After two years he'd likely rather forget, Joonas Korpisalo finally feels like things are trending upward.
He's battled illness, injury, struggles in net and the uncertainty of how things would shake out as he played out the last two years of his contract with the Blue Jackets.
So now, finally, Korpisalo feels like things might be slotting into place. A nagging hip injury has been fixed by surgery late in the season, and
with a one-year contract extension signed Friday
, the Blue Jackets goalie feels like he can get his career back on track in a familiar place.
Korpisalo motivated to get back to form after re-signing with Jackets
As he works his way back to being fully healthy, goalie sees a big 2022-23 in store
"I'm super happy continuing in Columbus," he said from Helsinki, where he has returned for the offseason. "I think that's the best place for me to get back to my game. The last couple of years have been pretty (crappy) to be honest, so (I want to) get back at it, get my hip healed, then I don't have to worry about anything. I can go 100 percent and not think about anything and start from a clean slate and just go at it."
The Blue Jackets have promoted Elvis Merzlikins, who played in 59 games this past season, as the starting goaltender, but as youngster Daniil Tarasov heals from hip surgery of his own and continues to settle into the North American style of hockey, the team was in the market for a veteran to be part of the equation.
They didn't have to look far before deciding to re-sign Korpisalo, who has spent the past seven seasons with the team but was to be an unrestricted free agent as he hit the market. But after he had an excellent season in 2019-20 after the departure of Sergei Bobrovsky -- Korpisalo had a 2.60 GAA in 37 regular-season games and a 1.90 GAA and playoff-best .941 save percentage that season -- the past two years have been a struggle.
In 55 games (48 starts) over those two seasons, Korpisalo is 16-24-7 with a 3.63 GAA and .887 save percentage, including a forgettable 4.15 GAA in 22 games this past season. But it's hard to imagine a more difficult year for a goalie, as Korpisalo battled multiple illnesses and injuries and also had to deal with speculation he could be on the move at the trade deadline.
Now, Korpisalo reports he's off crutches after his surgery in March to fix a hip issue that he battled the past four seasons, and he expects to be ready for training camp. With everything falling into place, the 28-year-old says it's up to him to show he can be the goalie that turned heads across the NHL with his playoff performance in 2020.
"I don't think I've felt this much hunger to show people that I belong back there among the top guys in the league for a while," he said. "Last two years being whatever, the hunger and the motivation to show up and get back to my level, it's huge. It's gonna be a great summer for me. I'm doing everything I can to be in top-notch shape when I come there, and after that it's game on."
Korpisalo said it didn't take too long for him to come to an agreement with the front office on the extension, and it could be a win-win situation. Korpisalo gets to stay in the only NHL city he's known, with the locker room favorite in a comfortable environment, while the CBJ staff gets a low-maintenance goalie they know well and believe has high-end upside when everything is in order.
"He is loved by his teammates," head coach Brad Larsen said late in the season. "We love him as a staff. He's a great guy. He's been here a long time, and we want him to get there and get back to his game. … I think he just needs to take a breath and just play."
Unfortunately, with the hip pain nagging, Korpisalo decided late in the campaign to get the surgery done, but he thinks that will allow him to be a much better goalie going forward. He also believes the adversity he's gone through the past two years will do him well.
"I guess that's what it is sometimes," he said. "I guess that's just stuff you try to learn from and try to make the best of it. That's how you learn, I guess, to go the hard way. As I said, right now, the motivation and hunger, it's huge, so I just can't wait for the season to start and show what I got."
An extra bit of motivation also should come from the fact the Blue Jackets are scheduled to play two games this upcoming season in Finland. A native of Pori, Korpisalo now lives in Helsinki in the offseason but is still excited to take part in the contests in November in Tampere.
"I didn't even think about it at first when I told my family about this, and they were like, 'It's awesome, you're gonna be paying in Finland next year,' and I was like, 'Oh yeah, we actually do,' " he said. "It's going to be awesome. It's something you never, ever think of, playing NHL games in front of your family and friends back in your home country. I'm really looking forward to that."
Korpisalo also hopes to be a key piece of a team that returns to the playoffs in 2022-23 for the first time since he was one of the stars of the bubble postseason in the summer of 2020.
"Seeing the potential we have on the team, it's gonna be a great year next year," he said. "We have a great group of guys, and you see it grew all last year as a team, so I'm really excited about it."
