Greaves grateful for long journey to become starter for Blue Jackets

WASHINGTON -- Jet Greaves had faced his share of obstacles before the 2020-21 Ontario Hockey League season was postponed, and eventually canceled, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, essentially ending his junior career with Barrie and leaving him without a place to play.

So, the Columbus Blue Jackets goalie responded as he often did on his sometimes-bumpy road to the NHL and found a way to find a positive in a negative situation. With limited opportunities to get on the ice, Greaves went back to his hockey roots in Cambridge, Ontario.

"It's cold there, so my dad would always build a rink in our backyard growing up," Greaves said last week. "So, that year, once we realized there was going to be no season, my brother and me and my dad, we built our rink again in our backyard and we'd skate out there. Then, a buddy of ours, he has a pond at his house, so we'd skate on the pond.

"We'd go out there, and we were just playing outside like we would do when we were kids. It was so much fun."

Looking back, those days skating outdoors with his younger brother Kai, now a defenseman at Princeton University, and junior player friends from the area who also had no league to play in, are among Greaves' favorite memories from this journey. They are also emblematic of the persistence it's taken for the 24-year-old to become a No. 1 goalie in the NHL.

"There are, of course, ups and downs," said Greaves, who is 7-5-5 with a 2.71 goals-against average and .907 save percentage this season heading into Columbus' game against the Carolina Hurricanes at Lenovo Center on Tuesday (7:30 p.m. ET; HULU, ESPN+). "Everybody is human, and you go through different things, but I think I've just been so grateful just to be playing hockey at any level. It's so fun."

By the time the OHL canceled its 2020-21 season in April 2021, Greaves was 20 years old and had gone more than a year without playing a competitive game. Borderline undersized for a goalie (6-foot, 188 pounds), he'd twice been passed over in the NHL Draft and, though he attended Blue Jackets development camp in 2019, it did not initially lead to a contract.

It would've been easy for Greaves to be discouraged, but that's not his nature.

"He never really worried too much if something was going wrong for him.," Kai Greaves said. "He did a good job of always focusing on, 'What can I do right now?'"

Although the Greaves' backyard rink wasn't close to full size, it was big enough for Jet to face shots from Kai and others, so he could work on parts of his game. The pickup games on the pond also helped, and Greaves was able to sporadically get indoor ice time, when permitted by Ontario health guidelines, with Matt Smith, his longtime goaltending coach in Cambridge.

Smith, who has worked with Greaves since he was 12, was impressed early in their relationship with his positivity and determination to find solutions to problems. He recalled a time when Greaves was 13 or 14 and his father Gerry, a Cambridge firefighter, was detained at work and unable to drive him to a training session.

Smith texted Greaves offering to reschedule for another day, but Greaves insisted on coming anyway and took an Uber to the rink so he wouldn't miss a day of work.

"He's not a kid that has ever made excuses for himself," said Smith, who is president of Matt Smith Goaltending Inc. and a goalie development coach with Rockford of the American Hockey League. "He's always trying to get better and improve. He's always had that in him since a young age. That might be one of his superpowers, actually.

"I don't think I ever heard him talk about being too small or wishing he was a bigger guy or anything along those lines. If anything, he saw it as an advantage in a lot of ways, and you can see now how much that outlook has affected him and helped him."

So, Greaves was ready for his next opportunity at the PBHH Junior Invitational in Erie, Pennsylvania, a June 2021 event organized by his friend Andrew Perrott (a defenseman with Owen Sound) and a few others as a showcase for OHL players prior to the 2021 NHL Draft.

That was where Greaves caught the eye of the Blue Jackets again.

Greaves already had a relationship with Manny Legace, who was Columbus' goaltending coach at the time, from the 2019 development camp and talked with Brad Thiessen, the goaltending coach with Columbus' AHL affiliate in Cleveland, before signing his first pro contract, a two-year AHL deal with Cleveland on July 30, 2021.

He further impressed the Blue Jackets during the 2021-22 season, which he split between Cleveland (12-12-3, 2.84 GAA, .905 save percentage, one shutout) and Kalamazoo of the ECHL (10-5-0, 3.05 GAA, .907 save percentage) and signed a three-year, entry-level contract with Columbus on Feb. 20, 2022.

"It worked out, starting with Cleveland and Kalamazoo and working up through the organization," Greaves said. "I was just enjoying the opportunity to play. When I was talking with Manny, he was kind of telling me, 'You're going to have some really good experiences. It's going to help develop you.'

"I think it was so positive."

Another solid season with Cleveland in 2022-23 (19-16-2, 3.08 GAA, .899 save percentage, two shutouts) earned Greaves his NHL debut against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on April 4, 2023. Playing in front of family and friends in the arena where he grew up watching the Maple Leafs, Greaves stopped 46 of 49 shots in a 4-2 loss.

He played nine games for the Blue Jackets in 2023-24 (3-6-0, 3.49 GAA, .908 save percentage) and was selected to the AHL Top Prospects Team that season with Cleveland (30-12-4, 2.93 GAA. 910 save percentage, one shutout). Throughout his climb up the depth chart, Greaves maintained his positive outlook while navigating the highs and lows of that process.

"I think it's something he's worked on a lot," Kai Greaves said. "He cares a lot about having a balance in his life too where if things aren't going well with hockey, it's not the end of everything. Those things, I think, keep him even-keeled when times are tough, just like he's very grateful and appreciates the moments that he's in."

Although the Blue Jackets fell two points short of the playoffs, that late season surge set Greaves up to begin this season as their No. 1 goalie. He's started an NHL career-high 17 of Columbus' 29 games (13-10-6).

Elvis Merzlikins started three consecutive games before Greaves made 36 saves in a 2-0 loss to the Washington Capitals on Sunday, but Columbus coach Dean Evason said Merzlikins’ run of starts wasn’t because Greaves needing a break.

“I don’t think he needs rest mentally or physically.” Evason said. “He’s dialed in with both. He [didn’t play] because Elvis was having success and that’s what we’re doing. It’s an earned situation and he had earned the opportunity to get back in there. It had nothing to do with what Jet was doing.”

Greaves is far from satisfied, though. He's still learning what it takes to play regularly in the NHL and pushing himself to improve.

"I'm very grateful for all the experiences that I've had and everything that I've been through on the journey," he said. "I've met so many amazing people on this journey and there's been so many people that have helped me. That's probably something that I cherish maybe the most. I think all those experiences have helped to prepare for each situation. You kind of look back on them and see what worked in this situation and what didn't.

"I'm just very grateful for every day."