Foudy hopes to force his way onto Blue Jackets' roster

There was a scramble for the puck at the blue line, and once Liam Foudy had the puck, there was no catching him.
The hockey standout with sprinter's speed and background saw the puck was loose at the blue line, corralled it at the red line and there was no way either Zach Werenski or Max Domi was going to catch him. From there, Foudy skated in alone in Elvis Merzlikins on a shorthanded breakaway and slipped the puck through the legs of the goalie, one of the highlights of the Blue Jackets' team scrimmage Wednesday night in Nationwide Arena.
If you're a rookie battling for playing time on the team, it's exactly the kind of play that might go a long way toward proving you belong on the Blue Jackets' opening night roster Jan. 14 at Nashville.

And for Foudy, that's his stated goal, and so far he's been in the top four lines during training camp. The second-youngest player in CBJ camp -- the 20-year-old was born just eight months before the franchise played its first game -- arrived in Columbus ready to force the issue that he's a fully deserving NHL player at this point.
"Yeah, my goal is to make this team," the team's first-round pick in the 2018 draft (18th overall) said earlier this week. "There's no other goal coming into this camp. Just try to play the best I can but give them no choice but to put me on the opening night roster and try to play a full season with the team.
"I'm coming in every day here and not getting too comfortable. I know spots are always on the line. I'm trying to play the best I can and hold on to a spot and be on this roster."

Why wouldn't he feel that way? Foudy is coming off a tremendously memorable season that truly kicked into gear about a year ago when he went to the IIHF World Junior Championship with Team Canada and returned home with a gold medal, a dream come true for any Canadian kid. The fact he was one of the best players on the ice for the victorious squad seemed to push him when he returned to London of the OHL, as he finished on a torrid point streak and ended up with 68 points in 45 games and a plus-41 rating.
If he was a man among boys in the OHL, he proved it then when he made two appearances with the injury-laden Blue Jackets in February, notching an assist in his second game and not looking out of place for a CBJ team that would have kept him in Columbus were it not for NHL rules mandating Foudy returned to the Knights.
But with London's season over because of the pandemic when the NHL returned to the bubble in summer, Foudy was free to join the Jackets, and he ended up playing in all 10 playoff games for Columbus. His late goal in Game 5 against Toronto helped clinch the series and came against his hometown team, leading to plenty of discussions among Foudy and his friends when he returned to the Toronto area this fall.
"Going back home, it was pretty cool, especially playing against the team that all my friends grew up watching and I grew up watching and rooting for," he said. "To go back home was cool. I got recognized quite a bit knowing that I was part of a special moment there, and scoring my first NHL goal against my hometown team, that was pretty special."
Add it all up and Foudy learned a lot from everything he went through a season ago.
"This is going to be a different season for everyone here, but I'm just trying to crack the lineup here and play my first season with the team," he said. "Having all those past experiences are huge for me, especially being in the bubble, being around the guys, getting to know everyone better, getting to know the coaching staff better and getting more comfortable. It's just going to help me out trying to crack this lineup and play this season with the team."
That doesn't mean he rested on his laurels, though. Foudy reported back to Columbus in October to prepare for the season said he put on about 10 pounds of muscle while working with the team's strength staff, weight he thinks will help him play against older, stronger defensemen in the league.
But he still has that speed that made him a first-round pick, not to mention a player voted a year ago as both the OHL's best skater and its best penalty killer. And if you're looking for ways to get on the ice as a youngster, versatility is key, and it's fair to say head coach John Tortorella has taken notice.
"We want to look at him, that's for sure, as a penalty killer," Tortorella said. "I think with that type of speed, and we all felt in the bubble and in the short time we've been with him that he has the intelligence to do it. So (assistant coach Brad Shaw) and I have talked. He's done it before, he wants to do it, but with that type of speed we want to give him a whack at it and try him with some different people."