The Columbus Blue Jackets have 35 days until opening night at Nationwide Arena. Today, we look at the history of jersey #35.
Let’s take a look.
Jean-François Labbé – 2003 – Labbé was undrafted out of Sherbrooke, Quebec.
Jean-François Labbé played in 14 games with the Blue Jackets over the course of two seasons. He went 3-5 with an .890 SV%. He spent the bulk of his time playing in the AHL for the Syracuse Crunch.
He left North America in 2003 for Russia. He then played in Germany and Poland before returning to Canada in 2009. After playing a season for Sherbrooke Saint-François in the Ligue Nord-Américaine de Hockey, he would retire.
Labbé was primarily an AHL goalie, playing in a total of 261 games. He had a record of 131-97-25 and had 13 shutouts. He has won numerous awards in the AHL, including Best Goaltender and Most Valuable Player. For his efforts, Labbé was inducted into the AHL Hall of Fame in 2016.
After retiring, he moved into coaching, where he was either a head coach or a goaltending coach at different stops.
Martin Prusek – 2006 – Prusek was drafted by the Ottawa Senators in the 6th round of the 1999 NHL Draft.
Prusek played in 9 games for Columbus during the 05-06 season and had a record of 3-3. He also played 23 games for the Syracuse Crunch that year.
He returned to Europe after his time with Columbus, where he would play in Russia and Czechia until he retired in 2011. He moved directly into coaching, where he has been a goaltending coach in Czechia with various age levels ever since.
Brian Boucher – 2007 – Boucher was in 1995 with the 22nd overall pick by the Philadelphia Flyers
On February 27, 2007, he was acquired on waivers by the Blue Jackets from the Chicago Blackhawks. He played in three games for Columbus and went 1-1. That would be the only games he would play for Columbus, as he would sign elsewhere the following season.
He played in the NHL until 2013, and then left for Switzerland, where he played one season before retiring.
Nowadays, you can find Boucher doing Flyers games on NBC Sports Philadelphia, and doing between the bench work for TNT during National games. Boucher has turned into a very respected member of the hocket media.
Ty Conklin – 2007 – Conklin was undrafted out of Phoenix, Arizona.
Conklin’s time in Columbus was short but somewhat eventful. He was signed by Columbus on July 1, 2006. He was expected to be the starter for the Jackets, but head coach Gerard Gallant went with Frederik Norrena…