Blue Jackets reassign Veini Vehvilainen to Monsters from taxi squad

Mar 8, 2021

The AHL’s Cleveland Monsters, top affiliate of the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets, announced Monday that the Blue Jackets reassigned goaltender Veini Vehvilainen to Cleveland from Columbus’ taxi squad. In one appearance for the Monsters this season, Vehvilainen posted a record of 0-1-0 with a 3.05 goals-against average (GAA) and a .875 save percentage (S%) and allowed one goal on four shots in his NHL debut for the Blue Jackets in 10:40 of relief in a 5-0 road loss to the Dallas Stars on Saturday.

 

A 6’0”, 181 lb. left-catching native of Jyväskylä, Finland, Vehvilainen, 24, was originally selected by the Blue Jackets in the sixth round (173rd overall) of the 2018 NHL Entry Draft. In 34 career AHL appearances, all for Cleveland, spanning the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons, Vehvilainen went 10-19-5 with three shutouts, a 2.77 GAA and a .901 S%. In 132 career Liiga appearances spanning parts of six seasons from 2014-19 and 2020-21 for JYP, Sport, and Kärpät, Vehvilainen went 67-37-24 with 14 shutouts, a 2.00 GAA and a .923 S%. Vehvilainen helped Kärpät claim the 2018 Liiga Championship and the 2019 Liiga Silver Medal and claimed the 2017-18 and 2018-19 Urpo Ylönen Awards as Liiga’s top goaltender. Internationally, Vehvilainen represented Finland in the 2016 and 2017 IIHF U20 World Junior Championships, helping Finland claim Gold Medal honors in 2016. Vehvilainen also helped Finland claim Gold at the 2019 IIHF World Championship.