The Cleveland Monsters saw their AHL playoff run come to an end earlier this week, dropping a heartbreaking 3-2 loss to the Toronto Marlies on Sunday. With their season over, now is the time to start looking ahead towards next year.
Despite the disappointing finish, the Monsters were a strong team again this year. The difference is, they weren't led by AHL veterans. This season, some of the Blue Jackets prospects lurking in the system made the biggest difference.
As a result, it's worth bringing up: how many of these guys are NHL ready? There could be more than one or two. And, while the team doesn't have many openings as of the time this article is posting, I do think Don Waddell will be wheeling and dealing this summer.
Any trades he makes could involve some of these players. But if not, those moves could open up an NHL job for one or more of them. Lets talk about the four guys that look like they are ready to battle for an NHL job.
It's now or never for Mikael Pyyhtia.
Depth was one of the biggest luxuries that Waddell gave to his organization this year. For the first time in years (maybe ever?), the Blue Jackets roster did not have to rely on an endless supply of call-ups from the Monsters.
That's a good thing for both the NHL and AHL teams. For the "tweener" players, however? That meant a lot more AHL time. In the case of Mikael Pyyhtia, I don't think that's a bad thing.
This was Mikael's third full season in North America, but it's the first one where he didn't have to play more than 10 games in the NHL. He got into just 5 games in a CBJ sweater this year, which allowed him to play confident hockey down in Cleveland.
I think that's just what he needed. He rewarded the Monsters by finishing second on the team in scoring, with 21 goals and 49 points in 59 games.
The former 4th round pick has been a coach's favorite since coming over from Finland at the end of the 2022-23 season. He's a smart, hard working winger that can play in the bottom six. There may be an opening on the fourth line, if nothing changes before training camp.
Who better than Mikael Pyyhtia to compete for that spot? He's proven before that he can play there in spot duty. The only thing missing from his game was the offense that made him an NHL prospect in the first place.
This year, he was allowed to flourish and produce because he spent a full year in the AHL. Now 24 years old, it feels like now or never for Mikael to establish himself as an NHL player. We may know soon, rather than later-he's a restricted free agent this summer. It will be interesting to see how the organization views him.
Corson Ceulemans took major strides this year.
One of the big question marks surrounding the Blue Jackets as they headed into the offseason: how does this team fix its defense corps?
It sounds like that begins with allowing Erik Gudbranson to walk as a UFA on July 1st. It makes sense, considering his age and injury history. The team needs more consistency on its blue line, and having a guy who has missed that much hockey is not helping.
If Gudbranson is not brought back, that creates a glaring hole on the right side of the blue line. It's a bit of good fortune, then, that former first round pick Corson Ceulemans had a little bit of a breakout year in Cleveland.
After scoring just 6 goals and 21 points in 93 games spread across parts of three AHL seasons; he finished second on the Monsters in scoring from the blue line with 8 goals and 24 points in 64 games this season. The only player ahead of him was 29 year old veteran Dysin Mayo.
The hope here is that, Corson is a late bloomer that is finally finding his way. It wouldn't be unheard of-defensemen do develop at wildly different paces. He's a plus skater who is active on both sides of the puck, but that has its ups and downs.
On the positive side, he's good at moving the puck, or taking away time and space when the opponent has it. On the negative side, he can over-commit and take himself out of the play in those same situations. The issue is, those negative moments still come up too often, as evidenced by his -14 rating despite being relatively productive.
Corson isn't likely going to make an impact defensively, and the Blue Jackets aren't in a place where they need another puck mover on the blue line. Maybe down the road.
My gut feeling is that the Blue Jackets will give him a one or two-year contract extension this summer. But, I do not think he's ready to play in the NHL-at least not full time. There is still some development needed here. We may see him filling in if injuries arise next season.
Lets look at two more guys who could be ready on the next slide.
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