{"id":737215,"date":"2026-06-15T00:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T00:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/737215\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T00:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T00:26:10","slug":"landing-spots-for-blue-jackets-elvis-merzlikins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/737215\/","title":{"rendered":"Landing spots for Blue Jackets Elvis Merzlikins"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

While the Columbus Blue Jackets<\/a> aren’t hurting for cap space (they have $32.36 million), it never hurts to optimize it further. And during the postseason, they have a chance to recapture more of it by trading veteran goaltender Elvis Merzlikins.<\/p>\n

Merzlikins<\/a>‘ current cap hit with the Blue Jackets is $5.4 million, and he has one year left on the deal he signed with the Blue Jackets in 2022, with then general manager Jarmo Kekalainen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Once thought to be the next star in the Blue Jackets system, the 76th pick in 2014 never developed into the team’s no. 1 goalie, after the departures of Sergei Bobrovsky and Joonas Korpisalo.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, staring down the ascension of prospect Jet Greaves, who put on a stellar performance during the 2025-26 season, with a record of 55 games played, 26-19-9, a 2.60 goals against average, and an above-average .908 save percentage<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0Merzlikins, in contrast, had a record that looked like that of an NHL backup, starting only 30 games, with a record of 14-11-3, 3.40 goals against average, and .883 save percentage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Merzlikin’s time in Columbus has been on a steady decline, after experiencing the loss of his best friend Matiss Kivlenieks, who died after being struck by fireworks at a July 4th party in Michigan in 2021<\/a>. The Latvian goalie would play the 2021-22 season in honor of his friend and would play with a goal of earning a Vezina Trophy<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Going into the season, the 27-year-old said his focus was to honour Kivlenieks by going all-in to be the best goalie in the NHL and win the Vezina Trophy.<\/p>\n

The season would end, with Merzlikins playing his last season above .900, finishing the year with a .907<\/a> save percentage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, with the Blue Jackets moving in a different direction under general manager Don Waddell, the team could move on from Merzlikins to give him a fresh start elsewhere.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Where would Merzlikins fit?<\/p>\n

Edmonton Oilers<\/p>\n

The combination of Connor Ingram and Tristan Jarry isn’t working.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jarry played 19 games with the Oilers and finished the year with a GAA of 3.86 and an .858 SV%. All signs point. Flipping Jarry could be a challenge, but GM Stan Bowman can’t sit aside and do nothing, as the Oilers have been plagued with underperforming goaltenders. Is a buyout, or a trade with a prospect, or draft pick attached to swallow the bitter pill of his $5.375 million AAV deal?<\/p>\n

Philadelphia Flyers<\/p>\n

The Philadelphia Flyers made it to the Stanley Cup playoffs under head coach Rick Tocchet, but didn’t have enough support in goal to make it further than the first round.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Goaltender Daniel Vladar took control of the crease and gave the Flyers a shot of life near the end of the year, finishing the regular season with a record of 52 games played, 29-14-7, 2.42 goals against average, and a .906 save percentage. However, his counterpart Samuel Ersson, played below expectations (3.12 GAA and .870 SV%)<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Vladar will need a new backup in order to keep the team’s surprise window of contention open. Could Merzlikins be the right goalie for the job?<\/p>\n

James Guillory-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While the Columbus Blue Jackets aren’t hurting for cap space (they have $32.36 million), it never hurts to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":737216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-737215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=737215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/737216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=737215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=737215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=737215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}