The draft weekend was an interesting one for the Blue Jackets, to say the least. They made some off the board draft picks and then followed that up by making a really odd trade. Given some time to think about what happened I am still racking my brain as why certain decisions were made. What follows why I think certain decisions were made and the possible reasoning behind them.
We start with one of the most shocking decisions at the draft, picking Pierre-Luc Dubois at #3 instead of Jesse Puljujarvi. We know the Jackets clearly valued Dubois more so the question then becomes why they didn’t trade down? The problem is that by trading down they were going to miss on Dubois. Vancouver wanted Dubois and would have moved up, but then the Jackets wouldn’t have got the player they wanted. That left just Edmonton who at that point holds all the cards in their hand. They know they would get Puljujarvi either way, killing any sort of negotiating power the Jackets had. The Jackets ended up just staying put and taking the player they wanted all along. Time will tell if they made the right decision or not.
The second questionable decision was taking Andrew Peeke at #34. Peeke is a big defencemen who can skate but doesn’t bring a lot of offense to the table. From the team perspective I get the pick. Every year under Jarmo Kekäläinen they have drafted a big defensive defencemen in the late first or second round. That is four years in a row doing this, they clearly value that type of player. I know the cliché out there is “well you can’t have six Erik Karlsson’s” which I disagree with, but I understand that logic. What I don’t get though is why people don’t say “well you can’t have six Marc Methot’s.” Having six big shutdown defencemen wouldn’t work as the team would struggle getting out of its own end as the defencmen don't have the puck skills to successfully exit the zone. You can’t teach size but you can’t teach skill either which is what you need to play at the NHL level.
The Vitali Abramov pick was extremely savvy. The third round has been kind to the Jackets in recent years as they have gone away from size and picked more skilled players. The curious picks were the two that followed in the sixth and seventh round, Peter Thome and Calvin Thurkaf. Both players were passed over in the previous entry draft. Like the Peeke pick, these picks should have been predictable. With seven picks in rounds six and seven over Jarmo's four years as GM he has picked five players who have been passed over previously.
The issue as I’ve mentioned before is that the players being picked haven’t really shown that they deserve to be picked at all. Thurkauf played in the WHL and scored 45 points in 61 games. There are very few players in the NHL who didn’t dominate their junior league. As an older player who didn’t crush the WHL the odds of becoming a successful pick are slim at best. A very curious pick. Thome is a little different because he did do well in his league posting a .929 save percentage. The issue though is that he played in a league where not many players come from in the NAHL. Many prospects his age are playing in the NCAA or USHL. It’s hard to judge the league quality which makes this a very risky pick.
Finally we have the most curious decision of all trading Kerby Rychel to Toronto for Scott Harrington and a conditional 5th. If Harrington is put on waivers and is claimed, the Blue Jackets receive a 5th round pick. Basically this is Rychel who was a first round pick just three years ago in 2013, for a 5th round pick. The reason behind the trade is simple. The Blue Jackets no longer wanted to deal with Rychel and his off-ice problems (notably his parents who I’m told can be difficult to deal with). There were also some rumblings that his poor playoffs with Lake Erie were a reason, and while Rychel wasn’t great, six points in 17 games as a 21 year old isn’t bad either.
What I don’t understand is why the team didn’t shop Rychel around to try to get more than a fifth. Maybe they did I don’t know, but I’m having trouble believing a fifth was the best deal they could get. Even if it was the best deal, you couldn’t have done the deal earlier and got a pick for this draft when you had only five? Again this is just speculation I don’t know what went on, but I have a hard time believing no team was willing to give up even a fourth for a young former first round pick. A very odd situation, and one that might come back to bite the Jackets if Rychel is able to fulfill his full potential.
To conclude I get why these moves were made but I question the thought process behind them. The team took some big risks and we have to wait and see if they will pay off, but right now I wouldn’t bet on it.
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