When Roslovic first stepped ontot he ice Monday for practice, he didn't need much of an introduction to many of his new teammates.
Sometimes you forget just how small the hockey world is, but Roslovic has plenty of ties to many of the Blue Jackets despite playing for the Jets the past few seasons.
As many people know, each summer and fall before teams across the hockey world open their training camps, high-level players from around the league convene in whatever rinks they can find to play together to get the feel back against top-level competition.
In Columbus during normal times, that means the CBJ players who live in town as well as the local pros and college standouts who are getting ready for their seasons skate together to prepare. Roslovic has often been a part of those skates in recent years, getting the chance to play with many of the Blue Jackets who are around.
"I've skated with him every time I'd come back," said CBJ captain Nick Foligno, who spends his summers in Sudbury, Ontario, before returning to Columbus ahead of each season. "He would be around. Obviously he loves the city. He's a hometown boy. I'm sure he's thrilled. I know he always jokingly would say it would be nice to play for his hometown team, and here he is. It's a pretty great story to have a locally grown player play in this organization, a guy that grew up here and went through the minor systems and now has a chance to play for the top team in Columbus.
"I think that's an awesome story, and I'm sure a lot of people are proud along the way to have been a part of it. I'm sure he's going to come in here and do his best and we're thrilled to have him."
Looking for another tie? There's the fact that Roslovic was teammates with CBJ defenseman Zach Werenski during the latter's one year with the U.S. National Team Development Program, as the two skated on the national Under-17 team that featured such names as Auston Matthews, Matthew Tkachuk and Charlie McAvoy.
Seven years after the two were teammates in Ann Arbor on Werenski's home turf, now they get to skate together in Columbus, where Roslovic is the hometown hero.
"I know him really well," Werenski said. "He's so fast. He has underrated skill that you guys will see for people that don't watch him every day. I think he's an awesome player, awesome guy. We were pretty close at USA, so I'm excited for him to be here. I think he's going to add a really good element to our team."
There's one more pretty cool tie as well. Roslovic is a 1997 birth year, the same as Kole Sherwood and Carson Meyer, which means the three were teammates coming up through the ranks with the Ohio AAA Blue Jackets junior teams.
As most CBJ fans know, Sherwood was the first Columbus-area product to play for the Blue Jackets, getting in five games over the past two seasons. He'll start this year with Cleveland, where he will be teammates with Meyer, whom the Jackets drafted in 2017 and who signed with the Monsters this offseason after completing his career at Ohio State.
That's three players from the same Columbus youth team who grew up playing together and who have ties to the CBJ organization this year. What are the odds of that?
"Those three played together the whole way up, so it's pretty cool," said longtime AAA Blue Jackets president Ed Gingher.
That it is, Ed. It'll also be cool to see what happens next.
