Oh, you thought I was out of Columbus players after profiling Justin Danforth? I don't think so. Welcome back to "Who Is That Player?" Today we look at that
other famous Blue Jacket winger,
Mathieu Olivier.
I heard you like players from the Deep South. Let's continue that trend with Mathieu who hails not from La Belle Province, oh no no, but from Biloxi, Mississippi, setting of numerous John Grisham novels.
Undrafted, our man Mat soldiers into his 26 year old campaign having played 121 NHL games over the span of 5 seasons. Racking up an impressive 81 penalty minutes last year, Olivier grades out in the 81% percentile when it comes to number of hits delivered. Don't ask for his percentiles in other areas.
Interestingly, Olivier's presence as an enforcer can be traced back to the Minnesota Wild's notorious goon squad, which according to reports spurred a reaction in how Columbus' roster was constructed.
Vincent was former coach Brad Larsen’s associate in 2021-22, the season Jakub Voracek was injured on Marcus Foligno’s open ice hit late in the first game at Nationwide Arena and Werenski was concussed during a rematch at Xcel Energy Center on hit by Wild defenseman Jacob Middleton.
Neither hit was penalized despite Middleton’s helmet ramming into Werenski’s chin and Foligno extending a knee prior to a knee-on-knee collision with Voracek.
Throughout both games, the Wild issued challenges to fight that weren’t accepted. That wasn’t a strength for any player on the Jackets’ roster, which became a talking point for that season.
Source
So before you go after Fantilli or *checks notes* Kirill Marchenko, think long and hard about what you'll do when the
Biloxi Bull, the
Gulf Coast Goon, nay, the
Mississippi Marauder comes calling.
This concludes "Who Is That Player?"
