By Zackery Robert
Next stop Ohio, in the year 2000 the Blue Jackets began their drafting journey. During their early years Columbus had many high selections and could have set themselves up for grey long term
Success. Some of those choices helped that hall and some choices hindered that goal.
To start it off we will go back to the 2002 NHL entry draft when Columbus held the first overall pick. With their pick they selected Rick Nash and he ended up turning out to be their franchise superstar. Nash scored two 40 goal seasons during his time in Columbus and captured himself the Rocket Richard trophy for most goals in the 2003-2004 season, actually tying with Jarome Iginla and Ilya Kovalchuk with 41 goals. Nash had highlight reel goals and was a force with the puck. He was just what the Blue Jackets needed to help kick start their new franchise at the time, culminating with Nash having his number 61 retired by the Blue Jackets in March of 2022, being the first Blue Jacket to receive this honour.
Next up we will look at the current captain of the Blue Jackets, Boone Jenner. Jenner was drafted in the second round of the 2011 NHL entry draft 37th overall and has become their longest tenured player currently on the team. He is a quality player who can eat up minutes and play well at both ends of the ice. He provided stability to a team that until recently was not able to attract many to its team. Fast forward to 2023 with a couple high end forwards and a first line defensemen and high end prospects, Columbus looks to have a bright future ahead.
Rounding out this part of the article we will stop at the 2015 draft and see the Blue Jackets select defenseman Zach Werenski. Werenski was a part of that incredible 2015 class that seemed to have no shortage of high end first round picks. Werenski was selected eight overall and it has paid off very well for the franchise in desperate need of a top pair defenseman. He is a 40-50 point player currently with the potential to hit at a 60 point level when playing a full 82 game season. He is big and skates fast and has many of the tools to be a top defenseman in the league at only 25 years old.
Columbus had many high picks in the 2000s and shockingly a vast majority of them never panned out. We will start with 2008 sixth overall pick Nikita Filatov. Filatov had a lot of upside to his skill set but sadly nothing ever came of it. Filatov played in parts of three seasons with the Blue Jackets totalling 44 games played with them 13 points to go along with those games. After that he was traded away to the Ottawa Senators for a third round pick in 2011. He barely played for one season in Ottawa before returning to Russia to end his career in 2019.
Next up is another fairly disappointing pick, in 2004 Columbus held the eighth overall pick and chose French winger Alexandre Picard. Picard really struggled to gain any momentum in his playing career and bounced in between the NHL and AHL for five years before being a full time AHL player before moving overseas to continue his career. In total Picard played 67 games in the NHL all for the Blue Jackets scoring only two assists total in those games. Another high pick gone by the wayside for the Blue Jackets.
To finish off this list we will only have to look ahead one year to the 2005 entry draft where Columbus again held the sixth overall pick. With this pick the Blue Jackets chose centre Gilbert Brule. Brule had a nice junior career before going into the NHL but once again it did not translate to any success with the Blue Jackets. In 146 games played for the Blue Jackets Brule only scored 32 points and after splitting part of the 2006-2007 season in the NHL and AHL. He was traded to the Oilers for Raffi Torres.
During this tumultuous drafting and development time the team was led by general manager Doug MacLean and for whatever reason their drafting under him was brutal to say the least and upon his departure on April 19th 2007 his interim general manager replacement Jim Clark did not fare any better. In his first and only draft at the helm of the team his first-round pick, eight overall, was used to select Alexandre Picard, and if you read this article you will know exactly how that turns out for the Blue Jackets.
Currently in 2023 the ship is being led by general manager Jarmo Kekalainen and under his tutelage his team has seen an abundance of highly touted projects join the organisation through the draft. Names that come up are Kent Johnson, Cole Sillinger, Denton Mateychuk, David Jiricek and Yegor Chinakov, all of which are A level prospects and have shown good signs of growth in their respective games. Which is very good news for the current Columbus Blue Jackets as they sit as one of the bottom two teams in the league this year and look at a top three or four pick in the draft this year. When you’re this high you never draft for news and always go with the best available player. With that information the Columbus Blue Jackets will be looking at Conner Bedard, Adam Fantilli, Leo Carlsson and Matvei Michkov. The ladder of the four players seems quite intriguing as if the Blue Jackets were to be at the third or fourth pick it could make sense given their current pool of high level prospects to draft Michkov and let him stay for his duration of his contract in the KHL as they wouldn’t desperately need him right away and he is a talent that cannot be denied so Columbus could be a fantastic landing spot for the young Russian star if they sit with the chance at selecting him at the bottom end of the top five picks. We will see what the Blue Jackets do with their nine picks this year at the 2023 draft, 1st, 1st (LAK), 2nd, 3rd, 3rd (CGY), 4th, 4th (WPG), 5th (BOS), 7th.
For more information on the 2023 NHL Draft class be sure to pick up your copy of the comprehensive DraftPro 2023 NHL Draft Guide.