Columbus Blue Jackets: Who is the Best Player This Season?
By William Espy
The Columbus Blue Jackets have had more than a few players start off the season great, and many people could be considered the best at this point. The one who stands out the most however, is probably the most obvious pick on the team.
Sergei Bobrovsky is certainly a superstar at this point, and this season has been no exception for the Columbus Blue Jackets goaltender. Bobrovsky’s high level of play is expected, however in the past he had struggled after a great season; that led to questions about his long term reliability. After winning the Vezina Trophy last season, he appears to be on track to potentially win it once again.
Currently when filtered through a minimum of six games played, Sergei Bobrovsky is currently ranked 3rd in wins, 4th in goals against average and 5th in save percentage in the NHL, according to NHL.com.
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Bobrovsky is undoubtedly the backbone of the Columbus Blue Jackets, many times it seems the team plays worse as a unit without him on the ice as well. His stats compared to last season’s Vezina winning season are almost exactly the same, and although it’s a smaller sample size this season, he could do even better. His save percentage this season is .932 and his goals against average is 2.07 to start this season. Last season, he finished the year with a save percentage of .931 and his goals against average was 2.06. To be fair, it is only November. But typically Bobrovsky’s struggles would have started by this point in the season if they were going to happen. There’s still a lot of games ahead of us, and everything could change very quickly.
Other players who have been off to a great start would include Artemi Panarin, who has 11 points in 13 games, Seth Jones with 9 points and lastly Josh Anderson with his 5 goals and 3 assists through 11 games.
The Columbus Blue Jackets are certainly glad that they were able to acquire Sergei Bobrovsky half a decade ago, before his trade value sky-rocketed. With all the uncertainty surrounding the team’s upcoming seasons due to a lack of salary cap space and expiring contracts, the one thing that will be certain in Columbus would almost always be Sergei Bobrovsky contending for the Vezina Trophy.