It’s hockey time so let’s get right to checking out what’s going on with some of the Blue Jackets prospects. Europe gets an earlier start than North America with all three of the Jacket’s European getting started this week. The Jackets have three prospects playing overseas: Daniel Zaar in Sweden, Joonas Korpisalo in Finland and Elvis Merzlikins in Switzerland. Since it’s hard to see these players live, like I normally do with the CHL and NCAA, I’ve asked for some help from reporters who have seen these players live.
Daniel Zaar-Lulea (SHL)
2013-14 Stats 52GP 16-20-36 -5 28PIM
Daniel Zaar has been practicing the most of all the prospects – his new team Lulea took part in the Champions Hockey League (think the World Cup but with champions from all over Europe). Daniel has been a star so far. He’s currently tied for second on the team in scoring with three goals and four assists. I’d be happy about these stats but the four games played so far have been against teams from England and Germany (not hockey powerhouses obviously). Daniel did play his first SHL game since the 2012-13 season and scored the game winner in the shootout of a 3-2 win. Daniel spent last year with Rogle in Allsvenskan (Sweden’s lower league) so for a recap of last season, I’ll turn things over to Andreas Holm who writes for SvenskaFans.com.
“The 2013-2014 season was when Daniel Zaar took his next step in his career. He became one of Rögle’s most important offensive players. His control, precision, speed and nevertheless, his fighting spirit made him a threat for the opponents.
“He showed that he can combine his game with different players and also he had a season when he without injuries fully (and) could concentrate on performing at his best. He was close to bring(ing) Rögle to SHL with 14 points in ten games in the playoffs. Rögle was two goals from qualifying to the SHL, which would be more or less sensational. Daniel Zaar’s season of course made him an interesting player for the SHL clubs and it was early known that Luleå was his next destination. It is a big move, not only geographical (about 1600 km). It is also a step to one of the top contenders in SHL and a team which is known for playing a directly and tough hockey.
“There is no question Daniel Zaar is good enough to be on one of the SHL top teams, but now is the time to show what he got. Luleå is a good team with good players and Zaar will have to be at his best to get time on the ice. Though I, as have followed his career for five years, don’t expect anything else than that he will succeed. He is only 20 years but already a pro and I’m sure he will find his way to be a top player also in the SHL. He still got things to work on, so I would think he need a couple of years before he’s ready for the big room.”
As for how Zaar is doing in Lulea specifically, with preseason games and one regular season game we turn to Jimmy Stålnacke who covers Lulea for the local paper NSD.
“Now it’s early in the pre season but I think Daniel Zaar will have this role even when the regular season starts. In the first exhibition games he has played with Stephen Dixon and Lennart Petrell in the top line and his role is to contribute with creativity and goals. He has a good shot and in the power play he has played in the left circle, also in the top line. So I think he will get a lot of confidence from the coaches and he will be an important part of this team.”
Joonas Korpisalo-Ilves (Finland)
Stats 8GP 1.32GAA .957Sv%
Joonas bounced around last season between two organizations, multiple levels and at least four teams while also suffering an injury that probably led to him not being able to play on Finland’s gold medal winning World Junior team. This year Joonas is signed by the CBJ but has been loaned to Ilves where he finished last year. For Joonas, I’ll let Miika Arponen handle things.
“Joonas Korpisalo will get his first shot to be a legitimate starting goalie in the men’s league. He is the front-runner for the job in Ilves Tampere, because their other goalie is injured and won’t be back until mid-October. Korpisalo played eight games with Ilves last spring and had the best saving percentage and goals against average in the whole league, although obviously due to limited sample size. Korpisalo’s pre-season went well. He played four games winning three of them and posted solid statistics with .931 save percentage. His movements seemed to be calmer than last season and his stick-handling has also improved. He is considered as one of the biggest breakout candidates in Liiga this season.”
Elvis Merzlikins-HC Lugano (Switzerland)
2013-14 Stats 22GP 2.13GAA .925Sv%
A bit of a surprise pick in this year’s draft was Latvian goaltender Elvis Merzlikins who plays for Swiss club Lugano in the National League A (and as a teammate of 2001 draft pick Raffele Sannitz). Helping me keep track of Elvis over there is Maurizio Urech who covers HC Lugano for Hockeyfans.ch.
“Elvis started the last season with the junior-team of HC Lugano and he was supposed to be the third keeper of the team. Then one of the two keepers had health problems and had to fight against a virus and could even not practice.
“On the September 27th Elvis was on the bench during a loss to HC Davos and Lugano was 11th in the standings of 12. The day after, Lugano had to travel to play Lausanne HC (a) new promoted team in the LNA who was in the third place. When the team arrived in Lausanne Coach Patrick Fischer (first season as head coach, he played for Phoenix in the NHL) told Elvis that he’ll start the game and his debut in the LNA was impressive – after 95 minutes he had .947 % SVS and helped the team to win stopping 4 of 5 in the shootout. He played the next away game against Kloten and with another great performance .958% and Lugano won 4-1. Then he lost the following 4 games with Lugano. He earned his first shut-out on December 13th with a 2-0 win against Kloten before leaving the team to play the World Championships with Latvia in Poland.
“When he came back he led the team to three wins and became a fan favorite because of the special way he celebrates his wins. Then he went back to play for the Junior Team which he lead to the final against the SC Berne. Coach Patrick Fischer called him back with his team facing elimination against Genf-Servette, he played an outstanding game stopping 41 of 42 shots, unfortunately in the shootout all five players on Lugano missed, and Noah Rod with a great finish scored the only goal sending Lugano on vacation.
Elvis was elected the shooting-star of the season in Switzerland, significant because he was voted by coaches and player. During his first interview with the medias, Elvis told us that he was shocked after his debut to discover that he was capable to play at this level and that the most emotional game was the derby (rivalry) he played away against Ambri-Piotta, stating that during the first ten minutes it wasn’t him who stopped the puck. As for this season Lugano made some good transfers with import players Linus Klasen (SWE) and Ilari Filpulla (FIN) these two players should help the team to increase the scoring and the team has the potential to finish the league in the top four, and then hopefully to be able to win again a playoff-series and Elvis is expected to be one of the masterpiece of this team and he has the skills to become one of the best goaltenders in the league.”
There you have it – a look at how the Jackets three prospects in Europe stack up this season. I’ll be here all week with Traverse City updates along with a preview of how the Jackets nine prospects in the CHL should look this season after their sent back to Juniors from main camp.
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