Columbus Blue Jacket Prospects: Who’s Turning Pro?
As hockey seasons around the globe start to finish up, one question that seems to be buzzing around right now: which Blue Jacket prospects will be turning to the pro ranks at season’s end. There’s some confusion about how things work, so today we’ll run through them and provide a little background.
One of the top prospects for the Blue Jackets has already seen his season conclude. Defenseman Corson Ceulemans now has a decision to make, and it might not be all that difficult because the Wisconsin Badgers had an awful season, that resulted in the firing of head coach Tony Granato this week.
The NCAA rule is simple: once a player signs a paid professional contract, they are no longer eligible to play at the NCAA level. Ceulemans has two years in Wisconsin under his belt, but has yet to sign an ELC to play professional hockey, which means this could go either way. If he signs in the near future, chances are that he could finish out the season in the AHL, officially ending his NCAA career. We’ll have to wait to see where this one goes, but he can play right away in Cleveland if he wants to.
The Jackets have two other prospects playing at the NCAA level, also both defensemen. Guillaume Richard (Providence College) and Aidan Hreschuk (Boston College) are both still playing. Both are longer-term prospects, so it’s hard to see either of them leaving college this season.
Looking overseas, the Jackets have two players that we’re keeping a keen eye on. Dmitry Voronkov is NHL ready and should help the center depth here immediately. The rule in this situation is that, he can’t sign an NHL contract until his KHL deal is complete – and his deal expires at season’s end. But, don’t get too excited – he plays on one of the better teams in the KHL, so I would bet we’re more likely to see him next fall, rather than this spring.
Mikael Pyyhtia is already under contract with the Jackets, but has been playing on loan in Finland. Odds are, we won’t see him back on this side of the pond until prospect camp this summer. He’s likely to spend next year in Cleveland, learning the North American game.
A good portion of the top prospects for the Jackets are playing hockey in one of the three CHL leagues (QMJHL, OHL, WHL). A few of them are primed to jump to the AHL as soon as possible, which could be a big boost for the Monsters this spring.
The CHL rule is pretty simple, and it’s one I’m very familiar with. Players drafted from the CHL cannot play in the American Hockey League until the year of their 20th birthday. This is why we see so many players returning to the CHL for an extra year, whether we think they can play in the AHL or not. This rule is designed to keep quality talent in the junior leagues, so those teams don’t lose all of their revenue as soon as a player is drafted.
The cutoff for the NHL Draft is September 15 – which means that Luca del bel Belluz (born November 10) actually counts as a 19-year-old this season, while Jordan Dumais, taken in the same draft (born April 15), counts as an 18-year-old this season. So, with all that said, I count three CHL prospects that we could see in Cleveland by season’s end – with a fourth up in the air.
Oddly enough, there’s one in each league. James Malatesa (Quebec, QMJHL), Luca del bel Belluz (Sarnia, OHL) and Stanislav Svozil (Regina, WHL) are each already signed to their entry level contracts, and are all eilgible to play in the AHL as soon as their seasons are finished. That said, all three of them are on teams that could make some noise in the playoffs – so it’s possible that we won’t see them in Cleveland this year.
The fourth player I’m alluding to here is Moose Jaw Warriors winger Martin Rysavy, who is yet to be signed by the Jackets. He would be eligible to play in the AHL this year as well, should the Jackets (or Monsters) decide to sign him to a deal.
One thing to remember here is that call-ups are treated differently than NHL demotions. None of these players needed to be allocated to the Monsters on the day of the NHL trade deadline to be eligible for the AHL playoffs, since they aren’t NHL players. So, if any of these guys become available to the Monsters, they could be nice additions for a playoff run. This is the benefit to drafting well.
Unfortunately, due to these rules, players like Denton Mateychuk and Jordan Dumais aren’t eligible to play in the AHL this year – even when their seasons end. We’ll have to wait another year before that’s possible.
Hopefully this helps clear things up. It will be interesting to see if the Monsters can make a push and get into the playoffs this year. That kind of playoff experience is invaluable – especially to the handful of NHL prospects that might get to play in them.
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