Boqvist sees a big opportunity ahead with Blue Jackets

Adam Boqvist started his hockey career like so many kids around the world, as a youngster who fell in love with the feeling of steel meeting ice.
It's not hard to imagine Adam and his brother Jesper counting down the seconds until school would end as they grew up in Hedemora, Sweden, then getting to the rink as quickly as possible to lace up the skates.

"I actually started playing hockey when I was 4 years old," Boqvist told BlueJackets.com. "My dad was our coach until I was like 15 years old, and he had the keys to the rink so after school we used to take the bike to the rink because we lived in a small city. I think as a kid, you can just go out and have fun with your friends and not think about anything else.
"Every day, I think I was there from 3 o'clock to 9 o'clock. There were a lot of guys from my hometown that were there. We had a lot of fun playing games and practicing and stuff."

With that in mind, perhaps it's no surprise both Boqvist brothers have made it to the NHL. Jesper, the older brother, was a second-round pick of the New Jersey Devils in the 2017 NHL Draft and has played in 63 games the past two seasons with the team.
Boqvist, meanwhile, went even higher, being chosen eighth overall in 2018 by the Chicago Blackhawks. Like his brother, he has skated the past two seasons in the NHL, suiting up for 76 games in Chicago before being traded to Columbus last month in the package that the Blue Jackets received for Seth Jones.
Some credit, as well, has to go their father Patric, who grew up a huge fan of the nearby team Byrnas IF and, as Adam said, spent much of his kids' lives serving as their coach with Hedemora SK before the Boqvist boys moved on to Byrnas themselves.
Adam agrees, but...
"Some nights I didn't want to be in the same car so I walked home," he said with a laugh. "It was like a 30-minute walk, but not too bad. But I think we found a way to have him as a coach and a dad. I think that was pretty good."
Whatever the mix was, it did turn out well for the Boqvists, and Adam will now get a huge chance to further his NHL career with the Blue Jackets after he was the lone NHL-ready player to come to Columbus in the Jones trade.
So far, the 20-year-old blueliner has posted six goals and 23 assists for 29 points in those 76 NHL games -- not bad production, to be sure, especially given his young age -- including a 2-14-16 line in 35 games this past season while skating 16:59 per contest, largely with Duncan Keith at 5-on-5.
The book on Boqvist coming out of juniors was that he had offensive ability to his game, one reason he went so high in the draft, and he showed it in 2018-19 with the London Knights when he posted 20 goals and 60 points in 54 games.
There were concerns how the defensive part of his game would come around, but the 5-11, 179-pounder says he's seen some major progress to this point in his NHL career.
"I think when I played my first year, I was more an offensive defenseman, and now I think the coaches trust me a little more in the D-zone," he said. "I think I have taken some steps there in the right direction. I am not the guy who is going to go out and put people on the glass, big hits and stuff, but if I have a good stuck and good feet, I think I'm pretty smart out there, so hopefully I can read the play. I think that's going to help my game."
The offensive potential of his game is clearly intriguing, though, and Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen seems particularly enamored with Boqvist's abilities on the power play. He had a goal and seven assists while playing big power-play minutes a year ago, and the hope is the right-shot defenseman will give the Blue Jackets a quarterback for the man advantage for years to come.
"He's going to get a great chance to excel in that role and share it with Zach (Werenski), I'm sure," Kekalainen said. "Zach has been a great player for us for many years and has been a good power-play quarterback, but now we're adding a right-handed shot that can pass the puck, make the seam pass, has a good shot from the point and has always had great stats. When you look at his stats from junior hockey in Sweden to even in the NHL, he was basically at a 40-point pace this year with the shortened season. We're excited."
So is Boqvist, who will be reunited with former Knights teammate Liam Foudy and friend Emil Bemstrom in Columbus. He already has talked to them about what to expect and is excited to explore Columbus, as someone who professes to enjoy getting out and enjoying life rather than staying in and sitting on the couch.
On the ice, he's happy to be healthy -- he was limited this past year by COVID protocols, a concussion and finally a broken wrist that ended his season -- and ready to get a big opportunity with the new-look Blue Jackets.
"I have some experience but I still want to grow my game to be one of the top defensemen in the league," he said. "That's going to take some time, but I'm looking forward to putting in the work. Everything is up to me, and I just have to do it."