We’re back as promised with our final chapter in this week’s prospect recap – this time with a look at the players from Europe, the KHL and USHL. Catch up with the other leagues in my AHL recap here and the CHL recap here.
Now on with the recap content!
Peter Thome-Chicago Steel (USHL)
Season Stats 15GP 8-3-1-0 3.37GAA .880Sv%
First, some catching up. you’ll notice a new team for Peter and that’s because at the end of November Peter was traded to Chicago along with forward Brannon McManus for goalie and OSU commit Tommy Nappier and forward Greg Printz. The trade gives the Steel two NHL drafted goalies, Thome and Ales Stezka was a fourth round pick of the Minnesota Wild. The Steel have been one of best teams in the USHL this year so hopefully Peter will get to be part of a long playoff run but there’s a lot of season left.
Stezka has been one of the USHL’s top goalies this season. He’s been named goalie of the week three times already so it took some time for Peter to make his Steel debut. Finally in the Steel’s final game before the holiday break, Peter got the start against the Muskegon Lumberjacks. In the 5-1 victory Peter stopped 28 of 29. His only miss came in the first period shot.
Player Updates
Quickly, some updates out of Scandinavia. Gabriel Carlsson was selected to Sweden’s World Junior team and should be one of the team’s top dmen.
And some bad news out of Finland where it was announced that Veeti Vainio will miss the rest of the season after suffering an injury that required surgery. Finland is really hush hush with its injury so I can’t even tell you if it’s a lower body or upper body injury.
Vladislav Gavrikov-Lokomotiv (KHL)
Season Stats 35GP 2-3-5 +5 28PIM
Vladislav and the Trains opened this recap’s time period with a game against Severstal. Vladislav opened the scoring on the power play when he finished a pretty passing sequence for his second goal of the season. In the loss, Vladislav played 19:02.
In his next game Vladislav went without a point in a 6-3 loss to Dinamo Minsk while playing 17:08.
After these two games, Vladislav joined up with Team Russian for the Channel One Cup. In the Russian opener against Sweden, Vladislav opened the scoring when he took a cross crease pass and hammered it home for his first ever Men’s National Team goal in a 3-1 loss. Gavrikov’s goal earned praise from ex NHL GM/broadcaster Craig Button.
Elvis Merzlikins-HC Lugano (National League A)
Season Stats 25GP .918SV% 2.97GAA
This is from a game before this period of time but when a goalie prospect of yours makes a save that makes the crowd chant his name you post it (plus the celly). Also in off ice news, check out Elvis’ new mask with his namesake on it.
As for actual game action, Elvis would have a great game against HC Davos, making 25 saves in a 1-0 victory.
Closing out this stretch of the season, Elvis had another strong game where he made 32 saves in a 6-2 victory over HC Ambri-Piotta.
There you have it folks another recap in the world of Blue Jackets prospects. As for next week it’ll probably be a Monsters only update as most of the leagues are on a holiday break but it’s coming up on the best time of the year as the World Junior Championships get started on Boxing Day. The Jackets will have three prospects taking part; first round picks Pierre-Luc Dubois and Gabriel Carlsson along with Calvin Thurkauf.
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