After last night’s loss to the Vegas Golden Knights in regulation at the T-Mobile Arena, the mind kept racing about how the 31st franchise has continuously costed the Blue Jackets throughout their short histories.
Starting with the game last night, winger Keagan Kolesar had two points in the victory against the team that drafted and traded him.
That’s right.
The current third line winger of the injury crippled Vegas team was a Columbus draft pick out of the Seattle Thunderbirds organization back in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft, the same one where they also had defenders Zach Werenski, Gabriel Carlsson, Kevin Stenlund, Vladislav Gavrikov, and Markus Nutivarra join the organization. This was a star stuffed and successful draft for this organization.
To recapture success in the 2017 draft, Vegas and Columbus agreed on a trade to send the tough winger to Sin City for the second round pick belonging to Tampa Bay. Tampa dealt this pick with winger Nikita Gusev to Vegas for them to take defender Jason Garrison off their hands. That second round pick turned out to be Frenchman Alexandre Texier.
Days before that trade, the first trade between Columbus and Vegas involved David Clarkson and a first round pick for them to take William Karlsson. Columbus was looking to protect their defensive core with Seth Jones, David Savard, and Ryan Murray at the time. The first round pick was then swapped with Winnipeg’s first and the selection of Chris Thorburn in the expansion draft. The pick Winnipeg selected was Finnish winger Kristian Vessalinen; the pick swap landed Vegas center Nick Suzuki. Trading the young center early in his development landed the Golden Knights winger Max Paccioretty. Karlsson exploded the inaugural season, potting 40 goals in 82 games.
The other big fish the Columbus is seeing succeed with Vegas is winter Jonathan Marchessault, joining them as an undrafted free agent. Columbus dealt Marchessault to Tampa for other minor leaguers, but his breakout year came with the Florida Panthers.
The Panthers dealt him to Vegas for them to take Riley Smith off their hands for additional salary cap.
The experience and strength between Marchessault, Karlsson, and Kolesar still make up a portion of the Vegas offensive core since their Stanley Cup run in 2018, and will continue as long as they stay productive.
Thoughts?
Buffalo is next on the docket.