Forward Mathieu Olivier was also placed on injured reserve.

Many believed Jiricek, 19, would make Columbus out of camp thanks to a strong showing in his rookie season with the Monsters. However, after Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen added a pair of veteran bodies to his blueline this summer in Ivan Provorov and Damon Severson, the path to a roster spot muddied significantly for the Blue Jackets’ many young defense prospects. Jiricek is still looking for his first NHL point after skating in four NHL contests with Columbus last season. With Cleveland, he recorded six goals, 32 assists, 38 points, and a -11 rating in 55 games.

Blankenburg and Voronkov were also both strong candidates to make Columbus’ opening-night roster. Blankenburg, a 5-foot-9, 174-pound right-shot defenseman, joined the Blue Jackets in 2022 via free agency after captaining a star-studded University of Michigan squad. The 25-year-old immediately stuck in the NHL, thanks partially in part to the Blue Jackets’ rash of injuries on the blue line last season, but he didn’t look out of place at all. While injuries affected Blankenburg too, limiting him to 36 contests, the diminutive defender recorded four goals and ten assists for 14 points – an impressive 32-point pace over 82 games. He’s destined for a major role in Cleveland to start the season and will be one of Columbus’ first call-up options aside from Jiricek.

Voronkov, 23, will get his first taste of North American hockey in the minors. The 2019 fourth-round pick was expected to make a push for a roster spot after breaking out for 18 goals and 31 points in 54 contests with the KHL’s Ak Bars Kazan last season. Like the two others mentioned before him, expect a recall for Voronkov at some point during the 2023-24 campaign.

Mateychuk, however, will likely have to wait until 2024-25 (or at least the very end of 2023-24) to get his first taste of NHL hockey. The 12th-overall selection in 2022 returns to Moose Jaw, where he will reclaim his role as the team’s captain after registering 129 points in 128 games over the past two campaigns.

There’s nothing new regarding the injuries to the four players destined for IR. All injuries were previously reported and were expected to keep them out through at least opening night. These are paper moves to get the team’s roster compliant before tonight’s deadline.

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