Since coming into the NHL in the 2019-20 season, Elvis Merzlikins has primarily regressed as an NHL player. He had a stellar rookie campaign and, once given the reins to the starts job, continually got worse as did the team around him. Merzlikins did have a small bounce-back last season but struggled in the final 2 months of the season, which hurt the Blue Jackets chances at making the playoffs.
Going into the 2025-26 season, GM Don Waddell made it clear that the goaltending needed to be better. He traded Daniil Tarasov to the Florida Panthers to make room for Jet Greaves.
Jet deserved to get his opportunity in the NHL after multiple seasons of solid play in the AHL and a phenomenal run to finish the season last year with the Blue Jackets. There was speculation that Waddell could trade Elvis or even buy him out in the summer.
However, none of that came to fruition. The tandem of Greaves and Merzlikins would be the two goalies that the CBJ went with for the 2025-26 season.
While Greaves showed promise, he had yet to perform consistently on the biggest stage. The team needed solid play from both Greaves and Merzlikins to finally make the postseason. Through 10 games so far, the team is getting just that.
Both are playing very well.
Greaves is off to a 2-3 start with a .907% save percentage and 2.81 goals against average. Those numbers aren’t bad for a rookie goaltender. Yes, there were some games that the team didn’t play well in front of him. Yes, he could play a little bit better. But he is still getting settled into an NHL role. It will take time for Greaves. I have no doubt that he will improve. But the bigger surprise is Merzlikins.
Merzlikins is off to a 4-1 start with a .915% save percentage and 2.97 goals against average. He ranks 14th in the NHL among goalies who have played 3 games or more in save percentage and he’s tied for 11th in wins. While not perfect, he has looked much more confident and has been shown flashes of how good he can be for this team.
The combination of the two goalies has given the CBJ an overall 0.911 save percentage and 3.10 goals against average. The team ranks 7th in the NHL in save percentage and 19th in goals against per game. Those are fast improvements from the 2024-2025 season, where the CBJ ranked 20th in save percentage (0.896) and 25th in goals against (3.26).
Coach Dean Evason has elected to start this season splitting the games between the two goalies; each goalie plays every other game. This allows for healthy competition and keeps each goalie fresh. So far, this approach has been working. Neither goalie has separated themselves as the starting goalie. There’s an entire season to determine who that may be.
While there’s still a long season ahead of us, the early returns of the 2-goalie rotation seem to be paying dividends for the CBJ. If both Greaves and Merzlikins can continue their strong play (or improve upon it), then this team will find a lot more success this season.