Joonas Korpisalo Brought to Blue Jackets Affiliate

In a week that has seen several top European prospects move to North America, the Columbus Blue Jackets have jumped on board by bringing over top Finnish goaltending prospect Joonas Korpisalo.

Korpisalo, who was the Jackets’ third round pick in the 2012 NHL draft, will join the American Hockey League’s Springfield Falcons to end his 2015 season (of course, as we learned today, the Falcons won’t be the Jackets affiliate for long).

At 20 years old, Korpisalo has been playing with the Finnish club Tampere where he was 14-13-7 with a 2.34 goals against average. This was his first ever professional season, and playing in the AHL to close out the year will give the young goalie a look at the North American style of play.

Korpisalo was a part of Team Finland in the 2013 World Junior Championships as well after he was drafted by the Blue Jackets.

Columbus is arguably the deepest team in the NHL when it comes to goaltenders. Sergei Bobrovsky, still just 26 years old, is a former Vezina winner and doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. Backup Curtis McElhinney has played very well when called upon while Bobrovsky was injured and could become a starter somewhere else next season.

Anton Forsberg, who has seen some NHL team, is one of the top goalie prospects in the game and behind him on the Springfield depth chart is Swedish goaltender Oscar Dansk.

At 6’2 and 176 lbs, Korpisalo is athletic for his size while also being big enough to man an NHL net with no problems. He’s a butterfly style goalie and his quick going post to post and has shown a lot of promise in the clutch over in Finland.

While he will face a lot of competition in Columbus, Korpisalo has the skills and tools to be a starting NHL goaltender, whether that be with the Blue Jackets or not. If McElhinney is gone at the start of next year, Forsberg will be the likely backup and that leaves Korpisalo and Dansk to play together in the AHL, which will be Lake Erie next season. Interestingly, both ‘tenders were drafted in 2012 with Dansk being drafted one round earlier.

As a young goaltender, the problems in Korpisalo’s development have been rebound control and decision making with being aggressive out of the net, as we typically will see with several young goaltenders. Getting him to play the North American game before competing next season can only help with his development.