This is the follow up post to the one on Monday, Three Things the Blue Jackets Need to Avoid on Draft Day. This post will look at Three things the Jackets should be looking to do on draft day.
1. Acquire More Picks
The Blue Jackets enter the draft with only five picks, one of the lower amounts in the league. That is unacceptable for a team that finished near the bottom of the league. One of the goals this weekend should be to acquire more picks, whether that be trading down (though not from #3) or by trading players for picks. Ideally a player like a Scott Hartnell, a Fedor Tyutin or a Jack Johnson could be moved for picks. That would help clear cap as well as replenish some lost picks.
More likely though is if the team is to add more picks it will be by trading down from pick 34. There are definitely going to be first round players who fall to the second round. The price to move up in the second round is usually a second and third. There third round pick, pick 65, could also be in play depending again on what players slide. We have seen the Jackets in the past trade three fifths to move up into the fourth round. If a team is willing to give up three picks for the Jackets third I think they should be all over that.
2. Add Highly Skilled Players to Deepen the System
The Jackets have a good group of prospects at the top but after the top five it falls off quickly. The Jackets have struggled in recent seasons finding talent outside of the first round, Oliver Bjorkstrand the obvious exception. This has hurt the Jackets prospect depth as outside of the AHL team it’s not a strong group. Players like Kevin Stenlund, Keegan Kolesar and Paul Bittner are nice prospects but none of them have that game breaking skill. The Jackets need to look at why the Bjorkstrand pick was successful and follow that model. Bjorkstrand was a highly skilled player who fell because of his size. They took a gamble and thus far it’s been nothing short of excellent.
They need to be get back to that and target high skill level players. Players like the ones I talked about over the weekend would be great gets in the middle rounds. Later on in the draft players like Jonathan Ang or Ty Ronning would make solid targets. They should avoid players like Boris Katchouk and Tim Gettinger who have great size but lack that high-end skill.
3. Draft a Puck Moving Defencemen
Much like with the forwards. The Blue Jackets need to add some skilled defencemen to the system. Outside of Ryan Murray and Zach Werenski this team has been unable to draft and develop defensive prospects.
They have really struggled picking defencemen outside of the top 10 as the front office has targeted big shutdown defencemen. Gabriel Carlsson and Dillion Heatherton are fine prospects but neither project as impact NHL players. There is a risk picking these players as you are hoping they develop enough puck skills to make it, which is difficult. If the player cant improve upon those puck skills they may find themselves like Ryan Collins who are healthy scratched at the NCAA level.
The NHL is evolving to a more speed and skill game. Smaller players are starting to emerge and shine, both at forward and on d. Players like Jared Spurgeon and Ryan Ellis are both under 6 feet and have been widely successful in the NHL.
The Jackets should be targeting players like Samuel Girard, Cam Dineen, Adam Fox and Victor Mete, and leave the Logan Stanley’s Markus Niemelainen’s and Keaton Middleton’s of the world to another team and let them take the risk.
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