Thanks to everyone who voted for this year’s Top 25 Under 25 ranking. We had 102 submissions from Columbus Blue Jackets fans. We’ll be counting down the 25 highest-voted players over the next five weeks. Up next: Liam Foudy.
#13: Liam Foudy
Voting
13th out of 38 eligible players
Writer Rank: 15
Reader Rank: 9
Highest placement: 3 (2 votes)
Most common placement: 9 (14 votes)
2019 Rank: 5th
Biography
Birthdate: February 4, 2000
Birthplace: Toronto, ON, CAN
Height: 6’2”
Weight: 183 lbs
Position: Center/Wing
Shoots: Left
Acquired: Drafted by the Blue Jackets in Round 1 (18th overall) of the 2018 NHL Entry Draft
2020-21 Season
Liam Foudy found his time in Columbus and Cleveland last season. You can read MrSwift13’s review from the last season. Still searching for his first career goal — in the regular season — Foudy had four assists in 24 games with the big team, and 16 points (three goals, 13 assists) for the Monsters in 12 games. Additionally, Foudy had a couple of assists for Team Canada in the world hockey championships after the season, as well.
Foudy also dealt with injury for a chunk of the season so 2020-21 was nothing to write home about for the 21-year-old. But he’s young and maybe he’ll have a good camp?
2021-22 Forecast
Like with the rest of the roster, we’re anxious to see players develop and take hold of a largely unproven NHL roster. Can Foudy stay healthy and find some semblance of consistency? Now’s as good a time as any!
Back in late April, Aaron Portzline (Why aren’t Blue Jackets evaluating Andrew Peeke, Liam Foudy at season’s end as losses pile up?) posed the question many of us were probably wondering. Namely, why aren’t the young guys like Foudy playing, as the Blue Jackets played out the stretch post-trade deadline?
Portzline said of Foudy, “he’s the speed merchant with one of the best strides in the NHL, a player who projects as a second- or third-line forward and a potentially frightening penalty killer.”
Jarmo Kekalainen was quoted in that same article as saying, “(Foudy) has played 20 minutes a game in Cleveland, playing good, playing confident, making a difference. In the outings we’ve had at this level, he hasn’t looked that confident.
“Our responsibility and the coaching staff’s responsibility is to recognize things like that and put them in the places where they can succeed rather than putting them in situations where they fail.”
Highlights
The highlights weren’t aplenty but here’s a snippet of Foudy making a play and using his vision to create a goal and get an assist on the scoresheet. Side note: I just realized Seeds also used this same highlight for Foudy, and as he said, this game is the only game he recorded a point for the Blue Jackets in which they won.