If there was any doubt Curtis McElhinney would be able to land another NHL (one-way) contract this summer, that's certainly disappeared with his play this season.
Starting for a banged up Blue Jackets team that hasn't really put together a good stretch of hockey all year - during their big winning streak they were outshot regularly - he has won nine of his last 12 games, and is playing very well in the process.
After his recent surge of excellent goaltending, McElhinney is up to a .918SV% on the year, which ranks him 17th in the NHL.
To put in perspective how good he's been, that's just .01 behind Semyon Varlamov, .02 behind Tuukka Rask, and ahead of the likes of Frederik Andersen (.916SV%), Ryan Miller, Ben Bishop, and Jonathan Quick (all .912SV%) among others.
For a team that has lacked stability all season long, McElhinney has been able to step in for an injured Sergei Bobrovsky, and give them Bobrovsky-type goaltending.
He owns a 10-9-1 record playing for a highly mediocre team, which is about all you can possibly ask out of a backup.
McElhinney seems to have found a good spot in Columbus and because of his play, whether he stays with the Jackets or heads elsewhere (my money is on the former), he should have no trouble landing another one-way contract.
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