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Kids shine in win over Nashville; Five players cut

October 5, 2016, 12:33 PM ET [3 Comments]
Paul Berthelot
Columbus Blue Jackets Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
With their strong performances in the Calder Cup playoffs last season, everyone has assumed that Oliver Bjorkstrand and Zach Werenski were locks to make the Blue Jackets this season. They still may be locks but some doubt has risen up with their play this pre-season, particularly with Bjorkstrand.

Prior to last night’s game, Bjorkstrand had not registered a point in three pre-season games. People were starting to wonder if maybe he needed some more development time in the AHL. I think Bjorkstrand put any thought of that to rest with his performance last night. He scored this goal:




He also added an assist. I think everyone needs to remember that this is just pre-season and still a very small sample size. It’s only been four games, should Bjorkstrand be scoring more? Probably, but even in the pre-season players can struggle. Remember last season Nick Foligno and Ryan Johansen lit up the pre-season and look at how that turned out for them. Bjorkstrand with his play last season has earned a shot at the NHL; a slow pre-season shouldn’t change that.

There hasn’t been as much doubt with Werenski as there has been with Bjorkstrand. For Werenski it mostly stemmed from the injury he suffered in Traverse City. The team said it was nothing serious, but you can never be certain until you see him out on the ice. Werenski has played in two pre-season games, picking up an assist and scoring against Nashville.




He has a bomb of a shot and is going to make the Jackets power play so much better. It won’t be long before he's quarterbacking the team’s top unit.

After the game the Blue Jackets announced roster cuts. They have released their remaining players who were on PTO’s and assigned Daniel Zaar to the Monsters.




The interesting names still left in camp are Lukas Sedlak, Markus Hannikainen, Scott Harrington, Markus Nutivaara, and Pierre-Luc Dubois.

Hannikainen and Sedlak really haven’t proven themselves enough in the AHL to be considered for NHL spots. On top of that neither has been that impressive in the pre-season.




They both could be potential call-ups this season if they play well in the AHL and an injury occurs.

I didn’t think Harrington was going to make the team to begin with and he's even a longer shot now with the strong play of Nutivaara, which I wrote about yesterday. My guess would be the Jackets try and sneak Harrington though waivers right before the season starts.

I've written about Dubois and the case against him playing in the NHL this season. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to rush him. He needs at least another season in Junior to continue to develop and get reps at centre.

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