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Columbus Blue Jackets: Time to End the Joonas Korpisalo Era

By William Espy

COLUMBUS, OH - NOVEMBER 10: Goaltender Joonas Korpisalo #70 of the Columbus Blue Jackets breaks his stick after losing in a shootout against the New York Rangers on November 10, 2018 at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Jamie Sabau/NHLI via Getty Images)
COLUMBUS, OH - NOVEMBER 10: Goaltender Joonas Korpisalo #70 of the Columbus Blue Jackets breaks his stick after losing in a shootout against the New York Rangers on November 10, 2018 at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Jamie Sabau/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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The Columbus Blue Jackets goaltender has let in no less than three goals in all of his last 5 games.

Joonas Korpisalo struggles making any non routine saves, even then he struggles to make routine saves for the Columbus Blue Jackets. In part thanks to his recent performances and also in part to Sergei Bobrovsky returning to his old self, Korpisalo’s ice time has been cut significantly from the beginning of the season.

Statistically, Korpisalo regresses every season. He had an above average rookie season, a disappointing sophomore season, a bad third season and now a horrific fourth season. Both his goals against average and save percentage have gotten significantly worse each season so far.

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Both his save percentage  and goals against average are currently 56th or worse out of 64 goaltenders around the league who have played five or more games. Meaning that statistically, he’s the ninth worst goaltender in the league.

For a playoff team, this simply isn’t good enough. Korpisalo isn’t reliable by any means and as a result, it’s time to move on. The easiest way to find a replacement would be through free agency, where a few veteran goaltenders still reside.

The slightly more difficult way to replace Korpisalo would be to trade for another backup and either place him on waivers or try to trade him for some small return. Either way, he simply isn’t going to cut it going forward for the Blue Jackets.

The scary thought is that he was penciled in to compete for the starting job next season with Elvis Merzlikins. As of now, it seems that if Merzlikins isn’t ready to play at the NHL level then the Blue Jackets will essentially be goaltender-less next season.

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Many goaltenders have been getting placed on waivers as of late, the Blue Jackets would be smart to at least take a chance on one.

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