Columbus Blue Jackets

The Montreal Canadiens went from a Stanley Cup Final in 2021 to picking No. 1 overall in the 2022 NHL draft during a year in which the Habs are hosting the event at Bell Centre.

What a wild year it's been for one of the NHL's most historic franchises. Montreal is going to party like it's 1993. 

Shane Wright is the projected first overall pick. There has been some debate as to whether or not the OHL center is worthy of the honor after a slow start to the season, but 94 points in 63 games with the Kingston Frontenacs was good enough to land him on top of the NHL's Central Scouting bureau's latest prospect rankings. 

The New Jersey Devils are picking second, marking the fourth time in six years the club has selected in the top five. The Arizona Coyotes, who had the second-best odds to land the first pick, will select third, the Seattle Kraken fourth and the Philadelphia Flyers will go fifth. 

The Ottawa Senators and Detroit Red Wings won a few too many games and they'll go seventh and eighth, respectively. The Columbus Blue Jackets got the Chicago Blackhawks' sixth pick as part of the terms of the Seth Jones trade and they'll make two selections in the first round. 

Let's take a look at some of the highs and lows from the night with draft lottery winners and losers. 

Winner: Montreal Canadiens

Wright should start brushing up on his French. 

The OHL forward is one of eight players in CHL history to be granted exceptional status and he was clearly worthy, scoring 39 goals in 58 games as a 15-year-old. A speedy, skilled center like Wright is the perfect building block piece for a team like the Habs. Putting Wright behind Nick Suzuki will give them a 1-2 punch up the middle that can grow together as new general manager Kent Hughes and president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton build around those two and winger Cole Caufield. 

Last year, the Canadiens were the talk of the draft for the wrong reason. Former general manager Marc Bergevin stood at the podium at Bell Centre and defiantly chose Logan Mailloux, a prospect who had asked teams not to choose him after he was convicted of a crime of sexual nature in Sweden. There was some concern that it would damage the brand and isolate women who support the team. 

But Bergevin was fired less than two months into the 2021-22 season and he's now working under Rob Blake in Los Angeles. It's a new era in Montreal, and though it likely won't be a successful one right away, the team has turned the page and the excitement is rapidly building. 

Loser: Philadelphia Flyers

This is a big offseason for general manager Chuck Fletcher. The Flyers don't have a coach, a clear team identity or a clear direction in which the team is headed. The club has decided to stick with the GM it hired in the fall of 2018 as they attempt an "aggressive retool" after a season Fletcher described as "beyond unacceptable." 

It's not that the fifth pick is bad. The general consensus is that this is a very good draft class, but one that still has some question marks after Wright.

Maybe they end up with another center like Matthew Savoie, a very skilled and disciplined playmaker. Maybe it's a big defenseman like David Jiricek they can pair with Ivan Provorov in the future (should they keep Provorov).

The 2023 class is absolutely loaded, but this one has a lot of high-end talent, so the Flyers are going to get a quality player and a possible franchise cornerstone. It just might not be one that makes an impact right away. Fletcher said he's not asking fans to wait 5-7 years for a winning product and a player like Wright, who could step into a lineup next season, would have helped expedite that retool. 

Winner: New Jersey Devils

The Devils have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to prospects these days, which is a change from some lottery seasons a few years ago. The cupboards were pretty bare when they took Swiss center Nico Hischier at No. 1 overall in 2017. They can add another talented young player to that stockpile with the second overall pick.

Things were looking up three years ago when they chose Jack Hughes with the first overall pick, but things quickly fell apart. And now the club is at a crossroads: This rebuild cannot last forever. 

The fans have been angry for years since this was not a club that really underwent any significant rebuilds when longtime former general manager and president Lou Lamoriello was running the show. But they've made the playoffs just once since 2012 and this last season was marred by injuries to top players like Hughes and Dougie Hamilton and bad goaltending. 

They won't find that goaltender with the No. 2 pick, but it could help them obtain one.

Could general manager Tom Fitzgerald be swayed to give it up for a true No. 1 goalie? He seemed to be open to the possibility last week when he addressed the media in his end-of-season press conference, saying if he see a trade that would upgrade the NHL roster he would not hesitate to make it.

The Anaheim Ducks are rebuilding, and John Gibson is rumored to be on the market. Or maybe it's an impact defenseman to play with Hamilton or a high-end winger for Hughes. 

There are tons of possibilities and the Devils are in a good spot with that second pick. 

Loser: Arizona Coyotes

All that tanking and the desert dogs only got the third pick. 

Look, it's not that the No. 3 overall pick is a bad thing, but a player like Wright would bring some much-needed excitement and talent to a team in desperate need of both. 

The Coyotes will play next season and possibly beyond at Arizona State's new rink. No offense to the Sun Devils because that program is a great success story of the growth of hockey in an untraditional market, but an NHL team shouldn't be playing in a 5000-seat college rink intended for intramural sports. The morale is low in the desert right now and for good reason.

Arizona can continue tanking next season to get Connor Bedard or Matvei Michkov. Maybe by the time Michkov, a KHL player who is under contract with SKA St. Petersburg through 2025, is able to play in North America the new arena in Tempe that has long been promised will finally be completed. 

Winner: Columbus Blue Jackets, Buffalo Sabres

The Sabres have a whopping three first-round picks, while the Blue Jackets have two lottery picks. Both teams have options when it comes to using those selections. 

Columbus didn't move up or down, but it did get the Blackhawks first-round pick. Had Chicago won either of the top two picks, the Blue Jackets would have received the first-round pick next year. Chicago did Columbus a solid with such a dismal season but not too dismal, and as a result the team received the sixth pick and the Jones trade was finally completed.

Last season, the Blue Jackets used two of their 2021 draftees, Kent Johnson and Cole Sillinger, and saw good production and development from both. They're hoping to replicate that success as they build toward becoming a playoff team in the near future.

This is a chance for the Sabres to grab a few more prospects and show that they have improved their player development program. So far, it appears as though strides have been made in this area, as is evidenced by center Tage Thompson and his breakout season, but these next few years be crucial for a franchise that tries to shed its losing reputation and prove that it can develop talent and build a winning team. 

Loser: Chicago Blackhawks

This was the result of bad management. The 'Hawks went all in last summer and as a result, they gave up that pick in the Jones trade. Former general manager Stan Bowman made a short-sighted decision to try and load up in an attempt to give Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews one more chance at a Stanley Cup. But Bowman resigned amid following the investigation of the sexual assault allegations against Brad Aldrich and the team was bad right from the start. They fired coach Jeremy Colliton and Derek King still has the interim tag. 

The Blackhawks took the interim tag off of general manager Kyle Davidson, and it sure sounds like he's going to start rebuilding. A first-round pick sure would help jump-start a rebuild, but the 'Hawks will have to wait until next year to select one.

The NHL is planning to play six games, including four regular-season matchups, as part of its Global Series in 2022. 

Per Dan Rosen of NHL.com, the league announced the Nashville Predators, San Jose Sharks, Colorado Avalanche and Columbus Blue Jackets will take part in the Global Series next season. 

The Predators will take on SC Bern of the Swiss National League at PostFinance Arena in Switzerland on Oct. 3. The Sharks will play at Mercedes-Benz Arena in Berlin, Germany against Deutsche Eishockey Liga team Eisbaren Berlin on Oct. 4. 

Nashville and San Jose will play each other to start the 2022-23 regular season at the O2 Arena in Prague on Oct. 7 and 8. 

Finland's Nokia Arena will host the Blue Jackets and Avalanche for games on Nov. 4 and 5. 

The NHL began its Global Series in 2017 with the Avalanche and Ottawa Senators playing two games in Sweden. 

Starting in 2018, the league added exhibition games against European teams to the schedule. This will mark the second time that SC Bern has played against an NHL club. Its first game was a 3-2 overtime loss to the New Jersey Devils in October 2018. 

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NHL Global Series hasn't taken place since 2019. Commissioner Gary Bettman told reporters during his All-Star weekend press conference in February the event would be returning next season. 

Before the debut of the Global Series, the international series was known as NHL Premiere. It was held on a semi-annual basis from 2000-2011. The league had a record six teams open the 2010-11 regular season in Europe. 

The Avalanche are the only team in the 2022 Global Series that has participated in this event before. They lost regular-season games against the Ottawa Senators in Stockholm, Sweden, in November 2017. 

Colorado is currently tied with the Florida Panthers for the most points in the NHL this season (116). It has clinched the best record in the Western Conference with five games remaining. 

The Predators are currently the No. 1 wild card in the Western Conference with 93 points. The Sharks and Blue Jackets have been eliminated from playoff contention.     

The NHL has postponed three more games this week because of COVID-19, the league announced Sunday. The Toronto Maple Leafs, Pittsburgh Penguins, Columbus Blue Jackets, Chicago Blackhawks, Boston Bruins and Ottawa Senators are the teams impacted.

The NHL and NHL Players Association also agreed to the reintroduction of taxi squads in order to provide teams with players who can be recalled to avoid having games postponed in the future. 

Each team will be allowed to have a taxi squad of up to six players. In addition, teams are allowed to make emergency recalls from the minors if COVID-19 were to prevent them from playing with a full lineup. 

Taxi squads will be in effect until at least the All-Star break in February. Players on the taxi squad will count as being in the for the salary cap and can be there for a minimum of 20 days. 

The NHL also had taxi squads during the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season. 

Several players have entered COVID-19 health and safety protocols since returning from the holiday break, including Bruins forward Charlie Coyle, Maple Leafs forward Williams Nylander and Penguins forward Evan Rodrigues. 

The NHL began its holiday break earlier than expected this year because of a rise in positive COVID-19 cases across the league. Every team was shut down beginning Dec. 22, though most were on pause before that point. 

Several teams are set to return to action on Tuesday, including the Tampa Bay Lightning, Montreal Canadiens, Vegas Golden Knights, Los Angeles Kings, Arizona Coyotes and San Jose Sharks.

Because of postponements across the league and rise in COVID-19 cases, the NHL and NHLPA also recently decided that players would not attend the Winter Olympics in Beijing. The league needs the two-week break in the February schedule to make up more than 50 postponed games.  

Oakland County (Michigan) prosecutor Karen McDonald's office has ruled that Columbus Blue Jackets goaltender Matiss Kivlenieks' death on July 4 was accidental and said that there will be no criminal charges filed, per Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch.

A Michigan medical examiner ruled on July 5 that Kivlenieks died of chest trauma from "an errant fireworks mortar blast," per ESPN News Services.

Per Hedger, Kivlenieks attended a post-wedding celebration at the Novi, Michigan home of Columbus goaltenders coach Manny Legace, whose daughter had just been married:

Kivlenieks, 24, died after being struck in the chest by a three-inch mortar shell fired from a tube that tipped toward a hot tub in which he was seated. 

The fireworks device was a 'cake style' rack of nine mortar shells in tubes arranged in three rows of three.

The autopsy found that Kivlenieks died after suffering fatal damage to his heart and lungs.

Novi police initially conducted an investigation and ruled Kivlenieks’ death a "tragic accident," per Hedger. The department did not recommend criminal charges.

The report was sent to McDonald's office, which investigated the incident for nearly five months. Following the office's ruling, the case is now closed.

Kivlenieks appeared in eight games across two seasons with the Blue Jackets. The Latvian went undrafted, but he signed a three-year deal with Columbus in 2017 and played for the club's AHL affiliate, the Cleveland Monsters, before making his NHL debut during the 2019-20 campaign.

American Thanksgiving has passed, which means hockey fans are free to look at the standings.

The holiday serves as a benchmark that signals the unofficial start of playoff races. With two months of play complete and teams hitting the 20-game mark, we have an idea of team identities, strengths and areas that will be targeted as we approach the March 21 trade deadline.

We can start to determine which teams have chances and which teams do not.

But that isn't easy in the Metropolitan Division. The last-place team, the New York Islanders, was a game away from reaching the Stanley Cup Final last season. Metro teams hold the final two playoff spots in the Eastern Conference, and two others are within four points. The Washington Capitals lead the NHL with 33 points, and the Carolina Hurricanes and New York Rangers sit right behind them. It is an incredibly tight division.

No offense to the Atlantic Division, but if the Boston Bruins have any shot of making the playoffs, they will likely need to bump the Florida Panthers, the Toronto Maple Leafs or the two-time defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning out of a playoff spot in their division. The Bruins could still bring back free-agent goalie Tuukka Rask and make a run, but with so many good teams in the Metro Division, it's an uphill battle for everyone in the Eastern Conference. 

Each team in this division started the season with playoff hopes, except for maybe the Columbus Blue Jackets. But Columbus has improved quickly, which has made for a crowded division. It's difficult to handicap this race because so much of the season is left and things like injuries will factor into performances, so we'll look at each team and determine whether its playoff hopes are legitimate or not.

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The teams at the top

Let's start with the three best. Carolina, Washington and the Rangers are pulling away from the rest of the division.

Alexander Ovechkin looks ageless with 19 goals. The captain netted a hat trick Friday against the Panthers, and while that might be standard for Ovi, it's not every day you see a 36-year-old score at that pace.

He's putting up 1.68 points per game, which ranks third in the NHL, and has recaptured some magic with Evgeny Kuznetsov. A reinvigorated Kuznetsov is important—for himself, considering the Caps looked into offloading him over the summer, but especially for the depleted lineup.

T.J. Oshie is out with a foot injury, Anthony Mantha is out indefinitely with a shoulder injury, Lars Eller has been in COVID-19 protocol since Nov. 16, Nicklas Backstrom started the season on injured reserve after offseason hip surgery, and Conor Sheary and Justin Schultz are both day-to-day.

The subplot is Ovechkin's chase to match Wayne Gretzky's all-time scoring record. He needs 145 to match the Great One's record of 894 goals, and with the way he's playing, he could knock off 30 more this season.

Carolina is one of the best possession teams in the league in 5-on-5. This has been the Hurricanes' calling card for a few years. It's a straightforward approach: Shoot the puck. A lot. The best defense in today's NHL is offense.

Buoyed by elite shooters like Andrei Svechnikov and Sebastian Aho, Carolina started the season winning nine straight. A plus-23 goal differential suggests these numbers are sustainable, and this has been an elite team for years.

Frederik Andersen and Antti Raanta might not be an elite goaltending tandem, but Andersen is having a bounce-back season. Until he slips, the doubters can remain quiet. 

The Rangers have been among the worst teams in the league at 5-on-5. Per NaturalStatTrick.com, their 45.19 Corsi percentage is the lowest in the NHL. The bulk of their offense has come from Chris Kreider (15 goals). Only 37 of the team's 59 goals have been scored at even strength. But they're defending well and have had elite goaltending from Igor Shesterkin. 

The Rangers have made it known they would like to take the next step in their rebuild and make the playoffs. This could be the year, and it should with the high-end talent they possess, but they might be on the bubble with other teams on their heels.

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The teams in the middle

A cluster of teams is within a few points of one another. The Blue Jackets and Pittsburgh Penguins each have 24 points. The New Jersey Devils have 22, and the Philadelphia Flyers have 20. The Blue Jackets and Devils are on the upswing, and the Flyers and Penguins appear to be hanging on, trying to stave off rebuilds. 

The Penguins are sticking around in the standings because of goalie Tristan Jarry. Last year, some blamed Jarry for Pittsburgh's lack of success. The club cleared the path for Jarry by parting ways with Marc-Andre Fleury and Matt Murray, and many wondered if that was the right move, especially as Fleury played Vezina-caliber hockey in Las Vegas. 

Some of the criticism was valid, but Jarry is proving to be the No. 1 goalie the club envisioned he would be. 

After shutting out the Islanders on Friday, Jarry's .936 save percentage is tied for third in the league, and his mark of 9.63 goals saved above average is the third-best. His performance has been crucial considering the Penguins went without Sidney Crosby to start the season and Evgeni Malkin is still on IR. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wPZz2_Rlr4

The Devils and the Blue Jackets have a road map in place. They know where they want to go, and they're attempting to get there through talent development. New Jersey is seeing good results as players like Dawson Mercer and Yegor Sharangovich play big roles. When the Devils finally get Jack Hughes healthy again, they could be dangerous. 

But the Flyers are in a tough spot. They have lost six straight, and the season appears to be falling apart. The lack of roster depth has been exposed as injuries to key players like Ryan Ellis have piled up. Philadelphia is in a precarious spot and may need to blow it up and start trying to retain assets. It's right up against the salary cap, so it's tough for general manager Chuck Fletcher to make any moves that might improve the team in the short term.

The one good thing the Flyers have going for them is their draft capital. They have all but one pick each of the next two years. It's time for them to get younger, and they can do that with high picks and prospects. It might not be a palatable move, but Claude Giroux is in the final year of his contract, so trading the captain at the deadline might be a painful but necessary move.

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The Islanders

What to make of the Islanders? Many (myself included) picked them to win the division. The team seemed poised for another long playoff run. A new arena. A top coach. This was supposed to be the year it came together.

It still could be. We know the Islanders are capable of reeling off five, six, seven or even eight wins at a time. Instead, they've lost eight straight. They're 5-10-2 with only 12 points.

How can a Stanley Cup contender be this bad?

You could start with COVID-19. The Isles have eight players in COVID protocol, and their next two games are postponed. The league was late on postponing games, forcing them to play with as many as seven players in protocol.

Plus, they're without defenseman Ryan Pulock because of injury, and Brock Nelson is hurt too. 

It's still early, but is it getting late early for the Islanders? This team has proved doubters wrong many times in the past. Barry Trotz and his system are never really out of the game. But with the division this competitive, one of the Eastern Conference favorites could be left out this spring.

Former Blue Jackets captain Rick Nash will become the first player in Columbus franchise history to have his number retired, the team announced Thursday. 

Nash's No. 61 will be placed in the rafters before a March 5 matchup against the Boston Bruins. 

"Rick Nash was the face of our franchise and our best player for a decade and represented our club on and off the ice with excellence, class and humility," Blue Jackets majority owner John P. McConnell said in a release. "No one is more deserving of this honor than he and we are looking forward to celebrating Rick and his family in what will be a historic and memorable night for all of us on March 5th."

The Blue Jackets selected Nash first overall in 2002 and he played for the team through the 2011-12 season. He served as the team's captain from 2008-12 and is Columbus' all-time leader in games (674), goals (289), assists (258) and points (547). 

Nash had seven 30-plus goal seasons in his Blue Jackets career and signed two contracts that tied him to the franchise for 13 years. He represented Columbus in five NHL All-Star Games and won the Rocket Richard Trophy as the league's top goal scorer during the 2003-04 season.

In addition to playing for the Blue Jackets, Nash also spent time with the New York Rangers and Boston Bruins. The 37-year-old tallied 145 goals and 107 assists in 375 games for the Blueshirts. He was traded to the Bruins during the 2017-18 season and appeared in 11 games for the club, scoring three goals and adding three assists. 

In 1,060 career games, the Ontario native tallied 437 goals and 368 assists for 805 points. He added 18 goals and 28 assists in 89 playoff games. 

Nash announced his retirement from the NHL in 2019 after 15 seasons because of "unresolved issues/symptoms" from a concussion. He returned to the Blue Jackets as a special advisor to general manager Jarmo Kekalainen in 2019 and was named director of player development in June 2021.  

Columbus Blue Jackets goaltender Elvis Merzlikins said a Dallas Stars fan taunted him about the death of Matiss Kivlenieks prior to Columbus' 4-1 victory.

"I was expecting a shutout, because I believe in karma," Merzlikins told reporters. "There are some stupid people in this world. It was really bad what happened in the tunnel when I was walking out. There was a fan from Dallas who (provoked) me about Matiss."

According to The Athletic's Aaron Portzline, the Blue Jackets are attempting to identify the fan involved in the situation.

Kivlenieks died in July following a fireworks accident in Michigan.

ESPN's Emily Kaplan wrote about the friendship between Merzlikins and Kivlenieks. Merzlikins and his wife, Aleksandra, welcomed Kivlenieks into their home when he was getting accustomed to life in the NHL.

"We didn't just become best friends," Merzlikins said to Kaplan. "He was really my little brother."

Elvis and Aleksandra named their first child Knox Matiss in honor of Kivlenieks, and they had hoped he would be the child's godfather.

The Blue Jackets honored Kivlenieks ahead of their opener, an 8-2 win over the Arizona Coyotes.

On Monday, Merzlikins stopped 31 of the Stars' 32 shots. Dallas had three shots hit off the post in the first period, which the netminder chalked up to "karma."

"I saw that (Matiss) was really there," he said.

The Columbus Blue Jackets and goalie Elvis Merzlikins have agreed to a long-term contract extension. 

Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen announced Tuesday that Merzlikins signed a five-year, $27 million deal that keeps him with the organization through the 2026-27 season.

"Goaltending is a position of strength for our team and Elvis Merzlikins has been an important part of that over the past two seasons so we are very excited to have agreed to terms on a contract extension that will keep him in Columbus for at least the next six years," Kekalainen said in the announcement. "He is big, athletic and has a tremendous passion for the game and we believe he will be an integral part of our success in the coming years."

Merzlikins was a third-round pick by the Blue Jackets in the 2014 NHL draft. He remained in Switzerland, playing for HC Lugano in the National League for five seasons before coming to Columbus. 

At the time of his arrival, Merzlikins signed a one-year, entry-level deal with the Blue Jackets. He signed a two-year extension in April 2020 that was set to expire at the end of the 2021-22 season. 

The Latvia native has split time in the net with Joonas Korpisalo over the past two seasons for the Blue Jackets. He has been excellent with a 2.54 goals against average, 92.0 save percentage in 61 appearances.

Despite finishing tied for 12th in the league with a 91.6 save percentage last season, Merzlikins could only manage an 8-12-5 record in 23 starts because the offense tied for 28th in goals per game (2.39). 

Korpisalo, whose current deal is set to expire at the end of the 2021-22 campaign, will likely go into the year as Columbus' primary goaltender. 

Merzlikins' extension gives the Blue Jackets a natural succession plan if they decide to let Korpisalo test free agency. The 27-year-old's track record of success over the past two seasons suggests he has the ability to be a No. 1 goalie in the future.   

Columbus Blue Jackets assistant coach Sylvain Lefebvre has been replaced on the staff after choosing not to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, the team announced Monday. 

"While we are disappointed, we respect that this decision is a personal one for Sylvain and wish him well," general manager Jarmo Kekalainen said in a statement.

The NHL announced in August it will require full vaccinations for anyone whose duties require them to be within 12 feet of team personnel.

"Per NHL protocol, he is unable to do the job we hired him for," Kekalainen told Greg Wyshynski of ESPN.

Steve McCarthy was hired to replace Lefebvre on the staff after spending the past five years as an assistant with the Cleveland Monsters.

Lefebvre was heading into his first season with the team after being hired as an assistant in June. 

The 53-year-old spent 14 years in the NHL as a player, appearing in 945 games for four different organizations. He helped the Colorado Avalanche win the Stanley Cup title in 1996.

After retiring in 2003, the former defenseman began his coaching career in the AHL in 2007 before rejoining Colorado as an assistant from 2009-12. He also served as a head coach in the AHL for three different organizations before getting the opportunity to return to the NHL this season.

According to Aaron Portzline of The Athletic, the Blue Jackets have known about Lefebvre's refusal to get a vaccine for a while, and he informed the club of his decision shortly after the NHL announced its policy. 

Portzline reported that "all or most of the players" on Columbus have been vaccinated.

The latest news comes after San Jose Sharks assistant Rocky Thompson stepped down earlier this month because of a medical exemption that prevents him from taking the COVID-19 vaccine.  

Columbus Blue Jackets goalie Elvis Merzlikins said teammate Matiss Kivlenieks saved a lot of lives, including those of Merzlikins and his pregnant wife, when he was hit by a firework July 4. He was pronounced dead shortly after.

Merzlikins discussed the heroic actions of Kivlenieks in a eulogy delivered Thursday:

"He died as hero." - Elvis Merzlikins#RememberingKivi https://t.co/OWpEQQGUZ2 pic.twitter.com/tDBMbHFW0G

— Fuck Dave Portnoy ⬇️ (@TheReplayGuy) July 15, 2021

Kivlenieks, 24, was killed on Independence Day when a "fireworks mortar tube accidentally angled toward a hot tub" where the Blue Jackets netminder was seated and one of the shots struck him in the chest, per Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch.

Several other people were in the area of the blast, but no one else was injured.

The firework display took place at the Michigan home of Columbus goalie coach Manny Legace, who was hosting his daughter's wedding on the Fourth of July, per Hedger. Investigators' initial findings led them to believe it was a "tragic accident."

Novi Police Department Lt. Jason Meier said Monday they continue to believe Kivlenieks' death was accidental and confirmed they haven't recommended criminal charges, but they've sent the case to the Oakland County prosecutor's office for a final review, according to the Associated Press.

"Due to the high-profile nature, we wanted an extra set of eyes [on the case]," Meier said.

Kivlenieks signed with the Blue Jackets as an undrafted free agent in May 2017.

The Latvia native made eight appearances for Columbus and played 85 games for the Cleveland Monsters, the team's AHL affiliate, across four seasons.