Joonas Korpisalo’s path has been a long one, and it has never really followed a straight line. From the moment he arrived in North America in 2015, he kept working his way toward bigger opportunities, and for a while in Columbus, he was exactly what the Blue Jackets needed behind Sergei Bobrovsky.
His first taste of North American hockey came with the Springfield Falcons, where he played three games and went 0-2 with a 3.20 GAA and a .878 save percentage. The next season brought a change for the organization, as the Blue Jackets moved their affiliate from Springfield, Massachusetts, to Lake Erie. That shift helped Korpisalo settle in quickly with the Monsters.
He made a strong impression in Cleveland, playing 18 games that season and going 8-8-4 with a 2.36 GAA and a .913 save percentage. Even more important, he went 6-2 in the Calder Cup Playoffs and helped the Monsters win the 2016 Calder Cup. He and former Monster Anton Forsberg carried the team through that run.
Korpisalo’s NHL workload stayed limited at first because Bobrovsky was healthy and playing well. In 2016-17, he appeared in 14 NHL games for Columbus and 16 games in Cleveland, finishing 7-5-1 with the Blue Jackets and 7-6-5 with the Monsters. The following season, his NHL games climbed to 18, and he went 8-8-1 in Columbus while also posting a 3-4-2 mark in Cleveland.
By 2018-19, Korpisalo was seeing more action than ever. He played in 27 games, including starts and relief appearances, and finished 10-7-3. Bobrovsky was pulled often that season for various reasons, and Korpisalo did not make any playoff starts.
Then came 2019, when Bobrovsky left for Florida and the starting job opened up. Elvis Merzļikins also arrived in North America that year, and the two were set to battle for the crease.
Korpisalo won the job, played in 37 games, and went 19-12-5 with a 2.60 GAA and a .911 save percentage. In April of 2020, he earned a contract extension.
That set the stage for his biggest postseason moment. Korpisalo started in the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs and helped Columbus upset the Toronto Maple Leafs in the play-in round.
Then came Game 1 against the Tampa Bay Lightning, when he set the single-game record with 85 saves in an overtime game for the ages. The game stretched to a fifth overtime, but the Blue Jackets lost both that night and the series.
The next few seasons were rough for both Korpisalo and the Blue Jackets. Over three seasons splitting time with Merzļikins, Korpisalo posted a 3.54 GAA and a .894 save percentage. The defense in front of him did not help matters, and both goalies took the hit.
His time in Columbus ended on March 1st, 2023, when he and defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov were traded to the LA Kings. Korpisalo played well in Los Angeles, going 7-3-1 with a 2.13 GAA and a .921 save percentage in the regular season. The playoffs were a different story, and the Kings were eliminated in the first round.
On Jul. 1, 2023, Korpisalo signed a 5-year, $20,000,000 contract with the Ottawa Senators.
His first season as a full-time starter did not go the way he hoped. He started a career-high 49 games and appeared in 55 total, finishing 21-26-4 with a .809 save percentage and a 3.27 GAA.
After the 2023-24 season, Ottawa traded him to the Boston Bruins for Linus Ullmark. In Boston, Korpisalo backed up Jeremy Swayman and was expected to hold things down when Swayman was not in net. He was viewed by many as a career backup, but the chance remained for him to play well enough to earn another shot as a starter in a year or two.
During his Columbus years, Korpisalo played 90 games over four seasons, with 81 starts. He was backing up one of the best active goalies in the game, so opportunities were hard to come by.
Still, when he got the net, he usually handled it well. Early on, the offense around him often struggled, but that eventually changed.
Through ten seasons, Korpisalo has a 126-117-32 record with a GAA just above 3 and a .901 save percentage. He was also given a chance to play for a bona fide Stanley Cup contender and be a valuable member of that team. In Boston, he went 25-19-9.
On 1 July 2026, Korpisalo was traded to the New York Rangers in exchange for Kalle Väisänen and a 2028 fourth-round draft pick. He will now be a division rival of the CBJ.
For people who know Columbus well, the answer on Korpisalo is usually the same: yes, he can succeed. The bigger question is whether he still has enough runway left to do it as a starter.
In Other News...
Blue Jackets Just Made Their Decision On Cole Sillinger
Cole Sillingers next chapter in Columbus is settled, giving the Blue Jackets another piece of their forward group locked in for the long haul. The restricted free agent has agreed to a three-year contract after spending his entire NHL career with the club since being taken 12th overall in 2021, a move that keeps one of the organizations younger regulars in place as the roster continues to take shape.
For Columbus, the decision also clarifies where Sillinger fits in the lineup. He is expected to remain in a third-line role, giving the Blue Jackets a dependable middle-six option they can continue to develop without having to revisit his status again anytime soon. The deal carries him through the 2028-29 season, so the next question is less about whether he stays and more about how much his game can grow in the role the team has mapped out for him. [Read more 🡒]
Don Waddell Just Changed The Blue Jackets' Biggest Contract Question
The Blue Jackets have quietly taken a big chunk of business off the board by locking up Jet Greaves and Cole Sillinger on separate three-year deals, and the timing matters as much as the contracts themselves. For a team trying to keep its books clean, Don Waddell has managed to avoid the kind of rushed, cap-clogging move that can haunt a roster later, and these two signings give Columbus a much clearer path as it starts sorting out its next wave of core players.
Adam Fantilli is the name that now hangs over the rest of the summer, and the structure of these deals suggests the Blue Jackets are preserving room for a major extension without boxing themselves in. Greaves contract took some late work to get across the finish line, which only adds to the sense that Columbus was willing to be patient rather than force the issue, and that approach could end up defining how the front office handles its most important negotiation next. [Read more 🡒]
The Cam Atkinson Trade Still Hits Blue Jackets Fans Hard
The Cam Atkinson trade still lands with a thud in Columbus, even years later, because it marked the end of one of the most recognizable stretches of the franchises modern era. On July 24, 2021, Atkinson was dealt to the Philadelphia Flyers for Jake Vorek, a move that sent a longtime Blue Jackets face out the door and brought back a player with his own well-established track record.
Voreks stay in Columbus ended up being brief, and the aftershocks of the deal never really faded for fans who had spent years associating Atkinson with the teams identity. Atkinson eventually came back to close the loop in October 2025, signing a one-day contract so he could retire as a Blue Jacket, a final touch that only underscored how much that trade had altered the emotional shape of the roster and the fan base. [Read more 🡒]