Elvis Merzlikins has worn plenty of goalie masks in his time with the National Hockey League. He's spent the entirety of his career with the Columbus Blue Jackets, which means he's run through all sorts of ideas using the team's blue and red color scheme. He’s even asked his four-year-old son Knox to choose. The first new mask for this season is Spider-Man—specifically, Spidey from the Disney Jr. show Marvel's Spidey and His Amazing Friends. He debuted a second new mask, even more striking than the first, during warmups at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio earlier in November: Sonic the Hedgehog.
A mixture of new school Sonic from the movies and imagery from the classic games, Merzlikins’ mask is colorful, bold, and immediately recognizable. Both Sonic and Knuckles feature heavily—matching the Blue Jackets' color scheme—and are powered up with lightning. Smaller versions of other characters are rendered in 16-bit pixels around the mask, including the Blue Jackets mascot Stinger. Artwork on the chin is a reimaging of the classic Sonic logo: "Elvis the Goalie," with his number, 90.
@jboairbrush HERE IT IS!! New mask for Elvis Merzlikins and the @Columbus Blue Jackets !! Sonic and Knuckles theme! Check it out and let me know what you think in the comments!
♬ original sound - Jordon Bourgeault
"This summer we watched the Sonic movie and I loved it," Merzlikins told Aftermath. "Sonic is so cute and Knox just fell in love with it. All summer he was running around the house in Sonic costumes, thinking he's super fast. Sonic and Knuckles are red and blue, Columbus colors, so it was perfect."
Merzlikins said his son "gave him shit" that Knuckles isn't featured more prominently on the mask.
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He entrusted the mask to Jordon Bourgeault, an airbrush artist from Calgary who is known for his highly detailed, vivid artstyle. Bourgeault started painting goalie masks as a hobbyist, decorating the gear of local beer league goalies or kids. But he broke into the NHL when Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price messaged him on Instagram around 2020 asking for a biomechanical skull mask. "It blew up," Bourgeault said. Now, he paints goalie masks for the likes of the Carolina Hurricanes' Frederik Andersen, the Canadiens' Samuel Montembeault, the New Jersey Devils' Jacob Markström, and, yes, Merzlikins.
Merzlikins said it was Bourgeault's idea to mix the movie with the 16-bit style of the classic video games. It was a huge challenge to render both styles in airbrush, Bourgeault said. (Merzlikins said he didn't play the classic Sonic video games. "I remember my brother playing it, but obviously he never let me play—I couldn't even touch the thing," he said.) The process of painting goalie masks in this way requires a ton of preplanning; Bourgeault begins by designing a mask on an iPad before making stencils that are used to mask off the mask. Painting happens in layers, then the stencils are pulled back, and more layers are painted. "It was a lot of stenciling and using a vinyl cutter to do all those little squares," Bourgeault said, noting that he had help from his assistant, Chris Moniz. "For the little characters, like Robotnic and the little Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails on there, I did those with a brush because it was so small."
It took about a month, he said, and he usually charges around $7,500 for a painted mask.
"Looking at the details, how he painted it, I would lose my mind," Merzlikins said. "I would have thrown the helmet against the wall. I wouldn't have the patience—all the little squares. It's amazing. He has unbelievable talent in his work. It's my favorite. I've really fallen in love with it. Now when I get [a] puck in the head, I feel bad for it."
Beyond the tape jobs on skaters' sticks, goalies are unique in that they're allowed a variation in their uniforms with their goalie masks. It's long been a way for goalies to express themselves on the ice—to both share a bit of themselves with fans and to hold important imagery close to themselves during a game. Merzlikins said the art he chooses for his goalie masks is very important to him: "I've always been into the art," he said. "Hockey masks are really important—I collect them. It's always been something personal. As a goalie, I always wear it, and on the backplate, I have all my family and people closest to me with me, so they're always there with me on the ice."
Featured prominently on the backplate of his mask, Merzlikins also has a tribute to his late teammates and friends Johnny Gaudreau, who was struck and killed in 2024 by a drunk driver while cycling, and Matiss Kivlenieks, who died in a fireworks accident in 2021. "I think it's a cool tribute to have them with me on the ice always," Merzlikins said.
Merzlikins also has the names of his two children, and a rendition of Bubbles from The Powerpuff Girls for his wife. There's the Latvian flag, too.
In past years, Merzlikins donned a mask with a Minecraft version of Elvis Presley, but like Sonic, he doesn't play the game. But he described himself as a big gamer. "I bring PlayStation with me on the road," he said. "I had a suitcase where inside was a screen and a PlayStation." Now with two kids, one of whom is just over a year old, Merzlikins doesn't have as much time to play video games, but he said he likes to play both Call of Duty and the NHL games. (But he doesn't play as himself: "Not Columbus, because you want to have a different taste in the video game," he laughed.)
As a father, Merzlikins said he's been eager for his son to be old enough to play video games with him. Speaking from Detroit on a team roadtrip, Merzlikins said his wife had his son play Mario Kart—and he loved it. "When I get home, that's going to be the very first thing," he said. "I was always waiting for the moment where I can play video games with my son, and I hope that moment is now, because she said he loved Mario Kart."
That, and presenting his son with some gifts that the Sega team and Sonic actor Ben Schwartz reached out with. Someone from the official Sonic the Hedgehog Instagram account messaged Merzlikins, he said, and offered to send some gifts over. Schwartz, too, reached out after seeing the mask and said he's going to send a voice recording for Knox. He told his son about the gifts over a Facetime message: "He was like, 'Daddy, Sonic is watching you! Sonic is going to your hockey games. He's going to come to my house and I'll show him my room.'" Unfortunately, Merzlikins had to tell him Sonic was too busy doing Sonic the Hedgehog things—but that he'd still say hi.
