The Columbus Blue Jackets took Kirill Marchenko with the 49th overall pick in the 2018 NHL Draft. The right winger played professionally in Russia for the past few years until he came over to the U.S. when Columbus signed him in May of this year.
He spent most of the preseason with the Blue Jackets until he was assigned to the Monsters on October 6th. Marchenko had a good run, tallying two total points in his four games with the CBJ. He also shot an impressive 14.3%. But head coach Brad Larsen felt that the Russian winger would benefit from some time in Cleveland as he gets used to the differences in the NHL ice size and game pace.
The consensus has been that Marchenko will play for the Blue Jackets at some point this season, and with how he has been playing, it may be sooner rather than later. Only two games into the Monsters season and Marchenko has already exceeded expectations as he is averaging two points per game with three goals and an assist. He scored those three goals on only five shots, giving him an unreal shooting percentage of 60%.
While these numbers will be hard to keep up for very long, they are indicative of the great start he is having so far. If he is able to continue putting up numbers even close to what he has done thus far, he may force the Jackets coaching staff to call him up sooner than they had planned.
