Anne-Marie Sorvin – USA TODAY Sports
As the Columbus Blue Jackets’ surprising 2013 season continues, most of the credit for the team’s success has gone to goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. That credit is well placed, especially considering the team’s offensive struggles early in the season. The recent addition of Marian Gaborik has boosted the Blue Jackets’ scoring, but a few players have been steady for the team all season. One of those players is center Mark Letestu, who is second on the team in scoring and recently earned a two-year contract extension.
Letestu has 10 goals and 23 points through 41 games this season, trailing only Vinny Prospal in scoring. If he can manage two more points this season, Letestu would equal his scoring totals from 62 games last season with the Blue Jackets and Pittsburgh Penguins. He was signed by the Penguins as an undrafted free agent after one season of collegiate hockey at Western Michigan University, and he first reached the NHL in 2009. He started the 2010-11 season with seven points in seven games, but finished the season with 14 goals and 27 points. The Penguins traded him to Columbus in exchange for a fourth-round draft pick early into the 2011-12 season.
Letestu is fitting in well with a Blue Jackets team that should be improving in the next few seasons, and the team made a great move in signing him to a two-year, $2.5 million deal. The Blue Jackets are in ninth place in the Western Conference standings heading into the final five games of the season and will face the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday night.
Jonathan Katje is an NHL senior writer for Rant Sports. You can follow him on Twitter or add him to your circles on Google Plus.
