Photo by Fabien Perissinotto, CC BY-SA 4.0
Elvis Merzlikins
Columbus Blue Jackets Goaltender #90
274 games, and a .883 that has taken the job away from him.
| Season | Team | GP | W | L | OTL | GA | GAA | SO | SA | SV% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-20 | CBJ | 33 | 13 | 9 | 8 | 71 | 2.35 | 5 | 919 | .923 |
| 2020-21 | CBJ | 28 | 8 | 12 | 5 | 69 | 2.77 | 2 | 825 | .916 |
| 2021-22 | CBJ | 59 | 27 | 23 | 7 | 178 | 3.22 | 2 | 1920 | .907 |
| 2022-23 | CBJ | 30 | 7 | 18 | 2 | 110 | 4.23 | 0 | 889 | .876 |
| 2023-24 | CBJ | 41 | 13 | 17 | 8 | 130 | 3.45 | 1 | 1266 | .897 |
| 2024-25 | CBJ | 53 | 26 | 21 | 5 | 168 | 3.18 | 1 | 1557 | .892 |
| 2025-26 | CBJ | 30 | 14 | 11 | 3 | 95 | 3.40 | 1 | 812 | .883 |
| 2026-27 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 274 | 108 | 111 | 38 | 821 | 3.22 | 12 | 8188 | .900 |
This Season So Far
The 2026-27 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
30 appearances, 14-11-3, a 3.40 goals-against average and a .883 save percentage with 1 shutout. His career figure across 274 games is .8997.
The Physical Game
6-3, 190, and one of the more athletic goaltenders in the league — he makes saves from positions nobody would choose, and he has always been able to do it.
The trouble is that he needs to. The positional discipline has never been consistent, so a season contains a dozen games that look brilliant and a dozen where he is beaten by shots that should be routine, and lately more of the second than the first.
Puck-handling is genuinely good and he uses it to start breakouts.
The Mental Game
He has been the face of this club through a period nobody would wish on a goaltender, and the emotional openness that made him easy to admire has not obviously helped his consistency.
Over his last 10 appearances, .881 on 219 shots.
The Intangibles
Behind the same defence, in the same season, Greaves stopped .908 and Merzlikins stopped .883. That is a 25 thousandth gap and it is why one of them played 55 games and the other 30.
Columbus’s goaltending still came in 2 goals better than the chances it faced, which is Greaves’s doing.
He is 32 with a career .8997, and the last 3 seasons have all been below it. The job has gone and the contract has not.
The numbers underneath
Recent form
Last 20 appearances, 2025-26, oldest first
.867
save percentage over his last 8, on 173 shots · .874 across these 20
Each bar is one appearance, taller being a better save percentage. Filled bars are .920 or better.