Did the Blue Jackets Trade Up to 4th?
Columbus Twitter is BLOWING up right now after the San Jose Sharks tweeted a picture of their view of tonight’s draft. Why? Take a look below?
View from the #SharksDraft table. pic.twitter.com/Mq2On2HSlp
— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) June 26, 2015
It appears to show a trade between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Columbus Blue Jackets where the Jackets get 4th and Leafs get the 8th pick.
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Sabre Noise
The Jackets have been linked all day to trading up to 3rd with the Arizona Coyotes with the suspected target being top rated defenceman Noah Hanifin. GM Jarmo Kekalainen only added fuel to the fire yesterday with his comments to the Blue Jackets’ website, “But I think the optimal situation would be, in our case, we see what’s available at (No. 8) and then get to 5 or 6 and see if it’s there anymore or if we have to move to 6 to get him. But at the end of the day, 6 might not be available at that time anymore.”
These comments make me believe this is more a draft board test than an actual trade. It doesn’t sound like Jarmo to trade up without knowing exactly what he’ll be getting in return. Now he can obviously be targeting two players, Hanifin and common Jackets’ mock draft pick, defenceman Ivan Provorov. That’s just it though, Provorov and even Zach Werenski (my pick if we stay at 8) are rated in the 6-10 on most draft boards. Why trade up to 4 if there’s a chance your choice can fall to you?
This obviously can be true, especially if Arizona has already told the Jackets who they’re taken, but again that seems like a leap since Arizona doesn’t seem too dialed into anyone player, actively openly shopping the pick. Why lock into a pick now?
To me this seems like much ado about nothing. It’s probably just a test, I find it odd as well that with reporters everywhere this would be first found out through a social media image through a team and not confirmed within seconds by a reporter. Too little substantial evidence to get me to bite so far.
That said, I do expect the Jackets to be hot on the trade path tonight going after Hanifin. Stay Tuned.
UPDATE: It seems it was all just a board test. Yahoo’s Puck Daddy editor tweeted this.
Leafs are still at No. 4 on big board #NHLDraft2015 pic.twitter.com/btWYpVZ6dE
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) June 26, 2015