Like many of you, I happen to be thinking about our goalie play coming into next season on a regular basis. I didn't realize that we can't send Jet back down or he'd go on waivers – and he would surely be snagged by another team. So it stands to reason that he is going to be competing for the starting goalie position this year. Maybe this will put a fire under Elvis. Curious to know what you think of the other goalies in the system. https://sports.yahoo.com/article/future-columbus-blue-jackets-goaltending-161755640.html
7 comments
I think Elvis’ best work is still ahead of him. I think he needs a change of pace but maybe a hard competition could get him there.
I’m a huge Evan Gardner fan but also very biased as I live in Saskatoon and watched him play for the Blades lol I do think he’ll be good though..he killed it as a rookie and took the starting duties from Austin Elliott.
I truly don’t understand how after 3 straight years of sub .900 save% we’re still treating Elvis like he should be guaranteed a sizable role.
I don’t want to hear anything about the defense either. Korpi put up .913 three years ago, Tarasov put up .908 2 years ago, Jet put up .938 last year (small sample I know). It’s time to stop with all the what if’s for Elvis and just admit he is who he is.
I’m not gonna STATS, but anecdotally Elvis always seems to perform way better when he’s fresh. Having a 1a/1b feels like it would work well for him while we make sure Jet is our man.
If Elvis didn’t have the contract he has then we would have no doubt moved on from him by now – his play in flashes can be good but honestly for the most part he is below average in terms of his responsibility in preventing goals for this team. I do respect the constant stream of (at times) injustifiable optimism from our fanbase but the reality is what it is with Elvis, Goalie is going to be an area of concern for us.
Hopefully Jet is able to assert himself and not get too shellshocked when things go wrong, he has a future but how big a role remains yet to be seen.
https://unionandblue.com/blue-jackets-2024-25-season-in-review-elvis-merzlikins-showed-improvement-but-still-seemed-to-hold-the-team-back#:~:text=Merzlikins%20burst%20into%20the%20NHL,1%20goaltender%20in%20the%20NHL.
I feel very bad about the depth this season. If Elvis or Jet have to miss time at any point, Sawchenko and Lalonde for any extended time in the NHL will be a disaster. Hopefully Don has some kind of plan, but this should have been taken care of already imo.
I think Elvis will be fine, but if he implodes mentally from getting completely outplayed by Jet, the team has nothing for depth.
I think it’d be a mistake to just name Jet the starter and ride on him. He’s had a tiny sample size of games to go off of.
I think he clearly sits behind Elvis as a backup for at least the start of the season. If he gets some minutes and looks good, they’ll try to go to a 1A/1B situation.