Columbus Blue Jackets Draft Profile: Kale Howarth

With their 5th round selection the Columbus Blue Jackets selected the only skater from the British Columbia Hockey League. Kale Howarth is the ultimate project pick.

Our look at the Columbus Blue Jackets 2017 NHL Entry Draft picks continues with the 5th round pick Kale Howrath. The 148th overall pick is the Jackets most interesting pick in the draft.

The left shot center spent the last few years in the British Columbia Hockey League. There he played for one of the coolest minor league team names in North America: the Trail Smoke Eaters.

Kale Howrath is big. Very big. He stands at over 6’5″ tall. Slap a pair of skates on this Red Deer, Alberta native and you have quite an imposing center standing before you.

Size is one of the best attributes of Kale’s game. In the British Columbia Hockey League, he learned to use his size to his advantage. Last season in 51 games he posted 30 goals and 28 assist. He frequently bullied himself past defenders and into high danger areas.

Howrath did not always posses this great size though and is just coming into his height. Kale was only 4’11” when he was 13-years-old. This late growth spurt prevented him from playing in the WHL and thus receiving more attention.

Columbus Blue Jackets

As the old saying goes, you can’t teach size. Howrath is learning to play with his new found size and the results are showing in the BCHL.

Late, Late Bloomer

Howrath though is a late bloomer. He is 20-years-old and still is extremely raw. Kale has shown signs of increasing his puck handling and defensive ability but still has a long way to go.

This improvement has also been against some pretty inferior competition in the BCHL. He was the only player in the entire league ranked by NHL Central Scouting for the 2017 Entry Draft.

Howrath plans on spending the next season in Trail before hopefully enrolling at UCONN in December and joining the team. Once at UConn we will get to see him play against somewhat stiff competition for a 20-year-old as the Huskies compete in one of the better NCAA Hockey conferences in Hockey East.

Next: CBJ Miss Out on Kovalchuk

Kale has a long, long way to go until even thinking of playing for the Cleveland Monsters. I don’t see him ever playing in Columbus but understand why Jarmo decided to roll the dice on him. You can teach a player a lot of things in this game. You can’t teach size though. Welcome to the Columbus Blue Jackets family Kale.