Smith confirmed that, saying he was quite happy that Eernisse signed with the Blue Jackets, but those are the kinds of battles that happen as rivalries bubble in junior and college hockey.
Five members of CBJ development camp – Smith, Eernisse, and Michigan State players Cayden Lindstrom, Tommi Männistö and Melvin Strahl – played Big Ten hockey last season. All but Eernisse will be back this year and joined by defenseman Tanner Henricks, who transferred from St. Cloud State to Minnesota, and 2026 draft pick Evan Jardine (Ohio State).
There were also five players in development camp who spent last year in Canada’s Western Hockey League, which Smith and Lindstrom also called home before heading to the college ranks. Two of them faced off between the pipes in a hotly contested playoff series in the spring, with 2024 draftee Evan Gardner’s Saskatoon team prevailing in seven games – three of them in overtime – over 2026 pick Parker Snell’s Edmonton squad.
Gardner earned his bragging rights by posting a .916 save percentage in the series, and he wasn’t about to let Snell forget it in Columbus.
“Once you come together at a camp like this, you can have some fun with him, throw some chirps at him,” Gardner said. “Whenever something comes up, I’ll make sure to throw that at him. It’s a part of it.”
But, as Gardner noted, it’s all in good fun.
“You go to battle against lots of these guys most nights, and then when you come here, you realize how good of people they are, as much as you might not like them on the ice,” Gardner said. “It’s a really awesome experience getting to meet everyone.”
For Lindstrom and Penn State’s Gavin McKenna, they went the opposite route from teammates to competitors, battling on the Big Ten stage last season after sharing the ice with Medicine Hat of the WHL. In one case, the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s draft caught Lindstrom up high, but their previous relationship meant the two could laugh about the situation in the end.
“We got into it at Penn State one game and he got me good in the face there,” Lindstrom said. “After, he texted me. He was like, ‘Sorry bro, I had to.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I get it.’ At the end of the day, you’re just playing hockey and stuff happens.”
Lindstrom added that – unlike Smith – he didn’t have any run-ins with Eernisse, and the former Michigan forward said there were no hard feelings with any of his current CBJ teammates he battled in past years on college ice.
“It's kind of funny to give each other like a hard time – maybe there was like an incident that happened when you played against each other or just like things in games that happened, and to laugh about it,” Eernisse said. “I've enjoyed it a lot, and it's always fun to just get to know people on the other side. Obviously in the game guys are so intense and you line up against other guys, but when you get to be like buddies with them, too, it’s pretty cool to see both sides of it.”
Sharing The Big Stage
The rule change a season ago that allowed former Canadian Hockey League junior players to enter NCAA hockey for the first time pushed the college game to new heights, with some of the best young players in the game crossing the border to wear university colors.
It has also led to some unique experiences, as the resources of the top schools combined with their immense fan support have brought a bevy of new opportunities to the development path.
A season ago, Smith, Lindstrom and Strahl got to take part in one of those when Penn State hosted an outdoor game at iconic Beaver Stadium. The football venue holds more than 100,000 spectators, and 74,575 fans turned out to see Michigan State down Penn State by a 5-4 score in overtime in a battle of programs ranked in the top five in the country.
It was certainly a spectacle, aided by a memorable goal by McKenna that made headlines across the hockey world, and those who took part described it as something they’ll never forget.
“That was the coolest experience of my life,” Smith said. “I mean, just walking out there, I remember walking out and in the first period just taking a quick look around and seeing 75,000 people there watching. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I got to experience. It didn’t end the way that we wanted it to, but at last we gave them a good game. Putting it in overtime was big, and we couldn’t close it out, but it was something that I’ll never forget.”
Smith’s father gave him a photograph of the opening faceoff that he said he'll take with him the rest of his life, and the entire experience is something that speaks to the unique nature of college hockey.
While Penn State was the home squad, with tens of thousands of fans in attendance to support them, Michigan State left State College with the victory on the way to the regular-season Big Ten championship. Strahl has since transferred to Minnesota for his upcoming sophomore season, but his memory of the occasion was a unique one from the visitor’s perspective.
“Never have I experienced anything like that before,” Strahl said. “I’ve never felt so hated, either. We walked out and the whole stadium was booing us. It was so much fun. It gives you extra energy.”
Finns Unite in Columbus
The Blue Jackets got their man in the first round of the 2026 draft, selecting Finnish forward Oscar Hemming with the No. 14 overall pick.
The next day, 168 picks later, the Jackets chose another forward from Finland in Anttoni Uronen, and the two couldn’t have been happier.
Though Hemming is from Vaasa on the Western coast and plays at Boston College, while Uronen hails from Kerava north of Helsinki and skates for HIFK, the two have known each other since they were 12 and spent extensive time playing together on Finnish national teams.
As a result, Hemming was quite happy when he found out his buddy would also be heading to Columbus.
“He’s my great friend,” Hemming said. “I was at a restaurant and had a drink in my hand and kind of spilled it when he got drafted. I’m just super excited he came here. I called him straight away, so I have a video of me calling him, and it’s just awesome.”
Hemming called Uronen one of the funniest guys he knows, which was confirmed a bit when we got Uronen’s side of the story.
“He was so funny,” said Uronen, who played 27 games with HIFK this season at Finland’s top level. “He was the first guy to call me. I answered him and we just laughed for like two minutes. I said, ‘Don’t worry, I just came a little late.’ It’s so great. We were so pumped when we found that we were on the same team.”
A Goalie Family
Snell was chosen in the fifth round of the draft after turning in a solid season between the pipes with Edmonton of the WHL, as he went 21-9-1 with a 2.74 goals-against average for the Oil Kings.
And perhaps it’s not a huge surprise that the Alberta native has a future stopping pucks considering his father was also a hockey goalie and his grandfather played the position in lacrosse.
In fact, the ties to the position go back even further, as his grandmother was a goalie in the sport of ringette. While many Americans likely haven’t heard of the hockey-like game played on ice with skates, it’s popular in Canada, with participants using a straight stick with a drag tip to try to propel a blue, rubber ring into the net.
Yet, when Snell first started playing hockey, it took him a while to end up between the pipes.
“I started later than most people,” Snell said. “My whole family is goalies. I started out as a player, and then all of a sudden for one Christmas I asked my parents for a pair of pads, started playing on the outdoor rink and just fell in love with it from there. I stuck with it. It took a bit of convincing at the start. I think my parents were hesitant, but eventually they gave in and here we are.”
His grandmother also had a part in Snell choosing to wear No. 80 in Edmonton, as she pointed out his father was born in 1980 and he was born in ‘08. It’s clear it’s a family affair for Snell, who has come to embrace his job stopping pucks after his delayed start.
“I think it’s definitely a position that fits certain people and gravitates to certain people and not just one you throw your kid into in a sense,” he said.
Oh Brother!
Henricks had a solid first season of college hockey, posting a 3-3-6 line in 14 games at St. Cloud State before choosing this spring to transfer to Minnesota.
The 2024 fourth-round pick brings size, skating and some offensive ability to the blue line, but he didn’t get to show it the entire season with the Huskies because he missed three months with torn tendons in his ankle.
The ironic part? His brother, Ty, was the reason.
St. Cloud State was hosting Ty’s Western Michigan squad Oct. 31, with the Henricks’ parents, Scott and Michelle, in attendance. But the family affair took an unfortunate turn when Ty laid a hit on Tanner, leading to his injury.
Tanner described the play as a “freak accident” and confirmed the situation didn’t lead to any awkward moments at Thanksgiving dinner.
“He hit me and then his skate somehow cut down on my ankle," he said. “The odds of it happening are crazy. We laughed about it. He felt terrible. No one knew what happened. I didn’t know what happened until I came out with a boot on.”
While the play resulted in an ankle injury for Tanner, referees called Ty for a five-minute major and a game misconduct for contact to the head. That meant that both Henricks brothers were out of the game in the first period, leading to what had to be a bit of a comical scene.
“Our parents were in the stands watching both of us play and didn’t get to see much of it because he got kicked out, too, so it’s pretty funny,” Tanner said. “We were just up in the stands with them talking.”
Now fully healthy, Henricks chalked up the injury as a bit of adversity to overcome, and it had to hurt that the situation kept him from earning a potential call to the U.S. team for the World Junior Championship. The fact that he was even in contention for the squad shows how he’s viewed across the hockey landscape, though, and he said self-belief has been a big part of his growth as he heads to Minnesota.
“Confidence is the biggest part,” he said. “I think that was a game changer for me. If you’re not confident, you’re not making plays and stuff like that. All of a sudden it clicks and you’re having fun again. It’s awesome.”
More Family Ties
Hockey may be the ultimate family sport, with sons often following fathers into the game and brothers tending to push each other on the ice.
It’s no different for the CBJ draft class of 2026, and it starts at the top with Hemming, whose father, Jonas, was a longtime player and coach in Finland and brother, Emil, was a 2024 first-round pick of Dallas.
Fourth-round selection Evan Jardine grew up around the game as well, as his father Brian played college hockey at Brown before becoming a coach in the Detroit area.
Then there’s the two CBJ sixth-round picks in Uronen and defenseman Jonas Woo. Uronen has two brothers in the game, including his twin, Eelis, who also plays with HIFK and competed at the U-18 Worlds with him. Older brother Tuomis also was drafted, as Vegas chose him in the sixth round of the ‘24 draft, and he spent last year with Henderson of the AHL.
Anttoni said the brothers played everything growing up, from hockey to tennis to soccer to golf to badminton, and that competitive spirit is perhaps one reason they’ve all found their way into high-level hockey.
“When we were little, we played everything and everywhere,” Uronen said. “That’s my superpower, I think. We are, like, players.”
Woo also comes from a hockey family, as his father, Larry, played two seasons in the WHL and his older brother, Jett, was a second-round pick of the Canucks in 2018 who has become an alternate captain with the franchise’s AHL affiliate in Abbotsford.
The smooth-skating defenseman said having an older brother who has made a career in hockey has been a big help as he’s come up the ladder, spending last year dominating with Medicine Hat (29-57-86 and a plus-63 rating in 56 games) before committing to Arizona State.
“He’s been there with me every step of the way,” Woo said. “He helped me in every situation. We talk a lot about it. We keep it light, but he’s always there with me. He’s a great brother to have.”
