With 73 days to go until opening night at Nationwide Arena, there's only one person to talk about - Jet Greaves.
Jet Greaves was first eligible to be drafted into the NHL in 2019, but he would go undrafted. The kid from Cambridge, Ontario, spent the next few years playing for the Barrie Colts of the OHL. With the league not playing in 20-21, and Greaves turning 20 years old, he decided to turn pro.
Greaves would sign a pro contract with the Cleveland Monsters in 2021. In October of that year, he would make his pro debut, make 40 saves, and beat the Belleville Senators.
In the 2021-22 season, Greaves would split his time playing for Cleveland in the AHL and Kalamazoo of the ECHL. He went on to play in 29 games for the Monsters, going 12-12-3 with a GAA of 2.84 and a save % of .905. Meanwhile, in Kalamazoo, he played in 15 games, going 10-5 with a GAA of 3.05 and a save % .907. Midway through the season, he had played well enough that the Jackets rewarded Greaves with a 3-year entry-level contract. At that point and time, Greaves was not considered a top prospect in the CBJ organization, so to earn that contract was pretty cool to see.
During the 2022-23 season, Greaves was expected to play back-up to Daniil Tarasov. The plans were that Tarasov would play 55-60 games in the AHL to get himself ready to take on a bigger role with Columbus. However, due to injuries in Columbus with Elvis Merzlikins and Joonas Korpisalo, Tarasov was only able to play in 11 games for Cleveland. Tarasov himself was often injured and only played in 17 NHL games. The goalie situation was a complete disaster up and down the organization. That being said, Greaves played in 43 games for Cleveland, going 19-16-5. He had a GAA of 3.08 and a save % of .899. Some people will say that's not good, but for a 22-year-old with hardly any pro experience, he did well. So well that he earned a call-up and was able to start against his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs on April 4th, 2023. He would lose 4-2 but would make 46 saves on 49 shots.
Greaves, the Monsters' all-time leader in career wins with 82, had another very good season for the Cleveland Monsters in 24-25. The young goalie went 21-11-6-3 with a .920 SV% for the Monsters. He would go to start six playoff games, go 3-3, and have a SV% of .912.
In December of last season, Greaves was called up by Columbus when it was clear that Daniil Tarasov had fallen out of favor with the Jackets. He made four starts from Dec 12 to Dec 23 and went 1-1-2.
On April 10, Greaves was again called up due to Elvis suffering a late-season concussion, and he was amazing. He would go 5-0 with two shutouts and would give up a total of four goals in those five games. He also had a SV% of .978%. Greaves had arrived, it seemed.
Going into the next season, no one was quite sure how the goalie situation would sort itself out. That was until this spring, when the Jackets made the decision to trade Daniil Tarasov to the Florida Panthers. There you have it-It'll be Jet Greaves and Elvis Merzļikins guarding the net for the Blue Jackets in 25-26.
How well Greaves and Merzļikins will do is up for debate, but hopefully, both players push each other to be better.
GM Don Waddell has to make some important decisions regarding his goalie situation at some point. He still needs a third goalie in the system to call up if/when Greaves or Elvis should go down to injury or illness. He was asked in an interview this week about if he's looking for goalies, "I go to bed looking for goalies," he quipped.
He was also asked about Carter Hart and if he's going to talk to his camp, to which he danced around the topic just a bit. "That's a tough one! We obviously have talked about it internally here. We don't have to worry about it right now, because the league's not authorized those guys to go any place. That's probably a decision that I would take upstairs to my ownership if we were interested. You know, it's tough, I've got to be honest. Because there's the hockey side, and the personal side, and you know we've got to see how this is all going to play out. But, you know, time, I guess, will tell." Waddell goes on to joke, "I know I dodged that pretty good."
Don Waddell has his work cut out for him.
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