Columbus Blue Jacket Prospect Watch: is Samuel Knazko Drifting Away?
Samuel Knazko is one of the older prospects in the Jacket system, currently spending his second full season with the Cleveland Monsters.
By Curtis Deem
It seems like a lifetime ago that the Blue Jackets picked Knazko in the third round (#78 overall) at the 2020 NHL Draft. Maybe it was, considering this draft was held smack dab in the middle of the COVID pandemic.
He was the team's second pick in the entire draft, after they took Yegor Chinakhov in the first round. For a team just entering their rebuild, they needed to have a strong draft class. Especially in a year where they only had five total picks.
So far, only Chinakhov has made any real impact at the NHL level. Worse for the club, it doesn't look like any of the other four picks they made at the COVID draft are on track to be major difference makers in the NHL, either. Knazko included.
At one point, he was easily a top-10 prospect for this team. Knazko produced solid offensive numbers in Finland's junior league - then made the jump to North America near the end of the 2021-22 season.
His first stop in the US gave us even more hope. In 27 WHL games with the Seattle Thunderbirds, he scored 5 goals and 20 points. He was also a stalwart on their defense as they made a long playoff run, eventually bowing out in the Championship series.