Here’s every NHL team’s player to watch break out this year
By Paul Grant
Columbus Blue Jackets: Markus Nutivaara
When you’re on the same blueline corps as Seth Jones and Zach Werenski, you tend to get overshadowed. So read me now and hear me later, Markus Nutivaara is going to continue his ascension for the Blue Jackets this season.
Nutivaara isn’t exactly the kind of player who will break out in the flashy sense: he’s not going to dominate the power play from the point or crush attackers with open-ice hits. No, he’s more likely to break down the opposition’s will with his methodical defending and careful positioning. He’s going to steady you to death. This is a good thing, the kind of thing that made a guy named Nicklas Lidstrom a pretty decent defenseman in his day.
And with the confidence and poise will come points, especially if fiery coach John Tortorella doesn’t yell at him too much and hurt his feelings. The departures of Jack Johnson and journeyman Ian Cole from the Blue Jackets’ defense corps were partly enabled by Nutivaara’s reliable development and will open up more ice time and opportunity for the maturing Finn. A whopping surprise for a seventh-rounder from 2015, Nutivaara will nonetheless continue to get the chance to own his zone alongside equally steady David Savard.