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Patrik Laine

East Notes: Devils, Laine, Lomberg

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The Devils haven’t ruled out the possibility of adding another goaltender this summer, reports Ryan Novozinsky of the Newark Star-Ledger.  At the moment, youngster Akira Schmid appears set to be the playing partner for Vitek Vanecek but as Schmid is just 23 and is waiver-exempt, the organization could opt to send him back to the AHL where he’d get more game action.  Such a move wouldn’t necessarily be made following the acquisition of a new starter either; there are some veterans still out there that could hold down a number two role at least for a little while next season, a list headlined by Martin Jones and Jaroslav Halak.  Adding one of those netminders may not be the most appealing on paper but would allow Schmid to see more regular action with Utica which might be the better long-term play from a development perspective.

Elsewhere in the East:

  • Late last season, the Blue Jackets experimented with lining up Patrik Laine at center, a move that was short-lived as he suffered a season-ending triceps strain later that week. However, he told NHL.com’s Craig Merz that he’s open to moving down the middle once again next season.  Columbus has added Adam Fantilli and Dmitry Voronkov this summer while youngsters Cole Sillinger and Kent Johnson are also young centers.  But if they want to ease those players in on the wing, moving Laine to center for at least a little while next season could be a reasonable approach to take.
  • Panthers forward Ryan Lomberg missed nearly a month of the playoffs due to a broken thumb, eventually returning to the lineup before the injury had healed. The 28-year-old told David Wilson of the Miami Herald that the thumb has now fully recovered, meaning he’ll be ready to go for training camp.  Lomberg had career highs in goals (12), points (20), and hits (145) last season and is poised to be an important part of Florida’s bottom six next season.

Free Agent Focus: Columbus Blue Jackets

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Free agency is now a little more than a month away and teams are looking ahead to when it opens.  There will be several impact players set to hit the open market in July while many teams have key restricted free agents to re-sign as well.  We continue our look around the NHL with an overview of the free agent situation for the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Key Restricted Free Agents

D Marcus Björk – Björk had a nice, albeit abbreviated rookie season for the Columbus Blue Jackets. The 25-year-old Swede split the year between Columbus and the Cleveland Monsters of the AHL. In 33 NHL games Björk tallied three goals and eight assists, while in the AHL he put up seven goals and eight assists in 44 games. Björk earned a lot of praise from the Columbus coaching staff and at one point was being dubbed a player who could have a long NHL career, this was before his game fell off during the middle of the season. He was demoted for a few months before being recalled towards the end of the year to re-join Columbus. While his play trailed off, one might wonder if it was tied to fatigue as Björk had never played more than 52 games in a season prior to this year. Columbus will likely lock up Björk for a season or two to take a long look at a player who could become a hidden gem for the Blue Jackets should he be able to build on his small success from this past year.

RW Mathieu Olivier – Olivier has never topped 19 points since turning pro back in 2018-2019. His career high came in the AHL when he put up 10 goals and nine assists in 58 games for the Milwaukee Admirals in the pandemic shortened 2019-2020 season. This past season the 26-year-old played a career high 66 NHL games for the Blue Jackets putting up 81 PIM, as well as five goals and 10 assists. Olivier offers sandpaper and is always willing to battle and stick up for his teammates, however he will never put up much in the way of offence. But given his status as one of Columbus’ most pressing RFA cases, it is a real indication of the lack of NHL talent that the Blue Jackets have on their NHL roster at this time. Olivier will likely be re-signed to a one year/two-way contract for around the league minimum.

Other RFAs: Tim Berni, Joshua Dunne, Carson Meyer, Trey Fix-Wolansky, Jacob Christiansen

Key Unrestricted Free Agents

D Gavin Bayreuther – Bayreuther is the Blue Jackets top unrestricted free agent heading into this offseason and was famously taken by the Seattle Kraken in the expansion draft two years ago only to be left unsigned. Bayreuther then became a free agent and quickly signed back with the Blue Jackets where he has played the past few seasons. The New Hampshire native toiled in the AHL with the Texas Stars for four seasons before finally getting a chance in the NHL with the Blue Jackets in the 2021-22 season. The 29-year-old spent most of this past season with Columbus where he put up two goals and 12 assists in 51 games.

Bayreuther has never put up much in the way of offense in his career as he has just 28 career points in 122 career games, he is the epitome of a tweener. He is too good for the AHL however he is likely not a strong enough player to sustain success in the NHL. He will likely be given the opportunity to sign a two-way contract this summer with a decent downside guarantee at the AHL level and the chance to split time between the AHL and the NHL.

F Lane Pederson – The Blue Jackets claimed Pederson off waivers from the Vancouver Canucks this past January. The Saskatoon native spent 27 games in the NHL this season split between to the two clubs and put up three goals and three assists. Much like Bayreuther, Pederson is also a tweener. He’s been a very good offensive player in the AHL the past few seasons as he has put up nearly a point a game since 2018-19. But this offensive success just simply hasn’t carried over the NHL as Pederson has just four goals and seven assists in 71 NHL games.

Pederson will get a two-way contract with a good AHL salary and will likely make for a good 13th or 14th forward next season.

G Michael Hutchinson – Hutchinson is the definition of a journeyman. He has played 153 NHL games spread over ten seasons posting a .902 career save percentage. Early in his career the 33-year-old looked as though he would be a solid NHL backup as posted a .914 save percentage in 38 games going 21-10-5 for the Winnipeg Jets in 2014-15. However, by 2017 Hutchinson found himself back in the AHL and struggled to find consistent NHL work, dressing in just 54 NHL games over the past six seasons. Given his age and recent track record it is realistic to guess that Hutchinson will find work as a teams third string goaltender that can take the bulk of the AHL starts and fill in at the NHL level should an injury occur.

Other UFAs: Joona Luoto, Justin Richards, Jon Gillies

Projected Cap Space

Columbus has ample cap room to fill out their roster as they currently have just under $17MM in space and 21 players signed for next season. However, filling out their roster simply won’t be good enough given how thin the team is on NHL talent. The club has committed big money to Patrik Laine, Johnny Gaudreau and Zach Werenski but haven’t been able to insulate them with much in the way of offensive talent. They have some terrific young players and will need to be careful to leave room for their future contracts, however the Blue Jackets need to do a better job of providing depth scoring so they don’t rely so heavily on their top line scorers. Columbus has been largely unsuccessful in unrestricted free agency making it interesting to see how they will play the market when it opens in July.

 

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.  Contract information courtesy of CapFriendly.

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.

Metro Injury Notes: Devils, Romanov, Blue Jackets

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Erik Haula and Curtis Lazar will both be available for tomorrow’s game for the New Jersey Devils according to Amanda Stein, the team’s lead reporter. Furthermore, she adds that forward Michael McLeod will not be available yet, but head coach Lindy Ruff is hoping he will practice with the team soon.

Haula has not played for the Devils since their April 6th win against the Columbus Blue Jackets, but will now be available for New Jersey come playoff time. Since being acquired from the Boston Bruins this past offseason, Haula has chipped in nicely for the Devils, scoring 12 goals and 27 assists so far this year. That is a pretty typical year for Haula, as he has become one of the most dependable players in the NHL over the course of his decade-long career.

Lazar, who was acquired from the Vancouver Canucks at the trade deadline, has only managed three games in New Jersey, getting injured on their March 18th game against the Florida Panthers. Being out for almost a month, it is unclear whether or not Lazar will be a part of the Devils’ regular playoff lineup. In 48 games so far this year, a majority of which in Vancouver, Lazar has three goals and two assists.

Similar to Haula, McLeod has been out of the Devils’ lineup for a little under a week. The young forward is continuing to progress throughout his short career, setting a new career-high in points this year with 26. Originally drafted 12th overall by New Jersey in the 2016 NHL Draft, McLeod has yet to break out into the league in accordance with his draft selection. Although he is not a world-breaker when it comes to scoring, he has become one of the Devils’ most physical forwards, throwing over 120 hits the last two seasons.

Other injury notes from the Metro Division:

  • In the first year of a 3-year, $7.5MM contract signed with the New York Islanders this past summer, Alexander Romanov has been out of the lineup since the team’s game on April 1st. The Islanders are still battling for a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, and they may be getting Romanov sooner rather than later. Andrew Gross of Newsday is reporting that Romanov has recently begun skating on his own again. Being one of the better low-key defensemen in the NHL, Romanov has 129 blocked shots and 198 hits for the Islanders this season.
  • Aaron Portzline of The Athletic reports that none of the currently injured Columbus Blue Jackets players will return for the regular season. This includes such players as Boone Jenner, Patrik Laine, and Elvis Merzlikins. Because of the Blue Jackets’ placement in the standings, it is understandable that they would not want to rush any player back from an injury. From Columbus’ perspective, this season is lost, and it will be better for them to have everyone healthy and rested for the start of the 2023-24 season.

Columbus To Receive Los Angeles Kings 2023 First Rounder

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When the Los Angeles Kings clinched a playoff birth last night it guaranteed that the Columbus Blue Jackets would receive their first-round pick in the 2023 NHL entry draft.

Columbus originally acquired a conditional first round pick from the Kings at the trade deadline as part of a package for goaltender Joonas Korpisalo and defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov.

The condition on the traded pick was that if Los Angeles did not qualify for the 2023 playoffs, Columbus would have instead received a 2023 second round pick and a 2024 second round pick. Columbus will likely have the extra pick land somewhere late in the first round, but should be pleased with their slotting in what is expected to be a deep draft.

This trade could ultimately turn out to be a win for both teams. Columbus is trying to rebuild around Johnny Gaudreau and Patrik Laine and the first-round pick should help them fill out the depth around their two offensive stars. Los Angeles on the other hand have emerged from their rebuild as a potential juggernaut in the Western Conference. They still boast a few remaining stars from their two cup winning teams and have done a nice job building around them.

This season the Kings were receiving some of the worst goaltending in the league until the trade with Columbus for Joonas Korpisalo. Korpisalo has gone 5-2-1 in eight games with a 1.75 goals against average and a .936 save percentage in what has been a career year for the 28-year-old. This recent stretch of success couldn’t have come at a better time for the Finnish goaltender, he is slated to become an unrestricted free agent this summer and with very few options available on the open market, Korpisalo could be in line for a hefty payday.

Patrik Laine Out 2-4 Weeks With Triceps Strain

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Columbus Blue Jackets forward Patrik Laine is expected to miss two to four weeks due to a triceps strain suffered in practice Thursday, according to the team. The 24-year-old Finnish forward has been one of the team’s best players this season when healthy, recording 52 points in 55 games.

Head coach Brad Larsen told reporters Friday that Laine sustained the injury taking a shot during the last drill of yesterday’s practice.

It’s an unfortunate break for Laine, who had four assists in his last two games after an unexpected move to center. The natural winger had looked comfortable in the middle of the ice, also recording a +3 rating, but struggled in the faceoff circle.

The potentially season-ending triceps strain adds to an already injury-littered campaign for Laine. He’s missed a combined 12 games due to a sprained elbow and sprained ankle sustained earlier in the season.

Laine has found his stride in Columbus over the past two seasons, recording 48 goals and 108 points in 111 games since 2021 without much team success. He’s quickly cemented himself in Columbus’ long-term plans and should be an important offensive piece alongside a growing young pool of impressive forwards.

With Laine out of the fold, Emil Bemstrom is likely to draw back into the lineup for tonight’s matchup against the New York Islanders.

Snapshots: Three Stars, Laine, Bear

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The NHL released its Three Stars for last week, with Filip Forsberg leading the way. The Nashville Predators winger scored five goals and seven points in three games, extending his lead in the team scoring race. Forsberg now has 14 goals and 32 points in 35 games, not quite the same pace he set last season when looking for a new contract. Even with a Forsberg hat trick on New Year’s Eve, the Predators failed to secure two points against the Vegas Golden Knights.

Second and third went to Erik Karlsson and Antti Raanta, who each had outstanding weeks. Karlsson had seven assists in four games and now leads the entire NHL in that category with 40 through his first 39 games. The San Jose Sharks defenseman is having an incredible bounce-back campaign and will once again be a Norris candidate thanks to a huge point total. Raanta, meanwhile, stopped 67 of 71 shots across three wins, keeping the Carolina Hurricanes on their 11-game streak.

  • Patrik Laine is out of COVID protocol and back with the Columbus Blue Jackets, according to Aaron Portzline of The Athletic. The star ginger will be back in the lineup tomorrow and is expected to skate with Kent Johnson and Jonny Gaudreau on the top line. Laine’s season has been constantly interrupted by injury and illness, resulting in just 20 games played so far. He has nine goals and 16 points in those appearances.
  • Portzline adds that Nick Blankenburg, who has been out since November, will travel with the club for their game against the Ottawa Senators but is not expected to play. The 24-year-old was averaging more than 18 minutes a night in his seven appearances before going down to a broken ankle.
  • Now that the calendar has been turned to 2023, players on one-year deals are eligible to sign extensions as Joe Pavelski did yesterday. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports that Ethan Bear and the Vancouver Canucks are expected to talk this week about a potential deal, though there is no guarantee a contract is signed so quickly. Bear has played well for the Canucks since they acquired him at the end of October from the Carolina Hurricanes, and is currently scheduled to become a restricted free agent when his one-year, $2.2MM deal expires.

Metropolitan Notes: Pacioretty, Blue Jackets, Johansen, Islanders

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Hurricanes winger Max Pacioretty has taken another step towards returning to the lineup as Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News and Observer reports (Twitter link) that the veteran is no longer in a no-contact jersey.  Pacioretty has been out for the entire year so far after undergoing offseason surgery to repair a torn Achilles tendon and while he’s still likely to be out a little while longer for conditioning purposes, he’ll be a key addition to Carolina’s lineup for the second half of the season.  He had 19 goals and 18 assists in 39 games with Vegas last year but was moved in the offseason as a cap-saving move.  Carolina shouldn’t have any issues activating Pacioretty from LTIR when he’s given the green light to return.

More from the Metropolitan:

  • Blue Jackets goaltender Elvis Merzlikins remains in COVID protocol, relays Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch (Twitter link). With Joonas Korpisalo returning just before the holiday break, Columbus didn’t need to recall a goalie but as Merzlikins has missed a full week now, the team could move him to IR in the short-term to open up a roster spot.  Meanwhile, Hedger adds in a separate tweet that winger Patrik Laine has also been placed in COVID protocol.  Head coach Brad Larsen wasn’t sure when Laine first was placed there and for the time being, he’s listed as questionable for their game against the Islanders on Thursday.  Laine has nine goals and seven assists in 20 games this season.
  • The Capitals announced that they’ve recalled defenseman Lucas Johansen from AHL Hershey. The 25-year-old has played in two games for Washington this season plus 13 more in the minors where he has a goal and an assist.  To make room for Johansen on the active roster, blueliner John Carlson was placed on injured reserve.
  • Islanders wingers Kyle Palmieri and Cal Clutterbuck are skating on their own as they continue to work their way back from upper-body injuries sustained back on the 16th, notes Newsday’s Andrew Gross (Twitter link). Palmieri has been somewhat quiet offensively this season with just nine points in 21 games while Clutterbuck has five points and 98 hits in 26 contests.  Both players are listed as day-to-day.

Patrik Laine, Elvis Merzlikins Activated From Injured Reserve

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The Columbus Blue Jackets are getting healthier. Patrik Laine and Elvis Merzlikins have both been activated from injured reserve, with Daniil Tarasov loaned back to the AHL to make room. The move suggests both will be ready to return tomorrow against the Winnipeg Jets.

Laine, 24, has played eight games this season between two separate stints on IR and has just two goals so far. The Finnish sniper signed a four-year, $34.8MM deal in the offseason that secured his future with the Blue Jackets, and put him in line for a career year across from newcomer Johnny Gaudreau. Things haven’t gone according to plan, with Laine and a huge chunk of the Columbus roster spending more time on the shelf than the ice.

For Merzlikins, things haven’t gone well even when he was healthy. The 28-year-old netminder posted a .864 save percentage through nine appearances, his last coming on November 15. He has recorded a performance above .900 just once this season, and has allowed at least five goals in four of nine games. If the Blue Jackets have any chance of climbing back into the race, they need Merzlikins to find the level of play he showed as a rookie, when he finished fifth in both Calder and Vezina voting.

Coincidentally, Tarasov has actually been much closer to those numbers this season, posting a .912 in six appearances. While the team has faith in Merzlikins as the starter, they shouldn’t hesitate to go back to the young Tarasov if the former continues to struggle.

Patrik Laine Will Travel With Blue Jackets

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The Columbus Blue Jackets have had just about everything go wrong this season, including two injured reserve stints by star forward Patrik Laine. The latest one, which has kept him out of the lineup since November 12, might be coming to an end soon. Laine is expected to travel with the Blue Jackets when they head to Winnipeg to take on his former team on Friday, though it is not determined yet whether he’ll play in that game, according to team reporter Jeff Svoboda.

The 24-year-old sniper just hasn’t been able to get anything going this season, after getting injured in the opener and then again after his eighth appearance. He does have two goals and four points, but there has been no rhythm to his season so far.

Big things were expected of Laine, after a point-per-game campaign in 2021-22 and the addition of Johnny Gaudreau in free agency. The two seemed like a strong match stylistically, with the smaller Gaudreau able to create shots for his teammates with ease. While the newcomer does lead the team in points with 22, it hasn’t generated many wins.

The Blue Jackets sit dead last in the Metropolitan Division, five points behind a team that just went through a ten-game losing streak. Laine is just one of the many injured Columbus players, a list that includes Jakub Voracek, Elvis Merzlikins, Jake Bean, Justin Danforth, Nick Blankenburg, Adam Boqvist, and – perhaps most importantly – Zach Werenski.

Getting Laine back would be a huge boost, though it’s hard to imagine the Blue Jackets getting back into the race at this point.

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