NHL draft: Columbus Blue Jackets have options with two high first-round picks
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MONTREAL —The Blue Jackets’ reset is rolling right along.
With promising early returns from last year’s draft plus intriguing flashes this past season by a team that overachieved, there's a lot to like about Columbus heading into the 2022 NHL draft Thursday and Friday.
Which tandem of prospects might become the Jackets' next Kent Johnson and Cole Sillinger, who each made it to the NHL after being selected fifth (Johnson) and 12th (Sillinger) last summer?
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Will the Jackets lose an NHL player in a surprise trade? What about Patrik Laine, who remains unsigned?
There are a lot of things that could happen in the next couple days, especially with the picks the Jackets have at sixth and 12th overall. It's an exciting time for general manager Jarmo Kekalainen, who will sift through offers and options until the Jackets are on the clock.
"We have great opportunities with six and 12," he said. "We’re gonna keep our options open. We’ve got a lot of offers for those picks and we’re looking at them, weighing their value to us and the future and all those things. It might take until we get to (pick) five to decide on six and it may take to (pick) 11 to decide on 12. But those are the options that we’re looking at right now."
Here's a draft preview addressing those questions and more:
How many draft picks do the Blue Jackets have?
The Jackets have six picks after acquiring forward Mathieu Olivier from the Nashville Predators last week for a fourth-round pick (No. 122 overall) that originally belonged to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Two will be made in the first round (sixth and 12th overall). The others are on day two in the second round (No. 44), third round (No. 96), fourth round (No. 109) and seventh round (No. 203).
The sixth pick was acquired July 23, 2021, in a trade that sent star defenseman Seth Jones to the Chicago Blackhawks. The third-round pick was acquired April 10, 2021, from the Tampa Bay Lightning in a trade for defenseman David Savard. The seventh-round pick was acquired Oct. 7, 2020, from the Anaheim Ducks for the Blue Jackets’ seventh-round pick in 2020.
The fourth-round pick used to get Olivier from Nashville was acquired April 11, 2021, in a trade that sent former captain Nick Foligno to Toronto.
Will the NHL draft be televised in the U.S.?
The first round will be televised on ESPN starting at 7 p.m. Thursday and will be live-streamed on ESPN+. Rounds 2-7 will begin at 11 a.m. Friday on NHL Network and ESPN+.
Do the Blue Jackets have a chance to land one of the draft's top three players?
If general manager Jarmo Kekalainen wants two-way center Shane Wright, power forward Juraj Slafkovsky or playmaking center Logan Cooley, it’s going to require a trade to move up.
Those forwards are expected to be selected with the first three picks. There is debate about who’ll go first, which is mainly a battle between Wright and Slafkovsky, but it will be a surprise if any of the three falls to fourth or lower.
Kekalainen isn't keen on moving up from the sixth pick, so don't expect to see any of those talents becoming Blue Jackets.
“If you want to move up from six, you probably have to spend (the 12th pick) and we’re not going to do that,” he said. “We’re just going to have to see who goes before us, and then we’ll take the next guy on our list. But we’re probably not going to look too aggressively to move up. Right now, we’re concentrating on trying to get the best players at six and 12.”
They could also trade out of either pick by moving back or acquiring an NHL player who could help right away. Should that be the chosen path, expect the player or players acquired to be young, have manageable capcharges and at least three-or-more years of team control on their contracts.
"It has to be something that we can build with into the future," Kekalainen said. "We hold the rights for seven years with the (drafted) players coming in to the entry-level (contract). We’re not gonna trade a pick for a guy that we could potentially control for two years, and then once our window (to win) starts opening, when we would be really ready to compete for a Stanley Cup, all of a sudden we don’t have that guy anymore. That doesn’t make any sense. We’re gonna only do it for a young player that’s gonna be with us for a long time."
Who may still be available when the Blue Jackets pick in the first round?
Predictions about the Jackets’ 12th pick are all over the map on mock drafts compiled by draft analysts, but the sixth pick has a clearer projection.
Assuming Wright, Slafkovsky and Cooley go first, the consensus on the next three are defenseman Simon Nemec, defenseman David Jiricek and left wing/center Cutter Gauthier. Some analysts include forward Matthew Savoie in the mix too.
The Blue Jackets have added a crop of young defensemen through signings, trades and drafts the past few years, so it would be surprising to see them acquire another at No. 6. Replacing Jones as Zach Werenski’s main defense partner on the top defensive pairing is something they’ve yet to do, but there are a lot of candidates eyeing that role.
Acquiring a young defenseman like Jakob Chychrun of the Arizona Coyotes would also fit Kekalainen's trade requirements with three years left on a contract that costs $4.6 million annually against the salary cap. Should something like that play out with the Blue Jackets using the 12th pick as part of a return package, the need to select another defensemen would be even lower.
Nemec and Jiricek are both right-handed shots, which is something the Blue Jackets don't have in abundance, but they do have some righties in the system, including Adam Boqvist (eighth overall in 2018 by Chicago) and Corson Ceulemans (No. 25 in 2021).
They have a glut of defensemen on the way, which NHL GMs typically refer to as “a good problem.”
"We’re gonna look at our needs and then see what we can do from the other means that we have, which is free agency and trades," Kekalainen said. "That’s why we’re doing what we’re doing right now with evaluating what may be available for the sixth pick or the 12th pick. If it’s for a 20, 21, maybe 22-year-old player that’s already played in the NHL and we know that we can control for many years, but (who) can give us, also, that immediate help, it could make all kinds of sense for us. It’s not gonna happen for a 26-year-old, good NHL player that has one year left before he’s a UFA. It doesn’t make any sense for us.”
That’s not to say Columbus won’t take Nemec or Jiricek with the sixth pick, if available, but the guess here is that another high-end forward becomes a Blue Jacket in that spot or it gets "spent" in some kind of trade.
Should Gauthier be available, the U.S. National Team Development Program forward has the makings of a Columbus prospect with good size and speed to go with an elite shot. His playmaking should also be fostered by playing center as a freshman at Boston College next season.
What happens if the Blue Jackets haven’t signed Patrik Laine before the NHL draft?
The draft is when a lot of NHL players are traded, which the Blue Jackets proved last year by dealing Jones on the first day and Cam Atkinson on the second.
Jones had one year left on his contract and told the Jackets weeks before that he wasn’t interested in signing an extension. His trade to the Blackhawks before the start of the first round wasn’t the least bit surprising. Atkinson, meanwhile, was shocked when the Jackets dealt him to the Flyers for Jakub Voracek.
This year, Columbus has another star with one season left before he can test the free-agent market. It’s Laine, a forward who at age 24 could draw a similar return package as Jones, if not better.
Kekalainen sounds hopeful a multi-year deal will be struck at some point, but the process appears to be stalled at the moment. Regardless, don’t expect the Jackets to trade Laine, a 40-goal scorer who’s shown he’s capable of doing it again.
“It’s two completely different situations,” Kekalainen said. “Seth Jones didn’t want to sign with us. He wanted to sign somewhere else long-term. Patrik Laine wants to sign with us. We just have to figure out a common ground.”
Will the Blue Jackets make another trade like the Atkinson-Voracek swap?
Kekalainen usually makes his trades close to the trade deadline and draft, so it’s possible
The Blue Jackets also have a lot of wingers and young defensemen, so it wouldn’t be shocking if one or more are dealt to create opportunities for others, especially if the return includes a defensive partner for Werenski.
Will the Blue Jackets host a development camp this summer?
A development camp is scheduled for next week, beginning Monday with on-ice sessions. Prospects may begin arriving in Columbus on Sunday. It will be the first official development camp since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.
The Blue Jackets held a mini-development camp last year, prior to leaving for the Traverse City NHL Prospects Tournament in Michigan, but it wasn’t the same as prospect camps from previous years.
Top prospects selected just days before in the draft usually attend.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Blue Jackets: What they will do in 2022 NHL draft
