Welcome back to the last edition of Blue Jackets News & Rumors in 2023. We hope that your holiday season has gone well for you.
But it’s time to get back into the swing of regular season hockey. The Blue Jackets play Wednesday night in Newark against the New Jersey Devils. Because of league rules, the team will travel to Newark on Wednesday. Teams are not allowed to travel from Dec 24-26.
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As usual, we have a lot to get into. Rumors around one particular player seem to not want to go away. Is there any merit to them? That’s where we’ll begin this week.
Merzlikins’ Future
It’s the one rumor that just doesn’t want to seem to go away. What does the future of Elvis Merzlikins look like with the Columbus Blue Jackets?
Many around the hockey world have wondered if a fresh start would benefit both sides. Merzlikins’ struggles have been well documented. However his play has improved this season. Then given the way the Capitals’ game ended, the questions are back at the forefront.
Merzlikins played well in that loss to the Capitals according to his head coach Pascal Vincent. Despite the good play, he didn’t get the start on Saturday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs. It was Daniil Tarasov who got the call. Vincent said this was part of their plan all along.
“Rotation. He was outstanding,” Vincent said of Merzlikins. “He played amazingly well but we communicate with our players. We took care of what happened and we’re moving forward.”
Merzlikins’ numbers are better than last season but that hasn’t resulted in any improvement in the standings. While that points to the other issues on the team, it opens the door for these rumors to be considered.
In his most recent edition of 32 Thoughts, Elliotte Friedman had this to say about Merzlikins: “There’s potential for a move, but probably not until the offseason.”
The key word there is potential. That’s not to say a move is guaranteed to happen. It’s saying a move could happen if the conditions are right.
The 2023-24 season was supposed to be the season Merzlikins took hold of the number-one job. But as we sit here at the end of December, he’s in a three-man platoon situation. Since Tarasov returned to the Blue Jackets, Merzlikins has been both the backup and a healthy scratch.
Merzlikins told me that while it was weird to be healthy scratched, that decision was up…
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