With the NHL and AHL seasons now under way, we can now say that pretty much every high-level league in the world has entered its 2023-24 season.
That means that not only are there Blue Jackets playing in Columbus and CBJ youngsters skating just up the road in Cleveland, but players drafted by the team have scattered across the world to play their seasons.
With that in mind, as we usually do this time of year, we’ll break down where those top prospects are playing in our first Prospect Report of the season. For the sake of simplicity, we won’t include those who have begun the year in Cleveland – sorry to such names as Dmitri Voronkov and James Malatesta, or Stanislav Svozil and Jet Greaves, but we’ll cover the Monsters in each Prospect Report throughout the season – but did want to plot a map of where the youngest Blue Jackets are playing this season.
The list is broken up by where the draft picks are skating, then by draft round.
Canadian Juniors
Denton Mateychuk (Moose Jaw, WHL): The No. 12 overall pick in the 2022 draft gave it his all to make the final CBJ roster, being sent out only when the squad reached the final cuts the day before the NHL season began. A swift-skating dynamo with offensive ability and the strength to battle in the defensive zone, the 19-year-old Mateychuk returns to Moose Jaw for his fifth season overall and third full camapign; last year, he posted an 8-57-65 line in 63 games. He has six assists in his first four contests this season.
Jordan Dumais (Halifax, QMJHL): The highly skilled forward remains with the Blue Jackets as he gets an upper-body injury checked out, but once healthy, the 19-year-old either has to remain on the CBJ roster or head back to juniors. The latter would mean another season in Halifax, where the diminutive but competitive wing posted the third-most productive QMJHL season in the past two decades last year with a 54-86-140 line. He, like Mateychuk, also figures to be a strong contender to make Canada’s World Juniors team this season.
Luca Pinelli (Ottawa, OHL): Pinelli was chosen in the fourth round of this past summer’s draft thanks to his highly competitive nature and ability to put the puck in the net. He’s shown that at the start of the OHL season, as the 18-year-old center has five goals in his first six games with the 67s. Pinelli had 29 goals and 63 points in 67 games a season ago.
Tyler Peddle (Drummondville, QMJHL): The NHL’s version of Mr. Irrelevant, Peddle was chosen last of the 256 players that went in this past summer’s draft, but there’s a lot to like about the 18-year-old forward. Peddle has some size, some speed and some skill and was thought to be an early- to mid-round pick last season before a tumultuous year in Drummondville beset by coaching changes for the Voltigeurs. He had a 24-17-41 line last year in 64 games and three points in his first nine games this season.
Martin Rysavy (Moose Jaw, WHL): Chosen by the Blue Jackets in the seventh round of the 2021 draft, Rysavy is a big forward who isn’t afraid to mix it up, and he has international experience with the Czechia World Juniors squad. A good friend of fellow CBJ draft picks Stanislav Svozil and David Jiricek, Rysavy is unsigned by the Blue Jackets and back with Mateychuk in Moose Jaw as an overager, where he posted an 11-22-33 line last season. The 20-year-old wing has had a strong start since his return, posting 2-2-4 in six games.
James Fisher (Penticton, BCHL): A USHL champ a season ago in Youngstown along with a number of players we’ll mention in the next section, Fisher pushed back his enrollment at Northeastern to head to the BCHL, a league that’s produced a bevy of NHL players over the years. A big forward with some speed chosen in the seventh round of the 2022 draft, the 19-year-old Fisher had a 3-7-10 line in 42 games last year with the Phantoms and is off to a hot start in Penticton, posting six goals in his first nine games.
Nolan Lalonde (Saginaw, OHL): A goalie signed around this time last year after a strong camp with the Jackets, Lalonde is on the move. He was recently part of a blockbuster trade in the OHL, heading from Erie to Saginaw, which hosts the Memorial Cup this season. Coming off a tough season with the Otters, Lalonde figures to back up Andrew Oke with the Spirit and has appeared in one game, a loss in which he allowed four goals.
College Hockey/USHL
Gavin Brindley (Michigan, NCAA): The Jackets’ second-round pick in this past summer’s draft has returned for his sophomore season at Michigan and figures to build on last year’s 12-26-38 line in 41 games. Playing on one of college hockey’s top teams, the spirited, talented 19-year-old forward scored in the No. 7 Wolverines’ first two games and now has a 2-2-4 line in four games.
William Whitelaw (Wisconsin, NCAA): Another Youngstown alum, Whitelaw is in his freshman season with the Badgers and already making an impact, posting three assists in the first four games. A third-round pick in this summer’s draft, Whitelaw is a hound on the puck and has a ton of skill, reasons he was able to post a 36-25-61 line in 62 games as the Phantoms won the USHL’s Clark Cup title.
Aiden Hreschuk (Boston College, NCAA): A third-round pick in the 2021 draft, Hreschuk was acquired from Carolina at the ‘22 deadline in the deal that sent Max Domi to the Canes. A product of the U.S. national team program, Hreschuk profiles as a stay-at-home defenseman who makes the right plays; he had a 1-5-6 line in 35 games last year and is yet to notch a point in two games this year. But the star-studded, third-ranked Eagles are 2-0, with a win over defending national champ Quinnipiac, and have allowed just three goals thus far.
Guillaume Richard (Providence, NCAA): Richard is a prospect the Blue Jackets love, as the 2021 fourth-round selection is a big man (6-2, 170) who profiles to be a steady blueliner down the road. He had some offensive punch as a freshman and posted a 1-7-8 line in 31 games last year; so far this campaign, the junior has three assists in three games for the No. 10 Friars.
Andrew Strathmann (Youngstown, USHL): Strathmann is the one member of the CBJ brigade to remain in Youngstown, as the defenseman has been chosen as the Phantoms’ captain this season. A fourth-round pick this summer who profiles as a two-way blueliner, Strathmann, 18, had a 3-35-38 line in 56 games a season ago and has a 2-6-8 line thus far in seven games.
Overseas
Kirill Dolzhenkov (CSKA Moscow, KHL): The 6-6 forward chosen in the fourth round of the 2022 draft has taken a step up this year. After a strong showing in the Russian junior ranks last year (18-27-45 in 50 games), the massive Dolzenkhov has split this season between the minors (3-3-6 in 10 games with Zvevda) and the KHL, where he is scoreless in limited action over five games with CSKA. Just 19 still for the remainder of this season, he’ll be fun to watch develop.
Nikolai Makarov (CSKA Moscow, KHL): The Blue Jackets chose this stay-at-home defenseman in the fifth round of the 2021 draft projecting him as perhaps the next Vladislav Gavrikov, and he seems to fit the bill. The 20-year-old Makarov was a key piece of CSKA’s Gagarin Cup-winning defense a season ago when he had three goals and nine points in 19 playoff games, and this year he’s skated in 15 games with CSKA and posted two assists to go with a plus-8 rating.
Sergei Ivanov (Admiral, KHL): Goalie moves have been a recent story in the CBJ prospect pool, as SKA St. Petersburg loaned the 19-year-old Ivanov to Vladivostok this fall after adding Admiral’s netminder in a trade. Ivanov made his KHL debut last year and had a .957 save percentage in three games with SKA before the trade; he has a 2.23 GAA and .915 save percentage with Admiral since. Listed at 5-11, size might be a concern for Ivanov, but the 2022 fifth-round pick can clearly stop pucks.
Melvin Strahl (MoDo, Sweden): A big netminder with some promise, Strahl was chosen with a sixth-round pick in this summer’s draft and appeared at the Jackets’ development camp. The 18-year-old is in his second season with the Under-20 team in the MoDo organization, so far posting a 3.20 GAA and .887 save percentage in nine games.
Oiva Keskinen (Tappara, Finland): Taken in the seventh round of this summer’s draft as an overager, the 19-year-old Keskinen is off to a strong start in Finland’s top-level Liiga. Keskinen scored the game-winning goal in his first Liiga game and has a 2-3-5 line in 12 games so far with Tappara, the former team of Patrik Laine. Keskinen could be a diamond in the rough, as he had 41 points in 38 games last year with Tappara’s U-20 team.
