Blue line, Blue Jackets: Columbus adds Jiricek, Mateychuk at draft

David Jiricek added a twist Thursday night to a time-honored tradition.
Moments after he pulled on a Blue Jackets sweater for the first time when he became the team's top choice in the 2022 NHL Draft, at a time when handshakes, introductions and ceremonial photos are taken, Jiricek pulled his new union blue jersey to his face and kissed the crest at the center.
If you're looking for a good omen, you could do worse than that from the big defenseman.

"I kiss every jersey when I first put it on," Jiricek said afterward with a smile a mile wide on his face. "I think it's my ritual or something like that. It's good luck."

Let's hope so. Jiricek highlighted
two picks for the Blue Jackets in Thursday night's draft
, both of them defensemen as Columbus took the big Czech blueliner at No. 6 overall before tabbing Canadian D Denton Mateychuk at No. 12.
A year after selecting a pair of centers in the top 12 in Kent Johnson and Cole Sillinger, the Blue Jackets went to the blue line this time around.
"We always talk about taking the best player available, and those are the guys we thought were the best guys at the time," general manager Jarmo Kekalainen said. "That's the philosophy you always stick to. I think we got two really good defensemen, and you can never have too many of them."
The players figure to add plenty to the blue line as time goes by. Jiricek was rated by most analysts as one of the top two defensemen in the draft, as he brings a big frame (he's listed at 6-3, 189), a booming shot, solid skating ability and the proclivity for physical play to the table that would seem to make the right-shot blue liner a perfect complement to Zach Werenski down the road.
"That's definitely his upside, and he has some offense to his game, too," Kekalainen said of Jiricek, who played for Czechia at the World Juniors and World Championships this past season and also was in his third year with HC Plzen in his home country. "It's pretty much unprecedented what he's done at his age in the Czech league and playing at the men's World Championships, and he played good. I was there myself. I watched him play him the men's World Championships and he was really good.
"He's 6-foot-4, has a great frame to him, has a great attitude, we love his character, his compete and his skill level as well. We're extremely happy to get him."

Jiricek said he views himself as a blueliner with both offensive and defensive skills who expects to keep getting better as he continues to mature into his body.
"I will be two-way," he said of his game. "I want to play power play and penalty kill, too. That's my goal for the next two or three years. I think I need to improve my strength and on some plays in the D-zone. My hockey sense and shot, those are my biggest strengths right now. I like (physical play) but I need more strength for North America."
READ MORE: 5 things to know about David Jiricek
Mateychuk, meanwhile, isn't quite as big as Jiricek at 5-11, 188 pounds, and is thought to be more of a playmaking defenseman with elite skating skills. The 17-year-old Manitoba native was nearly a point-per-game player for Moose Jaw this past season, posting a 13-51-64 line in 65 games in his first full WHL campaign to tie for fifth in points among league blueliners just behind No. 7 overall pick Kevin Korchinski.
"I think some people see him maybe as a small defenseman," Kekalainen said. "We don't at all. I don't know if he's 5-11 or 5-10½, but he's thick, he's strong, he's competitive. He's been dominant in the games that we watched. You look at his stats, he's a point-per-game defenseman in the Western Hockey League and an assistant captain already at that age. I think there's a great future ahead of him."
READ MORE: 5 things to know about Denton Mateychuk
Mateychuk said he tries to model his game after Boston defenseman Charlie McAvoy, but some have compared his style of game to that of Colorado star Cale Makar because of his skating ability, unpredictability and skill.
"I'm a pretty good skater," he said. "I like to play in the offensive zone. I like to use my skating to create lanes with my edges and create a lane for a shot or pass, whatever it is. I like to be deceptive about it, use my stick as a deceptive tool for me. I think I'm a power-play guy, penalty kill, I can play in all situations."

Kekalainen had talked before the start of the draft about the possibility of trading one of his first-round picks if a deal for the right young player already in the NHL came along, but despite chatter throughout the day with multiple teams and offers being on the table, the CBJ general manager said sticking at six and 12 ended up being the best move in his eyes.
"We always look at the options, weigh them and see what the best option available in front of us is," he said. "The one conversation that I think convinced us to make the pick was imagine if we traded the 12th overall pick last year and Cole Sillinger ended up playing for somebody else, and we get a player that's a good NHL player but might not have the upside that we feel Cole Sillinger has now for us.
"That's the great upside that the young guys have when you draft them at the age of 18. They can take a huge jump, which I think Cole Sillinger is a perfect example of that, and that's what we hope with these two guys."
For their part, Jiricek and Mateychuk were happy to don the union blue for the first time and will now head to Columbus next week to take part in the team's development camp.
"It's an awesome feeling," Mateychuk said. "It's kind of indescribable. When you hear your name called, it's just the next step in your career, and I'm really excited to be part of the organization."
Added Jiricek: "It's awesome. It's a dream come true. It's a dream for teens or kids from the Czech Republic."
The draft will continue with rounds two through seven coming Friday in Montreal, kicking off at 11 a.m. on NHL Network and ESPN+.