The Columbus Blue Jackets have cycled through 36 different goalies in their 25 years in the NHL, but only a handful have really separated themselves at the top of the franchise record book.
When you sort the numbers, the list of the five winningest goalies in team history tells a pretty clear story. Sergei Bobrovsky stands alone, Elvis Merzļikins is still climbing, and a few familiar names from earlier eras helped shape the position in Columbus along the way.
At No. 5 is Marc Denis, who played for the Blue Jackets from 2001 to 2006 and finished with 84 wins in 253 starts. Denis was one of the original CBJ goalies, and the numbers show how much he carried during those early years.
In the 2002-03 season, he started 77 games and went 27-41-8 with 5 shutouts. That workload also left him with 4,510:55 played in a single season, which still ranks fifth all-time.
His 77 games are second all-time, behind only 78, and that kind of usage is almost impossible to imagine in today’s NHL.
Joonas Korpisalo comes in at No. 4 with 87 wins in 190 starts from 2016 to 2023. His Columbus run came with some tough timing, first with Sergei Bobrovsky already in town and then with Elvis arriving after that.
Korpisalo’s time with the Blue Jackets had its highs and lows, and opinions on him have always been split. Some view him as a No. 1 goalie, while others don’t.
Steve Mason is next at No. 3, with 96 wins in 224 starts from 2008 to 2013. Mason’s Blue Jackets story still stands out because of how fast it took off.
He won the 2009 Calder Trophy, got a Vezina nomination, and led Columbus to the Stanley Cup Playoffs as a rookie. The problem was that the team never made it back to the postseason with him in net, and he was traded in 2013.
Elvis Merzļikins holds the No. 2 spot with 108 wins in 258 starts since 2019. His recent years have been rough, but he remains a fixture in the Blue Jackets crease and has the second-most wins by any goalie in franchise history.
He is entering the final year of his contract and is expected to be Jet Greaves’ No. 2.
And then there’s Sergei Bobrovsky, who is in a class of his own. From 2013 to 2019, he piled up 213 wins in 369 starts, along with 33 shutouts and a .921 save percentage.
He won two Vezinas in Columbus and was nominated for three more. The future Hall of Famer left in 2019 for Florida, where he eventually won a Stanley Cup, and his exit still stings plenty of Blue Jackets fans.
Even so, his grip on the top spot in the franchise goalie rankings looks secure for a long time.
There are goalie prospects in the system, but none are ready to challenge Greaves. If Columbus does not re-sign Merzļikins next year, Sergei Ivanov is expected to back up Greaves unless the Blue Jackets bring in a veteran and let Ivanov keep developing in the AHL. Still, the expectation is that Ivanov will be in the NHL, which is why the team signed him and left him one more year in the KHL.
In Other News...
Blue Jackets Goalie Prospect Timeline Just Took An Unexpected Turn
The Blue Jackets goalie pipeline took a small but notable detour with Sergei Ivanov, who had already signed his entry-level deal and now appears set to spend one more season with SKA St. Petersburg before coming over to North America. For Columbus, it is less a setback than a delay, but it does push back the point when the organization can get a closer look at a prospect it has been tracking as part of its long-term depth in net.
Around the league, there is no shortage of summer loose ends, either. Matvei Michkov has been back home in Russia working with a trainer and is expected back in the Philadelphia area in early August to keep building toward camp, while the Flyers and Trevor Zegras are headed for an arbitration hearing next week with no fresh contract agreement in sight. For a Blue Jackets team trying to sort out its own future in goal, Ivanovs timeline now sits alongside a few other reminders that plenty of roster business still has to be sorted before September arrives. [Read more 🡒]
Don Waddell Just Addressed The Zach Werenski Tension Columbus Felt
The Zach Werenski chatter that swirled around Columbus this week had more to do with outside noise than any real fracture inside the organization, according to general manager Don Waddell. He said the trade speculation did not match the private conversations the Blue Jackets were having, and the bigger picture remains the same: Werenski is still central to what the team wants to build after a Norris Trophy-winning season.
Waddell also made clear that Werenskis focus has stayed on Columbus and on helping the Blue Jackets get back to the playoffs. For a team trying to move past years of frustration, that matters as much as any rumor cycle, especially when it involves one of the leagues top defensemen and a player the front office still views as part of the solution. [Read more 🡒]
Blue Jackets Fans Still Remember This Franchise's Strangest Goalie Revolving Door
The Blue Jackets have cycled through more than a few goaltenders over the years, and the franchises early history in particular produced some names that only longtime fans tend to remember. A recent look back at that revolving door dug into the low-usage goalies who passed through Columbus, the kind of stopgaps and short-term fixes that can shape a teams identity as much as its stars do.
What makes the list interesting is how different those careers turned out once they left Columbus. Some of those goalies barely got a foothold in the NHL with the Blue Jackets before moving on, while others saw their time in Columbus become a small chapter in longer careers elsewhere. It also serves as a reminder that the current prospect pool in net is still being sorted out, with a couple of young names drawing attention even if the pipeline is not exactly overflowing. [Read more 🡒]