Jackets stick to their list on day two, adding five more prospects

DALLAS - If there's any common threads in the Blue Jackets' drafting trends under general manager Jarmo Kekalainen, it's that best available players are the priority and size doesn't overshadow skill.
Also, players who are selected come only from the Jackets' internal rankings list, without regard to external rankings or experts - including the NHL's scouting service, NHL Central Scouting.
"[NHL Central Scouting] is a list that we respect for their work and crossover, but we have our scouts and we pay our scouts to do the job they do," Kekalainen said Saturday, after adding five more players to the Blue Jackets' developmental system on the second day of the 2018 NHL Draft. "As far as changing our list based on Central Scouting? Not at all."

It's how Columbus usually ends up with a pick or two in each draft that makes draft experts scratch their heads, but it's also how the Jackets end up getting "hidden gem" players who turn into solid NHL regulars.
Look no further than rounds 2-7 of this draft for the latest examples.
The Blue Jackets went heavy on skill with three forwards - Kirill Marchenko (second round, No. 49), Marcus Karlberg (third round, No. 80) and Trey Fix-Wolansky (seventh round, No. 204) - picked up what Kekalainen termed a "sleeper" in 5-foot-11 Swiss defenseman Tim Berni (sixth round, No. 159) and added another intriguing goalie prospect to the system in 21-year old Veini Vehvilainen (sixth round, No. 173).
Marchenko, a skilled winger who's played on the Russian junior circuit, was taken first. He's got good size at 6-foot-3, 187 pounds, is a good skater and has shown flashes of high-end playmaking ability.
His offensive productivity dipped this season, playing with Mamonty Yugri in Russia's MHL, but the Blue Jackets don't think his eight goals, eight assists and 16 points in 31 games reflects his true talent level.
"Last year was a bit rocky for me, a lot of ups and downs," Marchenko said, through a translator. "However, at the end, I feel like I improved a lot, especially in my skating, speed and even the physical aspect of it too. However, I want to work more on my physical aspect."
Kekalainen said Marchenko was in the discussion to be selected 18th overall, where they took speedy, athletic center Liam Foudy, of the London Knights, in the first round Friday night. Marchenko was ranked 37th among international skaters in Central Scouting's mid-term rankings, but moved up to 17th in the final rankings.
"Honestly, the second-round pick, Marchenko, we had him in the first," Kekalainen said. "If we would've had a later [first-round pick], he would've been right there for us. So, we're extremely happy to get him in the second, obviously."
Karlberg was taken in the third, causing draft experts to scramble for information. He didn't make Central Scouting's final Top 100 international skaters, but the 5-foot-8, 165-pound forward caught the attention of Jackets' scouts - particularly Josef Boumedienne, their director of European scouting.
"We really like the way he plays the game," Boumedienne said. "He plays at a really high pace, he comes to play every single night and his practice habits are phenomenal. What I really want to see, especially from a forward, is he can process the game at a high pace, he can make those quick, little plays around the net, and he has that ability."
Karlberg's skating, offensive production and willingness to battle for pucks in the hardest areas of the ice similar to traits that allowed undersized Swedish forward Viktor Arvidsson to excel with the Nashville Predators.
"What really intrigues me is that he plays hard every single night," Boumedienne said. "Those guys … in the future, down the line, they seem to separate themselves. He still needs to grow. He's going to fill out. He's got a lot of work ahead of him, but he's an exciting player."
Karlberg plays for Leksand IF, which his father - who played in the Swedish Hockey League - is the director of player personnel. He had 15 goals, 42 assists and 57 points in 39 games with Leksand's Under-20 team, and totaled 21 goals, 41 assists and 62 points in 52 regular-season junior-level games.
Columbus didn't have a pick in either the fourth or fifth rounds but traded a fifth-round pick in 2019 to the Detroit Red Wings to obtain an additional sixth-round selection (No. 159) in this draft.
It was used to select Berni, who played most of the season in Switzerland's second-tier league, before bumping up to the top division. Kekalainen said he might be a "sleeper" pick, who's just starting to develop into a high-caliber puck-mover.
Vehvilainen and Fox-Wolansky rounded out the draft for the Blue Jackets, and both could turn out to be great value picks. Fox-Wolansky is another undersized, high-skilled forward with a great track record of producing in the Western Hockey League, while Vehvilainen is an undersized goalie who led Karpat to a championship this past season in Liigue, the top league in Finland.
Vehvilainen, who's listed at 6-foot, 174-pounds by EliteProspects.com, was passed over in previous drafts and lasted to the sixth round in this one. He wasn't ranked among Central Scouting's Top 14 European goalies, either.
His stats, however, are pristine.
He finished with a 1.89 goals-against average and .925 save percentage in 35 appearances for Karpat last season and was even better in the playoffs. During the championship run, Vehvilainen had a 1.57 GAA and .933 save percentage.
"Vehvilainen's a goalie who could basically play in North America right now," said Kekalainen, who's seen Vehvilainen play in person and had former goaltending coach Ian Clark study him. "He won the championship as a No. 1 goalie in the Finnish League. He's under contract [in Finland], so we may have to wait a year to see him over here, but he was a heck of a goalie."
The Blue Jackets have a few goalies in their system who already fit that description, including Elvis Merzlikins (2014, third round, No. 76), Daniil Tarasov (2017, third round, No. 86) and Matiss Kivlenieks (2017, free agent).
Now they have another horse in the stable, along with five other skaters in the system - all looking to forge a path to the NHL in Columbus.
"It's the same thing everybody says right now," Kekalainen said. "'It's a great day and I can't believe he was there,' but we'll see in a few years."