For the past few seasons, the Cannon has completed a Top 25 fan rating of Jackets prospects. It’s easy to rate those prospects playing in Cleveland, but most commenters don’t have a lot of information on prospects who are playing elsewhere. Roll Call is our monthly look at some of the Columbus Blue Jackets non-Monsters prospects. Europe, Russia, and the college ranks.
Stats are as of 3/5/2020. Players are listed in order of how interesting I find them.
Kirill Marchenko
31 GP – SKA – St. Petersburg (KHL); 14 GP – SKA-Neva St. Petersburg (VHL)
Marchenko’s star continues to rise with SKA St. Petersburg. After cracking the line up regularly in November, Kirill has forced his way to a regular starting role in a league that doesn’t have a lot of teenage rookies doing damage. Marchenko has put up a 7-9-16 score line in his 31 games with St. Pete. He’s competing against much older, stronger players most nights and has gotten ample notice. Kirill earned Rookie of the Month in November and three Rookie of the Week nods in November, December, and February. Playoff action has begun in Russia. St. Pete is up 3-0 in their first round series and Marchenko has put up 3-2-5 in those 3 games. 6 of the 8 1st round matchups are looking like sweeps, though.
Kirill Marchenko will be in the KHL for another couple of years, but that’s not a bad thing for his development.
Additionally, Marchenko was on the Russian roster for the World Junior Hockey Championships which resulted in a silver medal. He scored 2-4-6 in 7 games in the WJHC and 6-7-13 in a total 14 games for the U20 national team.
Dmitri Voronkov
34 GP – Bars Kazan (KHL)
The second member of the Jackets’ KHL duo has also had a good season in the KHL. He’s stayed up the entire time with Bars Kazan, a good team in league. Dmitri sports a 5-7-12 line in his 34 games and was KHL Rookie of the Month for February. In the first round of the playoffs, Voronkov has 1-1-2 as Bars Kazan is up 2-0 in their first round series.
Voronkov also participated in the WJHC and notched 3-4-7 in 7 games to earn status as a Top 3 Player on the Russian squad.
Tim Berni
45 GP – ZSC Lions (NLA)
With all the Blue Jacket injuries – notably the one to Seth Jones – forcing me to look at what’s in the pipeline, it’s nice to see that Berni continues to be a regular fixture for the league-leading Lions. Tim Berni is, by far, the youngest player on the team at 20. His scoring has dropped off completely – 4-7-11 – but he isn’t expected to bring offense. However, he tallied 5 assists in 17 games for the WJHC for the Swiss U20 squad.
Liam Foudy
42 GP – London Knights (OHL); 2 GP – Columbus Blue Jackets (NHL)
I debated removing Foudy from this list since we’ve already seen him in Union Blue. I’ll just add some statistical updates for him. 26-37-63 in 42 games for the Knights. I think it’s safe to say that he’ll be in Columbus to start next season until he inevitably finds himself in the Torthouse and gets sent down to Cleveland for a bit.
Markus Karlberg
12 GP – Leksands IF (SHL); 26 GP – Leksands IF J20 (SuperElit); 5 GP – AIK (Allsvenskan)
Karlberg appears to be having a hard time making any kind of impact for Leksands IF in the SHL. He’s played in 12 games but hasn’t notched any points. I have a hard time finding a lot of stats, so I can’t say if he’s getting a lot of playing time or not. Considering he bounces between the Men’s squad and the J20 team, I tend to think he isn’t doing enough to crack the top line up. Still, he’s only 20, so that isn’t unexpected. For the J20 squad, Karlberg has notched 11-20-31 in 26 games. He knows how to score. If anyone knows Swedish and can find out what the deal is, I’d appreciate it.
Carson Meyer
33 GP – Ohio State (NCAA)
Meyer has had a good season for the Buckeyes putting up 12-13-25. This is not a hockey team that I follow, so feel free to heap accolades on him (or just more details) in the comments.
Daniil Tarasov
38 GP – Assat (Liiga)
Tarasov has assumed the starter’s mantle for Assat in Liiga. Unfortunately/Fortunately, that has led to plenty of work for him. Assat is not a good team, though are in a playoff position. Liiga uses the 3-2-1-0 scoring and the team has a 19-4-7-26 record. That’s a losing record. Tarasov had good stats when we last peeked in, but those have decreased in quality since November. He currently sports a .898 save % and a 2.77 GAA. From what I’ve been able to track down and read, his play is viewed positively. Tarasov is signed by the Jackets and I’ve read that he expects to be in Cleveland next year – I suspect those plans might be affected by the Elvis Merzlikins/Joonas Korpisalo contracts.
Peter Thome
10 GP – University of North Dakota
I’ll add a new name this time around. Thome has put up good numbers at UND lately and has a 1.52 GAA and .930 sv %. It is only 10 games. And it is college competition, which isn’t great (relatively speaking). I’m not sure how he fits into a crowded goalie room – if he does fit in at all, but the only thing I can do to recognize his good play is add him to this list. So… congrats, Peter!
That’s it for this look at the non-Monsters prospects. This list was not exhaustive and focused on players who had played a significant number of games. If you want to chime in on another prospect in the comments, please feel free to do so! If you have more details on someone I’ve mentioned, toss those in as well. Or, if you follow a prospect and want to pass along information for the next monthly update, you can reach out to me directly.