Elliotte Friedman wrote a fantastic article breaking down the best 23 minutes this summer. His piece appropriately titled “The 23 Minutes that Shook the Hockey World… had some great insight into the trades of Taylor Hall for Adam Larsson, and P.K. Subban for Shea Weber, and the re-signing of Steven Stamkos in Tampa Bay.
In that post he had two very small mentions of Columbus but both revealed very interesting things about the draft and Columbus’ position at third overall.
The initial Hall-for-Larsson conversations came before the draft. After kicking around a three-way trade with Calgary and Columbus that would have dropped Edmonton to sixth (and a selection of Mikhail Sergachev or Matthew Tkachuk), the Oilers added talented Finnish forward Jesse Puljujarvi fourth overall. Even more flexibility up front to move someone.
This is not the first time the Jackets have been a part of a big discussion like this. Remember at the 2015 draft they almost made a substantial move with Toronto to trade up to the fourth overall selection, so that they could draft Noah Hanifin. They ultimately didn’t do the trade but still got a player they wanted in Zach Werenski.
In this scenario the Jackets would have been moving down into the fourth spot. Its obvious teams were looking to move up, coveting Jesse Puljujarvi. It was assumed at the time that Columbus would take Puljujarvi, leaving Edmonton, who were rumoured to looking for defencemen, in a tough spot. In this proposal Calgary would have moved up and taken Puljujarvi. The Jackets would have taken Pierre-Luc Dubois, who they wanted all along, at four, and the Oilers could have taken Mikhail Sergachev or Matt Tkachuk, as Friedman mentioned, at six.
From a Columbus perspective it would have been fantastic. They would have picked up additional assets, and regardless of what they were, they still would have got the player they coveted the most. So why did this trade fall though? It has been mentioned before, Columbus did not do a very good job at keeping the secret, and word got out that they wanted Dubois.
There were at least three possibilities — Colorado, Edmonton and Vancouver. Canucks GM Jim Benning admitted his interest and had one thing the Canadiens really liked — a better draft position. But 24 hours before the first pick, Bergevin realized there was no way Columbus would let Pierre-Luc Dubois pass them. That damaged the two teams’ ability to make a deal, since he was the prospect Montreal coveted.
Once word got around that Columbus was passing on Puljujarvi it killed all negotiation leverage they had. Edmonton was no longer had a dilemma at number four and Columbus couldn’t trade down with anyone else as they knew Dubois wasn’t getting past Vancouver.
Dubois is going to be a great NHL player, and would have been a great pick by the Jackets at four. He was a reach at three and it’s too bad the Jackets were unable to work out a deal and move down a spot. They could have added a pick or two which would have been ideal since they only had five. It’s very unfortunate that this trade fell through because of their own doing. Word never should have got out that they had Dubois over Puljujarvi. When planning to make a decision that big and controversial, it’s best to have as few people know as possible.
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