3 days until CBJ hockey: Meet the new Blue Jackets

Part of the fun of any new hockey season is getting a chance to unwrap some presents as a fan.
Every season brings new acquisitions for the 5th Line to welcome to the team, and this year is no different.
For the Blue Jackets, that's largely contained within a group of three forwards who hope to help Columbus at both ends of the ice. There's Max Domi, the former first-round pick with a history of offense brought in to bolster the attack; Mikko Koivu, the veteran NHL center who should help solidify the middle of the ice; and Mikhail Grigorenko, another first-round pick who returns to the NHL from Russia trying to prove his game can play at the world's highest level.

(A fourth new Blue Jacket, defenseman Michael Del Zotto, also bears watching after the veteran blueliner inked a one-year, two-way deal with the team Sunday, and we'll have more on him as well coming up.)
That's a full one-quarter of the Blue Jackets' forward group that might look different this year after the offseason trades of Josh Anderson and Alexander Wennberg as well as the shoulder injury that likely will keep winger Gus Nyquist out until April.
So what should CBJ fans expect from the newest members of the team up front?
COUNTDOWN TO FACEOFF: 7 division rivals | 6 reasons to be excited | 5 keys | 4 CBJ standbys
Max Domi (No. 16, 5-10, 192, 17-27-44 last year in Montreal):If you like scoring, this is the most exciting CBJ addition this year, as Domi should help a team that tied for 27th in the NHL a year ago in goals. Domi has averaged 55 points per 82 games in his NHL career with a high-water mark of 28 goals and 72 points with Montreal in 2018-19.
He'll line up at center and likely start with Blue Jackets veterans Nick Foligno and Cam Atkinson while also playing a spot on the wing on one of the team's two power-play units. The hope is his creativity and skill with the puck on his stick will drive play toward the CBJ end and result in more pucks in the back of the net.
Domi is one of the most spirited and interesting players in the NHL, as Foligno says he brings a little "swagger" to the squad. And if he produces, Domi will help add scoring depth that will cascade throughout the CBJ lineup.
"Torts has high expectations for each and every one of us, myself included," Domi said. "I'm just trying to push myself every day and be as good of a teammate as possible and help this team get better."
MIkko Koivu (No. 9, 6-3, 213, 4-17-21 last year in Minnesota):If you've paid attention to the NHL over the past decade-plus, Koivu needs no introduction. The brother of longtime NHLer Saku Koivu, Mikko comes to Columbus after establishing himself as Mr. Minnesota Wild, as he served as captain of the team from 2009 until last season. In all, he played 1,028 games in Minnesota, posting a 205-504-709 line to hold the franchise record in every major statistical category.
The Wild opted not to re-sign the 37-year-old after his 15th season with the team last year, and he took a one-year deal to join the Blue Jackets. Coming off a significant knee injury a year ago, Koivu saw his offensive numbers drop last year, but he remained one of the best defensive centers in the league. Even if he just provides that, he's a useful player, but general manager Jarmo Kekalainen says he thinks Koivu can add to the offense -- after all, he was on a 47 points per 82 games pace in 2017-18 and 2018-19 before the injury.
"That is my goal that I can help the team to get more wins, get confident as a group," he said. "Also to get that offense that I've been missing for the last year, even the last two years with the year before. Obviously, it's more challenging once you get more years under your belt, when you're getting a little bit older, but I think it's also a mind-set that you need to find it and you are still able to find that rhythm and find that confidence, not just defensively but offensively."
Mikhail Grigorenko (No. 25, 6-3, 209, 19-22-41 last year with CSKA Moscow):Perhaps the biggest question mark of training camp is what the Blue Jackets are getting in Grigorenko. He's a big presence and was brought in by Kekalainen to add offense, as he had a 36-57-93 line in 102 KHL games the past three seasons with one of the top teams in the league. Grigorenko is also someone who five years of NHL experience under his belt from 2013-17 with Buffalo and Colorado, where he averaged eight goals and 25 points per 82 games.
So should Columbus expect something somewhere in between? That seems fair, though the Blue Jackets seem to want to see him in offensive positions, as he has skated at times on a wing with offensive talents Pierre-Luc Dubois and Oliver Bjorkstrand and is on a power-play unit to begin camp. For Grigorenko, the key he says is to lean into the offensive skills that made him such a highly touted player to begin with when he neared two points per game in the QMJHL.
"I think that the difference is instead of focusing on the weaknesses in my game, what do I need to improve, I focus a lot on my strengths and I work on the things that I'm doing good and I try to do it even better," he said, contrasting this stint in the NHL to his first. "That could be that edge, shooting and making plays and making those good passes. That's what the last three years I've been focusing on, and I think that was why I was able to produce offensively (in Russia)."