As a result, Alex has chosen to wear the No. 92 with the Blue Jackets, the same number his father wore in six of his seven stops in a 15-year NHL career. He’s the first player ever in Blue Jackets history to wear the number, and he hopes to make it his own.
Nylander will have every opportunity to do since he was acquired along with a conditional draft pick last week in a trade that sent Emil Bemstrom to the Penguins. The No. 8 overall pick in the 2016 draft, Nylander is yet to find a consistent NHL home but hopes Columbus will be the place.
“It’s a huge opportunity for me to here to prove myself and play my game and show what I can do,” he said. “I’m very excited, and I was so happy when I got the call. It’s just a big opportunity for me, and I just have to go out there and play my game.”
For the rest of the season, it appears Nylander will get that chance. He’s had an up-and-down career, starting from when he was chosen in the top 10 of the draft by Buffalo. Nylander made his NHL debut the next season, playing in four games with the Sabres and also notching 28 points in 65 games with Rochester of the American Hockey League.
It was an auspicious start, but Nylander never quite got over the hump with the Sabres and was traded to Chicago in the summer of 2019 for Henri Jokiharju. He had his best NHL season with the Blackhawks that year, posting a 10-16-26 line in 65 games, but he eventually was dealt to Pittsburgh in January 2022 for Sam Lafferty.
In all, he came to Columbus with 98 NHL games under his belt – five of them this year in Pittsburgh – to go with a 14-20-34 scoring line. The 25-year-old is an accomplished AHL scorer, though, with 94 goals and 210 points in 330 games, and head coach Pascal Vincent said he’s noticed the skill Nylander brings to the table when he watches his tape.
“We know he’s really skilled,” Vincent said. “He’s got good size, can shoot the puck, great hands. He’s got a good brain, good hockey sense from what I’ve seen. And now he’s going to be given a chance to prove it, and that’s exciting for us. I know he’s really excited. He said he didn’t sleep much two nights ago when it happened.”
Those abilities were clear in Nylander’s debut with the Blue Jackets in Sunday night’s win over the Rangers. He skated 11:23 and didn’t have a shot on goal, but his line with Cole Sillinger and Kent Johnson was able to consistently create pressure on the Rangers, notching a 4-1 edge in high-danger chances and posting more than 70 percent of the expected goals at 5-on-5. In the end, it was the second most used line of the night at 5-on-5 per Natural Stat Trick.
“I just try to move my feet, work hard and the rest takes care of itself,” Nylander said of his game. “I try to make plays. I know I can shoot, so just move my feet and work hard every shift. That’s when I play my best.”
The irony of the trade the Blue Jackets made is it swapped one Swedish player for another, at least in the eyes of the team’s lone other Swede in Adam Boqvist. He became friends with Nylander when the two played together for the Blackhawks, and he actually was told about the deal when his friend Bemstrom called to tell him he had been traded for Nylander.
Boqvist and Nylander immediately exchanged texts, and the CBJ defenseman said he was excited to have his friend back on his team.
“I think he’s like his brother,” Boqvist said of Nylander. “Obviously his brother is really, really good, but I think he’s skilled, good shot. He’s competitive in the corners, uses his speed. I think he hasn’t really found his rhythm in the NHL but hopefully he can find it here.
“We’re a young team. He’s only 25. I think it’s a perfect spot for him. It’s a good time for him to come in and just play his game, learn from the coaching staff. It’s going to take a little time for him to adjust, but it should be all good.”
Perhaps you can tell the two are both Swedish because they were on the same page with that thought. When asked what he knows about the Blue Jackets upon arrival, Nylander pointed to the fact it’s a young squad with a bright future he hopes to be a part of.
“There’s a lot of young talent here,” he said. “The guys have been really good since I came here. It’s a young group, but it’s looking really good for the future. It’s gonna be a big team and an awesome team to play with. Just big stuff happening in the future, and just go step-by-step and we can become a great team here.”
