Written by Adam Burke

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With no progress made and the cancellation of the entire season drawing closer, now is a good time to update where the players listed on the Columbus Blue Jackets’ roster are playing and how the team’s players are doing. Next week will be a preview of the World Junior Hockey Championships, one of my favorite hockey events of the season. All of the U.S. team’s games will be broadcast on the NHL Network and probably NHL.com and it’s safe to assume streams of games from other countries will be posted online somewhere.

As for the Blue Jackets and their roster, I’ll go in alphabetical order by position, just as the players are listed on the Blue Jackets’ official website.

Forwards

Artem Anisimov – Anisimov, a Russian native, was acquired in the Rick Nash trade with the New York Rangers prior to the lockout. During the lockout, he has been playing in the Kontinental Hockey League with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl. In 28 games, Anisimov has 23 (9 G, 14 A) points. Other players currently playing in the KHL include Evgeni Malkin, Pavel Datsyuk, Alexander Ovechkin, and goaltender Semyon Varlamov, who is Anisimov’s teammate with Lokomotiv.

Cam Atkinson – Atkinson is the leading scorer for the Springfield Falcons, Columbus’s AHL affiliate, with 29 (15 G, 14 A) points in 25 games. His 29 points rank third in the AHL. Atkinson is one of five or six players who would probably be lining up for the Jackets if the season was being played.

Jared Boll – Boll, who signed a two-year extension with the Blue Jackets prior to the lockout, is playing for TuTo in the second-tier Finnish league Mestis (SM-liiga is the primary Finnish league). He has two goals and one assist in five games to go along with 31 penalty minutes.

Derick Brassard – Brassard is currently playing in Austria, with EC Salzburg of the EBEL (Erste Bank Eishockey Liga). He has four goals and one assist in six games. The league is mostly made up of busted prospects and former NHL depth players. Reports surfaced yesterday that Brassard and teammate Derek Dorsett both left Austria to return to North America.

Derek Dorsett – As mentioned above, Dorsett had joined EC Salzburg of the EBEL. He has one assist in four games to go along with 25 penalty minutes.

Brandon Dubinsky – Dubinsky, who also came over in the Rick Nash trade, was playing for the Alaska Aces of the East Coast Hockey League before a broken hand derailed his season. Dubinsky, who was born in Anchorage, had 12 points (8 G, 4 A) in 12 games prior to the injury.

Nick Foligno – The Blue Jackets acquired Foligno’s rights on July 1 as part of a trade that sent Marc Methot to Ottawa. Foligno signed a three-year, $9.15M contract prior to the lockout. No information could be found about how Foligno is spending the lockout.

Colton Gillies – Gillies, acquired off waivers last season from Minnesota, does not appear to be playing anywhere during the lockout.

Mark Letestu – Letestu played two games for Almtuna in the second-tier Swedish league Allsvenskan before returning to Canada to be an assistant coach for the Bonnyville Pontiacs of the Alberta Junior Hockey League. Letestu played for the Pontiacs from 2002-06, including a season in which he scored 50 goals and added 55 assists in just 58 games.

Derek MacKenzie – MacKenzie does not appear to be playing anywhere during the lockout.

Vinny Prospal – Prospal has gone back to his roots during the lockout. The Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic native is playing for his hometown team in the Czech Elite League. It’s also the team that he played with during the 2004-05 lockout. Prospal has 17 points (7 G, 10 A) in 13 games. His teammates include Milan Michalek and Martin Hanzal.

RJ Umberger – Umberger, who has been very vocal about the lockout on social media, is not playing during the lockout, however, he is an assistant coach for his alma mater, the Ohio State University.

Defensemen

Adrian Aucoin – Signed as a free agent prior to the start of the lockout, the 39-year-old Aucoin appears to be taking it easy during the lockout. In his prime, Aucoin would regularly be in the top five in average ice time per game.

Jack Johnson – Johnson is not playing anywhere during the lockout.

Nikita Nikitin – The Omsk, Russia native went home to play in the KHL with Avangard Omsk, the team he played with from 2002-2010 before the St. Louis Blues signed him. In 25 games, Nikitin has two goals and nine assists. His teammates include Alexander Frolov and Sergei Kostitsyn.

Fedor Tyutin – Tyutin just recently joined Atlant Mytishchi of the KHL. The Russia native has one goal in ten games. His teammates include former Blue Jacket Nikolai Zherdev.

James Wisniewski - Wisniewski is not playing anywhere during the lockout.

Goaltenders

Steve Mason – Mason is not playing anywhere during the lockout.

Sergei Bobrovsky – Russia native Sergei Bobrovsky opted to go back to Russia to participate in the KHL during the lockout. In 17 games with SKA St. Petersburg, Bobrovsky has a 2.35 GAA and a .918 SV%.

Curtis McElhinney – The Blue Jackets signed Curtis McElhinney to be depth and insurance for this season and it appears to have paid off well. With the Springfield Falcons, McElhinney is 14-3-2 with a 2.08 GAA and a phenomenal .935 SV%. His GAA ranks sixth in the league, while his SV% ranks third.

The Others

Not listed on the Blue Jackets’ official website, but guys who might have been in Columbus had there been a season include Ryan Johansen (25, 9-11-20), John Moore (24, 3-6-9), Matt Calvert (25, 7-8-15), and Tim Erixon (25, 4-11-15), who are all playing with Springfield in the AHL.

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A brief update on the Lake Erie Monsters, who play three home games this week. The team is looking for answers as they’re in the midst of a four-game losing streak and have lost seven of 10. Based on this recent stretch of bad play, the Monsters have now allowed the most goals of any team in the Western Conference and are tied with Connecticut for the most in the league.

They’ll try to get back on track with Wednesday’s game against Toronto, followed by Thursday and Saturday matchups with the Houston Aeros. Saturday’s game is “Cleveland Lumberjacks Night”, where the team will celebrate the history of the Cleveland Lumberjacks and wear commemorative jerseys.