When Emil Bemstrom was sent down at the beginning of the season, it was somewhat of a surprise. The young Columbus Blue Jackets forward had played regular minutes in the NHL each of the last three seasons and had barely any experience in the AHL.
Well, after just 10 games with the Cleveland Monsters, Bemstrom is on his way up.
It’s hard to get off to a better start than Bemstrom did. In 10 games, he scored seven goals and 14 points, good enough to put him on top of the AHL scoring leaderboard.
With the Blue Jackets in the middle of a five-game skid and sitting at the bottom of the Metropolitan Division, the group obviously needs a shake-up. Whether Bemstrom can provide that remains to be seen but there is still plenty of upside in the 23-year-old forward.
Selected 117th overall in 2017, he quickly became a special talent in Sweden and would burst onto the NHL scene during the 2019-20 season.
The 10 goals and 20 points he put up that year would be difficult to replicate though, and between 2020-21 and 2021-22 combined, he failed to even reach the totals of that first season.
Perhaps this early success with Cleveland can get him back on track contributing at the highest level because Columbus needs it.
The team has scored just 30 goals in 12 games, one of the worst totals in the league. That includes zero from 19-year-old Cole Sillinger, who is experiencing the dreaded “sophomore slump” in his second year.
Sillinger, Mathieu Olivier, Liam Foudy, Eric Robinson, Jakub Voracek, and Jack Roslovic have combined for just two goals on the year, something that can’t continue if the team has any thoughts of competing for the playoffs.
More must-reads: