Welcome to our first mid-week heat check! Each week, we'll take a look at one player in the Union Blue and one player on another team who are stepping up, and occasionally play savior for your fantasy team.
Speaking of playing savior, we'll lead this off with a guy who did just that last night.
Oliver Damn Bjorkstrand
Last week, I posed the most pointless trivia question ever in our 1st Ohio Battery Slack: Who is the Blue Jackets second-leading scorer?
The answer – still! – is Oliver Bjorkstrand, and I, like an idiot, was somehow surprised to find this out. That's right – I was surprised despite having watched every minute of Blue Jackets hockey this year and, you know, writing about it.
Well, he re-introduced himself to the hockey world last night, with two absolute lasers.
Bjorkstrand doing what he does best with his first goal of the night. Zips right past Bishop.#CBJ pic.twitter.com/jnT09Lvs3s
— 1st Ohio Battery (@1stOhioBattery) January 3, 2018
Two goals for Oliver. The second shot may be even better than the first. What a snipe.#CBJ pic.twitter.com/KQYdxEzQ5K
— 1st Ohio Battery (@1stOhioBattery) January 3, 2018
Bjorkstrand has somehow flown under the radar this year due to a variety of factors. He’d lost his rookie status, but hadn’t quite become a staple in the lineup. He’d played solid, but hadn’t quite lit up the league like he did in the WHL and AHL. He was under Cam Atkinson and, later, Josh Anderson on the line chart. And then there was the acquisition of Artemi Panarin, the physical manifestation of the most lofty Bjorkstrand fan pipe dreams: a dynamic, skilled, slender right handed winger.
He hasn’t been the offensive juggernaut that he was in the WHL, lighting the lamp almost every night, but he’s been a seriously productive player so far. Last night’s two goals bring his season line to 8-18-26 in 41 games, roughly a 51-goal pace. That’s not an aberration, either – he’s scored at about a 50-point pace since he stepped foot on NHL ice.
In 79 career games, he has 18 goals and 47 points, just five of which have come on the power play. That’s legit top-six forward production from a kid who still has a lot of room to grow.
His role will only grow over the next couple of weeks, with Atkinson still out, and he should get more minutes beyond that. This isn’t necessarily a fantasy hockey advice column, but it’s worth noting that he is somehow available in 92% (!!) of Yahoo! leagues.
William Karlsson
A bit of well-deserved love for a former Jacket here, as William Karlsson’s incredible season hit a new high on New Year’s Eve, when he scored the first ever hat trick for the Vegas Golden Knights.
The third goal was one of the most impressive empty-netters you'll ever see.
The long-haired Swede has taken his game up a few (dozen) notches in Sin City, with 20 (!!) goals and 13 assists in 37 games. There’s just one Blue Jacket (Artemi Panarin) who’s posted more points so far this season.
His 26.3% shooting percentage is obviously due for some regression. If he could (somehow) keep that rate up, he’d finish with one of the 25 best seasons ever for shooting percentage. That (probably) won’t happen, but it’s clear that Reilly Smith and Jonathan Marchessault are enjoying his company. The pair has combined for 43 assists, and both are on pace for career highs in that category.
It’s easy to look back on the expansion draft and wonder what the Jackets’ roster could have looked like had they been able to hold on to him, but that’s all a moot point now. At this point, the most fitting feeling is happiness for Wild Bill, a fan favorite throughout his time in Columbus.
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