Number:28
Age: 25
Birth date:April 10, 1995
Birthplace: Herning, Denmark
Height, weight: 6-0, 177
Stats: 49 GP, 21-15-36, 4.9 point shares, 60.38 xGF% at 5-on-5 per
Natural Stat Trick
Contract:Signed through 2020-21 season (One year remaining before RFA status)
There's Seth Jones, who is perennially in the conversation as the best defenseman in the NHL. There's Zach Werenski, led all NHL defensemen in goals this season and is in the same discussion as Jones. There's Pierre-Luc Dubois, one of the top young centers in the NHL. There's Cam Atkinson, who is all over the team's record books and tied the franchise record for goals in 2018-19.
Heck, there's even Joonas Korpisalo and Elvis Merzlikins, two young goalies who showed they can carry a team for weeks at a time during this past season.
But when head coach John Tortorella looked at the Blue Jackets throughout much of the stretch run in 2019-20, he saw one player as the team's best based on his performance.
That person was Oliver Bjorkstrand.
"Let's face it, guys," Tortorella said. "We went through a ton of injuries. When Oliver goes down, he was probably our best player at that point in time the way he was playing."
It's high praise for a player who has spent some time in Tortorella's doghouse in the past, a third-round draft pick who now appears ready to be a first-line presence for a couple years to come thanks to a wicked shot, an increased battle level and the ability to drive play toward the opposing net and out of his own zone.
Entering the season:Bjorkstrand finished the 2018-19 season in a groove, totaling nine goals in 10 games at one point down the stretch to reach a career-high 23 goals, and then added two goals and five points in 10 postseason games. With the offseason departures of Artemi Panarin and a host of other forwards, Bjorkstrand was going to be looked upon to be a top-six right winger with production to match in his third full season and fifth overall campaign at the NHL level.
Season recap: How hot was Bjorkstrand when his regular season finally ended with a broken ankle suffered in a Feb. 20 game vs. Philadelphia?
The Danish forward had scored 14 times in 17 games when he went down, including a tally in that game against the Flyers and a stretch of four two-goal games in six contests in December and January.
"Yeah, I was definitely feeling good," Bjorkstrand said of his play before being injured. "A lot of times that goes hand in hand that when you're feeling good on the ice, naturally when you're out there your confidence seems better and when you shoot the puck it comes off your stick better and comes off with more confidence."
Even more impressive was that he was able to put up those goal-scoring totals while dealing with injury. An oblique injury suffered in late December cost him about a month, but he had five goals in six games at the time he went down and then tallied five goals in his first three games upon coming back. Projecting his 21-goal season in 49 games out, Bjorkstrand was on pace for a 35-goal season had he played in all 82 games.
So what was the key to his season? In the words of Tortorella, it was a renewed work ethic away from the puck as well as a more developed ability to fight through checks and keep the puck in the zone.
"It's one of the biggest improvements of his game," Tortorella said. "Throughout this year -- and as I've said, the last quarter of last year -- you could see him doing the work along the walls, fighting for pucks, protecting pucks. He spent the summer here working on more strength. He s progressed."
As a result, the Blue Jackets were possession monsters when Bjorkstrand was in the game, earning 54.46 percent of shot attempts when he was on the ice at 5-on-5, 57.35 percent of scoring chances and a full 60.38 percent of expected goals, a measure of shot quality and quantity.
In the postseason, Bjorkstrand also added three goals in 10 games, all in the five-game series with Tampa Bay.
