Blue Jackets 'keeping options open' ahead of NHL draft

Some NHL drafts are whirlwinds, full of blockbuster trades, surprise choices and plenty of rumors and intrigue.
Others are more boring affairs, with deals never reaching the finish line and players falling into the order they were expected.
Jarmo Kekalainen expects the 2022 version to be much more the former than the latter.

Whether it's because of the lack of a consensus at the top of the draft, the reality that many teams are up against the salary cap or the fact that everyone is together for a draft for the first time in there years, there seems to be a feeling Thursday night's opening around and Friday's finishing kick will be full of intrigue for fans and executives alike.
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"It could go the way we have it on our list and we'll be taking the 12th pick with the 12th player on our list," the Blue Jackets general manager said Wednesday. "But I doubt it will go that way. I think it'll go the other way where there's gonna be some oohs and aahs and surprises in the top 10."
Time will tell if Kekalainen -- who owns six picks overall in the seven-round draft, including first-round choices at six and 12 and a second-round pick at 44 -- is proved correct, but there's also the reality his team could be in the mix of that potential mayhem as well.
Kekalainen acknowledged Wednesday that he's had discussions with general managers around the league about trading one of his first-round choices, and with Columbus coming off a successful 2021 draft that netted three first-rounders and a 2021-22 season that surpassed the expectations of observers, the GM said it might be the right time to make a move that gives the Blue Jackets immediate help.
That wouldn't be a mortgaging of the future but a chance to speed up the team's reset a little bit by acquiring a young NHL player who remains under team control for years to come.
"We've had a lot of phone calls about six and 12, and we're going to keep taking them and evaluating all the offers that we have in front of us and keep an open mind," Kekalainen said. "It will take a lot to move six or 12. We're not going to move both -- I guess you never say never. We're most likely not going to move both, but we could move one of them. But it would take a lot."
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The mold that Kekalainen said he's looking for is a player in his early 20s who has made it to the NHL and still has at least three seasons before he hits the unrestricted free agency market.
"We've said all along we are not going to make a trade just because we need immediate help," Kekalainen said. "It has to be someone we can build with into the future. We hold the rights for seven years for a player coming into the league in the entry draft. We're not going to trade a pick for a guy we could potentially control for two years and once our window starts opening that we would really be ready to compete for the Stanley Cup, then all of a sudden we don't have that guy anymore. It doesn't make any sense.
"We are only going to do it for a young player that is going to be with us for a long time and somebody that we can build with our core and grow with our core while also filling a need. But the immediate help is not the biggest focus. It's immediate and into the future rather than just immediate."
As for the draft itself, Kekalainen said Columbus has close to 100 names on its draft board, which is mostly complete, while meetings continue as CBJ brass charts the exact course it will take in the coming days.
In addition to the three picks in the top 44, the Blue Jackets own choices in the third round (96th overall), fourth round (109th overall) and seventh round (203rd overall).
The top of the board could be what makes the situation so intriguing, as the thought among observers is there is no clear-cut future superstar that tops every board. Host Montreal holds the first pick and is said to be deciding between Canadian center Shane Wright, Slovak winger Juraj Slafkovsky and American center Logan Cooley. The Canadiens also have said they wouldn't be against moving up to add another high pick, while some of the other top teams in the draft have acknowledged moving down would be the preferable move.
Add it all up and trades could be in the offing, leading to a chain reaction of craziness that might impact every team.
"You never know," Kekalainen said. "We're going to keep our options open."