NHL draft lottery cements Columbus Blue Jackets' picks at sixth, 12th overall
It worked for the Blue Jackets last year in the NHL draft, so why not do it all over again?
A year after picking two high-talent forwards fifth and 12th overall in 2021 — Kent Johnson (fifth) and Cole Sillinger (12th) — the Jackets will try to strike gold again with the sixth and 12th picks at this year's draft July 7-8 at Belle Centre in Montreal.
“For an organization like us, when we’re building towards trying to be a Stanley Cup contender, having picks six and 12 is huge,” said general manager Jarmo Kekalainen, whose team stayed in the 12th slot in Tuesday’s draft lottery and gained the sixth pick from the Chicago Blackhawks to complete the Seth Jones trade from last July. “Now we’ve got to use them right and pick some really good players that are going to be cornerstones for our franchise.”
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Sillinger and Johnson have already made their NHL debuts with Columbus, while defenseman Corson Ceulemans, a University of Wisconsin defenseman drafted 25th last year by the Blue Jackets, may begin his professional career in a year or two.
Kekalainen and the Jackets' scouting staff added nine prospects total to the team's organizational talent pool last year and have made 15 picks in the past two drafts combined. They’ve got seven more on tap this year, including four in the first three rounds.
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The biggest unanswered question prior to Tuesday's lottery was whether Chicago would win one of the NHL’s two lottery draws.
Had the Blackhawks won the first or second pick, they would’ve kept it, pushing the one they owed to Columbus via the Jones trade to next year. It would’ve become unprotected for the 2023 draft, which will likely be topped by Conor Bedard of the Regina Pats in the Western Hockey League, a dynamic center who's already labeled a ‘generational’ talent by draft analysts.
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This year's draw also included an unlikely scenario that would’ve landed the Blue Jackets the second and third picks, but it required Columbus to win the first draw and Chicago to win the second.
A new rule adopted by the NHL's board of governors prevents teams from climbing more than 10 spots or falling more than two, which means if the Jackets won the second pick by winning the first draw, that would've given the Montreal Canadiens the first pick by default and made the second draw for the third pick, which the Blackhawks didn't have protected.
It was a scenario that would’ve caused havoc for the league, which would've had to explain why a league invested so heavily in a lottery system would just hand the first pick to Montreal by way of reverse standings order, but controversy was avoided.
The Canadiens won the first draw with 18.5% odds, and the only team to move up in the pecking order was the New Jersey Devils, going from fifth to second by winning the second draw. Columbus, which finished 12th from the bottom of the NHL’s standings, had a 2.5% chance to win the first draw, while sixth-seeded Chicago had a 7.5% chance to win.
The Jackets received both picks in those respective slots.
“We had five and 12 last year, and we think we got good ones, so now we’ve got six and 12,” Kekalainen said. “We’ve got to do the same thing.”
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If Columbus can match what Kekalainen did last year, drafting two impact Canadian forwards with the first two of three first-round picks, his roster "reset" plan will get another healthy boost.
"I've said this many times before ... that you don’t put the expectations on a 17- or 18-year-old kid to make your team better the next year," Kekalainen said. "But let’s say three-to-five years from now? Those two guys (we'll draft) should make an impact on our team.”
Silinger and Johnson are already doing it.
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Sillinger made the NHL roster out of training camp and played the entire season with the Blue Jackets. The NHL's youngest player finished with 16 goals, 15 assists and 31 points in 79 games while recording his first career hat trick Mar. 13 against the Vegas Golden Knights. He also gained valuable experience centering each of the four forward lines.
Johnson helped the Wolverines advance to the NCAA's Frozen Four in Boston before they were ousted in the semifinals by the University of Denver — the tournament's eventual champion. The playmaking winger also skated as a lineup regular for Canada at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and signed an entry-level contract with the Jackets following the conclusion of his sophomore year for Michigan.
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Johnson played nine NHL games and finished with three assists. He and Sillinger will enter training camp next season expected to continue their development together in Columbus. Johnson and Sillinger are now headed to Finland to play for Canada in the men's world championships, which begin Friday in Helsinki and Tampere.
The Jackets' task now is hashing out a post-lottery plan, which could include everything from keeping both picks to using one or both as trade assets prior to the draft. They could move up, move back, stay put or even acquire talent that's already developing with another NHL team.
“We’re going to keep all options open," Kekalainen said. "That’s great capital and great equity, as far as different things that we can do. We’ve got those two picks, so we’ll keep all of our options open.”
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: NHL draft lottery results: Jackets to pick sixth, 12th overall in July
