Prospect Report: Richard turns heads with great start to college career

In a world where most of the top prospects in Canada play their junior hockey in their home country, the Blue Jackets acquired some unicorns in the 2021 draft.
The No. 5 overall pick, Kent Johnson, was a late bloomer who hails from British Columbia but chose to go the college route, where he stars for the University of Michigan. Another first-round pick, defenseman Corson Ceulemans, is a Saskatchewan native who skates for the University of Wisconsin.

And a third draft pick in the class, fourth-round pick Guillaume Richard, also chose to go through NCAA hockey. The Quebec City native is in his freshman season at Providence College, where he felt he could continue to best develop rather than go through the QMJHL in his home province.

"I think for me, I am obviously a two-way defenseman and I am tall, but I'm pretty small; I don't weigh a lot," Richard told Dylan Tyrer on the latest edition of the Pipeline Podcast. "I think I need those extra years. We train at least two times, three times a week even in the season, and I think it's going to be great for my path just to continue putting on some muscle mass.
"And then obviously I think the NCAA is one of the best leagues to play in and keep growing your game and just compete every day. It's a hard schedule balancing school and hockey, but I love it and I have nothing bad to say about being at Providence. I love it here, and I'm really happy with my decision to come here."
It's fair to say Providence would say the same. Through the first 30 games of his college career, Richard has posted two goals and 11 assists for 13 points, and he's plus-20 on the season. That rating is best among all freshman defensemen in the nation and tied for third among all first-year NCAA players behind Ohio State's Cam Thiesing and Georgii Merkulov.
It's been an excellent debut campaign for Richard, but the exciting thing is the Blue Jackets believe there is more in the tank for the 6-2, 175-pound blueliner.
"He's taking care of business defensively," said CBJ director of player personnel Chris Clark. "He's always in the right spot, great stick. He makes the puck carrier go through him. He's not very big, so he's got that knack for defending, but with the puck he's actually very good. He makes a really good first pass, gets pucks out of the zone, doesn't do too much but has the ability to do more. I know the coaches there are really impressed with everything he's been doing."
The thought is that as the 18-year-old Richard progresses, the offense will come, and the time in the weight room will help him defend with even more authority. Add in the experience he's getting this year at a pretty high level in college hockey's difficult Hockey East conference and Richard sees his game growing each and every day.
"I think for me, sometimes I get puck watching and a little bit and stop moving my feet, so that was something I can't do anymore because the guys are just so fast," he said. "It's just like, keep skating to retrieve pucks, also moving my head all the time because obviously the guys are coming so fast you don't have a lot of time to think, so I think those were the two aspects I needed to improve really fast. And then obviously once you're in a couple of games, the game slows down and then it's just like playing the way I am capable of."
When it comes to the Blue Jackets organization, Richard said he stays in touch with such front office members as Clark -- whose son is committed to play his college hockey at Providence -- and Rick Nash, and he met Cole Sillinger on some Canadian youth teams so the two still chat at times. That connection to the pros is one of the things he says means a lot as he continues his way up the hockey ladder.
"It's really fun when you see those guys really involved with you," he said of Clark and Nash. "It kind of just keeps me going a little extra harder, and it makes me realize that I'm closer (to the NHL) than I ever dreamed of, so I just need to work and keep improving and hopefully I get a chance in the near future."

Olympics Begin For CBJ Prospects

As of this writing, the Olympics have begun for one Blue Jackets prospect.
Dmitri Voronkov, a 2019 fourth-round pick who plays for Ak Bars Kazan of the KHL, suited up for the Russian team in its opener Wednesday vs. Switzerland. The physical 21-year-old played 13:49, had four shots on goal and was given a minor penalty in his Olympic debut.
Meanwhile, fellow 21-year-old Russian Kirill Marchenko was on the original roster for his country, but the high-scoring SKA St. Petersburg winger has been dropped to the reserve roster. He could be activated and play at a later date, though.
The other two CBJ prospects who are in Beijing begin action Thursday morning. Slovakia will play Finland at 3:40 a.m. Eastern time tomorrow, and 2020 third-round pick Samuel Knazko is on the roster. The 19-year-old defenseman was previously a member of the Slovak World Juniors and World Championships teams and has split this year between Finland's U-20 division and Seattle of the WHL, where he has a goal and four assists in five games.
Then there's Johnson, who began his Olympic journey on Team Canada's reserve list but was promoted to the top squad after forward Daniel Carr did not arrive in Beijing until earlier this week. Johnson, who is among college hockey's top scorers at the University of Michigan this year with a 6-24-30 line in 23 games, was skating on the third line in practices leading up to tomorrow's opener vs. Germany at 8:10 a.m. ET, but the 19-year-old could be bumped out at some point if and when Carr is ready to go.
On the women's side, six players with Ohio State ties are competing -- two for Canada (Natalie Spooner and Emma Maltais) and one each for USA (Jincy Dunne, the sister of Cleveland forward and CBJ signee Josh Dunne), Finland (Minttu Tuominen), Switzerland (Andrea Braendli) and Sweden (Sophie Lundin). Braendli is the starting goalie on OSU's No. 2-ranked squad, while Lundin is an incoming freshman on the team next season. Maltais also plans to return to the team in 2022-23 to complete her eligibility after leaving for the Canadian Olympic centralization process.

Monsters Hit Rough Patch

After a promising early-season start, things have turned a bit sour for the Cleveland Monsters. The top farm team of the Blue Jackets has lost eight straight games and 10 of the last 11 to fall into last place in the American Hockey League's North Division at 13-19-5-3.
Cleveland finished a six-game homestand last night with a 3-2 overtime loss vs. Chicago. The Monsters got on the board to tie the game at 1 late in the first period as Carson Meyer scored shorthanded with assists to Justin Scott and Dillon Simpson, then Tyler Angle tallied on a feed from Scott in the third period to knot things at 2. But Chicago's Joey Keane beat Jean-Francois Berube, who made 32 saves, in overtime to give the Wolves the win.
It was a memorable night for Scott, though, as the longest-tenured player in Monsters history notched his 100th career point in his 300th AHL game.
Cleveland heads to Utica now Friday and Saturday for a pair of games against the first-place Comets.

Prospect Notes

• Stanislav Svozil continued a strong season Tuesday with a pair of goals -- his third and fourth of the season -- for Regina of the WHL. The 2021 third-round draft pick and member of the Czechia World Juniors squad leads all rookie blueliners in the WHL with 27 points on four goals and 23 assists. The 18-year-old spent the past two seasons with HC Kometa Brno in his home country before heading over to North America this year.
• Another defenseman taken in that 2021 draft, first-rounder Ceulemans, was just in Columbus and had an eventful weekend with his University of Wisconsin Badgers. Ceulemans scored two goals in the opening game, an overtime win for Ohio State, but was later ejected for a contact to the head penalty. The freshman then went without a point in OSU's series-capping win, but Ceuelemans now has a 7-12-19 line on the year in 26 games with 18 of those points coming in the last 18 games.