When Blue Jackets goaltender Joonas Korpisalo signed a two-year NHL contract in early June, it not only solidified his roster spot in Columbus as Sergei Bobrovsky’s backup, it also essentially packed the bags of Anton Forsberg.

Forsberg was to be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights, and he also would have needed waivers to be sent to minor-league Cleveland at the start of the 2017-18 season.

There’s little chance Forsberg would have made the Blue Jackets’ roster ahead of Korpisalo, and an even slimmer chance he would have cleared waivers, so the Blue Jackets were amenable to including him in the trade with Chicago that brought high-powered left wing Artemi Panarin to the Jackets.

With that, a stable goaltending depth chart was profoundly altered.

“It’s good for Anton because he’s going to get a chance to play now in Chicago,” Blue Jackets goaltending coach Ian Clark said. “And it’s good for our other guys, too. We have a lot of talent in the pipeline that’s developing.”

The Blue Jackets expect veteran Brad Thiessen and rookie Matiss Kivlenieks to play in Cleveland this season.

Thiessen, 31, had a taste of the NHL with Pittsburgh late in the 2011-12 season. In fact, his first NHL win was a 22-save performance over Columbus on Feb. 26, 2012.

Since then, he’s led a journeyman’s life, playing in Europe, the East Coast Hockey League and the AHL, never really knowing where his skates would hang for more than a week at a time.

“This is the first summer we’ve had a little peace of mind,” Thiessen said. “With a wife and two kids, it’s hard to move around with the unknowns of the hockey world, so this is definitely a blessing.

“I didn’t really have a job two years ago, but (Blue Jackets assistant general manager) Bill Zito gave me a chance to be a No. 5 guy (on the depth chart) and work my way back into the AHL.”

Thiessen was the unsung hero of Cleveland’s Calder Cup title in 2016, playing very well down the stretch of the regular season while Forsberg and Korpisalo were both in Columbus splitting time with Bobrovsky injured.

“Brad has been a great soldier for us,” Clark said. “Filling in here, filling in there, being a veteran presence with our young players down in Cleveland. He’s earned his chance.”

Said Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen, “We think he’s very capable of being a No. 3 goaltender in the organization.”

Kivlenieks, 20, was the United States Hockey League player of the year in 2016-17. That’s the American version of the Canadian junior system.

He chose the Blue Jackets from among five or six NHL clubs that wanted to sign him to an entry-level deal this summer. Kivleniek was too old for the draft, but Clark and the Blue Jackets deemed his talent equivalent to a first-round pick.

In the event that either Bobrovsky or Korpisalo gets injured, Thiessen would need to sign an NHL contract to be recalled. His current deal is AHL-only.

But there seems to be an unwritten agreement between Thiessen and the Blue Jackets that an NHL deal could be worked out in minutes. (An unspoken agreement, too, as neither party would discuss it.)

Clark seemingly could talk for days about the rest of the players in the pipeline.

The Jackets signed Ivan Kulbakov to an AHL-ECHL contract, meaning he’s the organization’s No. 5. Elvis Merzlikins, a third-round pick (No. 76 overall) in 2014, is signed for two more years in Switzerland and is considered a top prospect. Daniil Tarasov, a third-round pick (No. 86 overall) this year, will spend at least this season in Russia. Peter Thome, a sixth-round pick (No. 155 overall) in 2016, will be a freshman at the University of North Dakota.

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