Columbus Blue Jackets: The Case for Trading Korpisalo

Joonas Korpisalo has been the Columbus Blue Jackets backup goaltender for the past few years, however it’s beginning to seem that he won’t be the goalie of the future.

Joonas Korpisalo‘s stats are falling annually and the Columbus Blue Jackets backup tends to start less than twenty games a season barring an injury to starting goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. Korpisalo’s save percentage of .897 is a career low and his goals against average of 3.32 is a career high, he only played eighteen games through the 2017-2018 season and based on those numbers it seems fairly obvious why.

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The eight regulation and one overtime loss (more than half of his starts) aren’t the only reason Joonas Korpisalo is a liability however. It’s possible that his under-performance is a key part in Sergei Bobrovsky’s playoff struggles. Simply put, because of the lack of a consistently reliable backup Bobrovsky is tired after playing over sixty regular season games a year and as a result his playoff performance suffers.

On top of his struggles, his potential is beginning to fade away as he rarely plays. His growth is likely stunted, partially thanks to head coach John Tortorella. The Columbus Blue Jackets should take advantage of his value before the rest of the leagues’ general managers figure out his long term issues.

The question on everyone’s mind is likely, “but if Korpisalo is gone, who will be the backup?” This requires a two part answer, for the short term and the long term. For the short term, sign a veteran backup who can play closer to thirty games a season to a one year deal. This year Kari Lehtonen, Jonathan Bernier, Cam Ward and Chad Johnson are just a few potential UFA goaltenders according to CapFriendly.

As for the long term, the goaltender of the future for the Columbus Blue Jackets is likely Elvis Merzlikins. With his contract set to expire with HC Lugano after next season, he’ll likely be ready to make the jump to North America assuming he has an NHL roster spot available to him. His play in the NLA and international competition have been phenomenal and he shows no signs of having difficulty making the jump

Joonas Korpisalo is a decent NHL player, however he is not a backup for a contending team as his stats show. He may turn it around if he gets decent playing time on a rebuilding team, however the Columbus Blue Jackets are at a point where they need players to perform now. They don’t have time to wait for Korpisalo anymore.

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