Prospect Report: Fix-Wolansky keeps filling the net in Cleveland

It's not hard to think of comparable players for Trey Fix-Wolansky as you look at the high-scoring but undersized young forward.
The Blue Jackets prospect could draw a comparison to Cam Atkinson, another late-round find for the CBJ -- Atkinson was a sixth-round pick, Fix-Wolansky a seventh-rounder -- who hit it big in the organization despite a smaller stature.
Or if you look to Fix-Wolansky's home province of Alberta, he could be cast as the next Johnny Gaudreau, who has become one of the most productive players in hockey after going in the fourth round of the draft because of concerns over his build.
But the 5-foot-7 Fix-Wolansky has another player in mind as he works with Cleveland of the AHL toward making his eventual NHL debut -- Boston Bruins star forward Brad Marchand.

The perennial All-Star also isn't the biggest player, but Marchand has scoring ability, passion and an unrelenting desire to succeed -- and get under the skin of opposing players -- that Fix-Wolansky has tried to duplicate in his hockey career.

"He seems to have success because he plays with a lot of skill, but also guys hate playing against him because he's just a little rat," Fix-Wolansky told Dylan Tyrer on the latest edition of the Pipeline Podcast. "I've kind of been trying over the last couple of years to add more of that into my game. I had it a little but in juniors, but I think that's just juniors, though. That's the way it is.
"In the pros, it's a lot different. There's a lot bigger, stronger guys, so you can't shy away from anything. If you need to give a cross-check here and there, you have to give a cross-check here and there."
Whether Fix-Wolansky will ever reach the NHL production -- both in points or penalty minutes -- of Marchand remains to be seen, but it does appear the talented, pugnacious winger has an NHL future ahead of him.
The main reason for that is his skill, which is tremendously impressive. Everywhere the 22-year-old has been to this point in his hockey career, he's scored, from notching a combined 191 points in his last two seasons of junior hockey with Edmonton of the WHL to posting a 25-25-50 line in 68 career games with Cleveland of the AHL over the past three seasons.
The only thing to really slow him down to this point has been injuries. Fix-Wolansky missed the first half of the 2019-20 season with a groin injury, then skated just nine games in last year's pandemic-shortened AHL season because of a torn ACL. His rehab stretched into this season and he's also had to overcome a dislocated finger, but Fix-Wolansky has posted nine goals and 15 points in 16 games this year for the Monsters -- including a hat trick Saturday -- when he's been able to get on the ice.
"We need to get him into games," said Chris Clark, the Monsters' general manager and the CBJ organization's director of player personnel. "He will be up. He will be in a Blue Jacket uniform in not too long, but he's only played a handful of games the past couple of years. … We just need him to get pro games under his belt. Once he does that, once he gets up to speed, we get him here, we don't want him going back down. When he gets here, he want him to be here for good if that happens."
So what does Clark see in Fix-Wolansky when he does make it to the NHL level?
"He's a type of player that is going to do what it takes," Clark said. "He's not gonna be one-dimensional. For him to be at his best, he's not just an offensive player. He's going to be able to backcheck and he has explosiveness, he's dynamic. He has great moves. He has a heck of a shot, all that stuff, so he has a lot. He can't rely on one little thing.
"Skating is quick, he's shifty, and he's a type of guy that will go and get his own pucks. He doesn't wait in the slot for someone else to go get them. He's not just an off-the-rush type of guy, he's a guy that is going to do a lot of little things for his success."
While Fix-Wolansky admits the injuries have been frustrating, he hasn't wasted his time at the AHL level the past three seasons. He's learned from such veterans as Nathan Gerbe and Zac Dalpe about what it takes to play the game at a high level, and as an Edmonton native, he spends plenty of time watching star Connor McDavid and how he approaches the game.
The key now is staying healthy and continuing to build his game on the way to making it to the highest level.
"I feel very comfortable (in the pro game)," he said. "I think my first year was a little bit of an eye opener, just the speed and skill and physicality of guys. It's the second best league in the world, so you're going to be playing against (players in their) mid-20s, upper 20s, and I was just a 20-year-old that first year. It was eye-opening for me. I really learned a lot from guys on my team and watching games throughout the league and watching teams that would come into our building and their top players.
"Being a visual learner, that's what's helped me so far, and I do watch a lot of hockey in the meantime, a lot of NHL games, and I think that's also really helped me, watching some of the best players and what they can do on the ice. I feel like visually seeing that, it makes me want to try things."

Monsters Face Ups, Downs

It would be hard to draw up two totally different games than the last two the Monsters have played.
The top minor league affiliate of the Blue Jackets saw just about everything go right on the way to a 7-3 home win Saturday, but Cleveland couldn't keep the good vibes going in a 5-1 loss Monday night at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
After losing 4-1 to the Amerks on Friday night, the Monsters came back Saturday with a pair of hat tricks in the 7-3 win. Fix-Wolansky had the first hatty of his pro career and was joined by Brendan Gaunce with three goals, while Dillon Simpson also got on the board. Weirdly enough, three of the goals were unassisted, and there were only six total assists on the seven goals, with Cole Cassels posting a pair of helpers. Rookie goalie Jet Greaves made 31 saves in net on the way to his third AHL win.
Watch: Youtube Video
The Monsters saw the other end of the spectrum on Monday, though, falling into a 3-0 first-period hole and a 5-0 deficit after two before falling 5-1 to the Penguins. Justin Scott got the lone Cleveland goal, while Jean-Francois Berube gave up the trio of tallies in the first before being replaced by Greaves.
On the whole, Cleveland is now 13-13-4-3 on the season and sixth in the seven-team North Division. The team plays again tonight in Syracuse before three home games this weekend -- Friday and Saturday night tilts vs. WBS and then a Sunday evening game against division-leading Utica.
Gaunce continues to lead the team with 14 goals and 25 points, while defenseman Jake Christiansen is next with a 5-15-20 line in 26 games. Coming off his 'Michigan' goal last week, Tyler Angle is third on the team with four goals and 19 points, while Kevin Stenlund (5-13-18 in 24 games; out the last two games) and Liam Foudy (6-11-17 in 25 games) are next up on the scoring chart.

Prospect Notes

• As we've previously written, three Blue Jackets draft picks are headed to the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing - forwards Kirill Marchenko and Dmitri Voronkov of Russia and defenseman Samuel Knazko of Slovakia - while a fourth, forward Kent Johnson, has been named an alternate for Team Canada. Johnson, the fifth overall pick in the 2021 draft, is not on the initial 23-man roster but will play if the team needs to call anyone up because of COVID.
• At the college level, a few prospects are shining, including Johnson, who is 10th in the NCAA with 1.30 points per game (6-24-30 in 23 games) at Michigan. Fellow Big Ten member Wisconsin has another red-hot CBJ prospect, as the 25th overall pick in the 2021 draft, defenseman Corson Ceulemans, is tied for 22nd among NCAA defenseman with 17 points. After notching just one assist in his first eight games, he has a 5-11-16 line in his last 15 contests.
• Then there's Providence College defenseman Guillaume Richard, a fourth-round draft pick this past summer. Richard is impressing at the college level, as he was just named Hockey East's conference defensive player of the week after he posted three assists, a plus-3 rating, four shot blocks and five shots on goal during the Friars' two games vs. Boston College. Richard has a 2-11-13 line in 26 games this year, and his plus-19 rating leads all Hockey East players and tops all NCAA freshmen in that category.
• The travels of Eric Hjorth continue. The team's top draft pick in the 2019 -- it came in the fourth round -- spent the following season with Sarnia of the OHL but headed back to Europe after the pandemic, where he started in his native Sweden before moving to Finland. Now he's back in his native Sweden, joining up with AIK of the second-level HockeyAllsvenskan. An offensively talented defenseman, Hjorth should get some more playing time with AIK to continue his development after bouncing between Finland's top-level Liiga, the second-level Mestis and the U-20 level.