The World Championships get underway today and for those hungry for more Blue Jackets hockey, they will have a couple players participating.

After a long season many of the Blue Jackets opted for rest and passed on the Worlds. There are only two players from the NHL roster, William Karlsson playing for Sweden and Joonas Korpisalo for Finland. This is a great opportunity for Korpisalo, he looks like he will be the starter for Finland, so he will see a lot of reps against some very good teams. He played just 30 games between the AHL and NHL this season so this is a great chance for him to further his game.

Joining Korpisalo on Team Finland is prospect Markus Hannikainen. Hannikainen played 57 games for the Cleveland Monsters and finished third on the team with 37 points. He also received 10 NHL games where he had two points. Hannikainen will be looking to make the team next season and a good showing here would be good start.

Other players from Cleveland are Oleg Yevenko and Dean Kukan. Yevenko the big defencemen will be suiting up for Belarus and Kukan for Switzerland. Both players are restricted free agents and will be looking to play well here so they can earn that next contract. Its unlikely Yevenko gets resigned, he hasn’t been very impressive in the AHL and the Jackets have a couple players coming in who will need spots. Kukan however should definitely be back. He played 72 games for the Monsters and was the leading defencemen scorer for the team with 29 points. His path to the NHL is murky right now, but he provides good depth down in the AHL.

The other two prospects participating are Elvis Merzlikins for Latvia and Vladislav Gavrikov for Russia. Merzlikins looks to be the starter for Latvia and is developing into a very good goalie. He has played four seasons in the NLA the top league in Switzerland and has never had a save percentage below .913. Merzlikins is a name to keep an eye on for a couple years down the road. His contract with his Swiss team runs through the 2018-19 season with no NHL opt-out.

Gavrikov is a name to keep an eye for next season as the Jackets are actively trying to get him to come over. I wrote about yesterday how Gavrikov affects the defence and in short it shouldn’t too much next season. Gavrikov needs a big showing at the World Championships to prove he's ready to play in the NHL. He's been a regular in the KHL, but hasn’t done enough to make you think he could come over and be an impactful NHL defencemen. The World Championships will be a good opportunity to see how well he plays against NHL forwards.

You can follow me on Twitter @PaulBerthelot

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