With their second to last pick, the Columbus Blue Jackets grabbed hometown kid Carson Meyer. The forward has potential and a great launching pad as a Columbus hockey player.
The six and seventh rounds have been good to the Columbus Blue Jackets recently. This year’s six round pick in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft has me thinking that the CBJ will continue this trend. With the 179th pick the Jackets selected forward Carson Meyer.
The Columbus native fulfilled a life long dream in the best way possible. What could be better than being drafted to the NHL by the team you grew up rooting for?
Meyer was in his third NHL Entry Draft. After an above average freshman year at Miami University, he was certainly set to get selected. Meyer scored 10 goals and 26 points in 32 games in his first year in Oxford. That was against serious competition in the NCAA’s toughest conference, the NCHC.
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I would look for Meyer to take a big step forward in year two in college. He scored 32 goals in 52 games in the USHL just a season before joining Miami. The 5″10′ sophomore will have a chance to play a big role for the Miami Redhawks next season. It’s not unrealistic to expect Meyer to put up 15 goals and 25 assist next year.
That would put him on an eerily similar trajectory as fellow Columbus native and Miami Redhawk Kiefer Sherwood. Sherwood scored 38 points Kiefer is of course brothers with Blue Jacket prospect, Kole Sherwood.
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Meyer becomes the second Columbus native drafted by the Blue Jackets. In 2007, with the last pick in the draft, the Jackets selected Dublin native Trent Vogelhuber.
Meyer will join one of the Jackets most promising prospects, Kole Sherwood, in the organization as a player that grew up with the organization itself. Kole will spend this season in Cleveland after a phenomenal year in the OHL where he scored 85 points in 60 games.
It obviously means a ton to these young guys to play in their hometown organization.
And this is just the players in the CBJ organization. Winnipeg has a soon to be top 6 forward in Dublin native Jack Roslovic. The first round pick from last year will likely make the Jets this season after a huge season in the AHL as a 19-year-old.
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Columbus native Connor Murphy is another that will be playing in the NHL. The defenseman was just a major piece in a trade to the New York Rangers from Arizona.
The Jackets have not only brought a professional hockey team to Columbus, but elevated the game in Ohio at all levels. These prospects grew up and played the game in part due to an NHL franchise being in our town.
Congratulations to Carson Meyer. Welcome to the Columbus Blue Jackets and best of luck in Miami next season.