{"id":43868,"date":"2019-03-19T01:11:24","date_gmt":"2019-03-19T05:11:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=43868"},"modified":"2020-12-26T16:33:56","modified_gmt":"2020-12-26T21:33:56","slug":"columbus-blue-jackets-elvis-merzlikins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2019\/03\/19\/columbus-blue-jackets-elvis-merzlikins\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Columbus Blue Jackets Sign Top Prospect Elvis Merzlikins"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/nhl-teams\/blue-jackets\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Columbus Blue Jackets<\/a> are reportedly close to\u00a0signing top prospect goaltender Elvis Merzlikins. It&#8217;s expected that he will sign an entry-level contract with the Blue Jackets.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/Aportzline\/status\/1107743557916319744<\/p>\n<h1>Elvis Merzlikins Expected to Sign With Blue Jackets<\/h1>\n<p>Merzlikins has also seen time in international play including last year during the World Cup of Hockey. He appeared in six games posting a 1.50 goals-against average and .950 save percentage. Elvis Merzlikins has been named World Championship top 3 player on a team the past three years. Also, during his\u00a0career in the NLA Merzlikins won the <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/p\/plantja01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jacques Plante<\/a><\/strong> Trophy for the goaltender of the year in 2016 and 2018.<\/p>\n<p>This season Merzlikins posted a 2.44 goals-against average and .921 save percentage in 43 games with HC Lugano.<\/p>\n<h2>What This Means for the Future<\/h2>\n<p>When the deal is official Elvis Merzlikins is expected to head to the Cleveland Monsters of the AHL. The Monsters are currently fighting for a playoff spot in Calder Cup Playoffs. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/b\/berubje02.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jean-Francois Berube<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/t\/thiesbr01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brad Thiessen<\/a><\/strong> have carried the load so far for Cleveland. However, more help will likely be welcome.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/b\/bobrose01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sergei Bobrovsky<\/a><\/strong> is set to become a UFA at end of the season and could be leaving Columbus. If this happens it would open up the door to Merzlikins picking up some AHL time next year if he doesn&#8217;t make the team out of training camp.<\/p>\n<p>Seeing how well Merzlikins has played in the NLA it wouldn&#8217;t be a surprise\u00a0if he saw time with the Blue Jackets next season. The 24-year-old goaltender will likely see action in the pre-season next year for Columbus. Additionally, he could very well be fighting for the back-up job in Columbus. The Jackets are hoping that Merlikins is their new goaltender of the future if Bobrovsky decides to leave. But, he will have to fight with <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/k\/korpijo01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joonas Korpisalo<\/a><\/strong> for the starters role.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"SCQHqC7TREhoQ9eXIpgnfg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.ca\/detail\/958930204\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'SCQHqC7TREhoQ9eXIpgnfg',sig:'a3CeNh5saNAQBJfCYUdJI1AyAHfn2O9bASQQTTeTvRY=',w:'594px',h:'384px',items:'958930204',caption: true ,tld:'ca',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Top Propect Elvis Merzlikins is reportedly signing an entry-level contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets. He is a highly touted prospect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2360,"featured_media":43890,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,34,3462,309],"tags":[112,1461,111,1434,5738,2569,955],"class_list":["post-43868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bluejackets","category-news","category-nhl-prospects","category-nhl-top-prospects","tag-ahl","tag-cleveland-monsters","tag-columbus-blue-jackets","tag-elvis-merzlikins","tag-hockey-news","tag-news","tag-nhl-news"],"modified_by":"Dan Mount, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2360"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}