Columbus Blue Jackets 2018 Draft Profile: Liam Foudy
By William Espy
The Columbus Blue Jackets drafted the London Knights Center 18th overall this year.
The Columbus Blue Jackets lack of center depth was well known heading into the NHL Entry Draft, however no one expected them to select Liam Foudy over the likes of Joe Veleno. Foudy’s potential likely caps out as a second line center or high end third line center at the NHL level, however that’s a solid pick in the middle to late first round.
Liam comes from an extremely athletic family. His mother won a silver medal for Canada in Track in Field at the Olympics. His father played in the Canadian Football League and won a championship.
All of that athleticism shows on and off the ice. He has blazing speed and can skate past anyone in the OHL. He also dominated the draft combine this year winning more events than anyone else.
Foudy has decent size and if he uses it to his advantage, he could potentially become a hitting sniper type of player almost like a poor man’s Alex Ovechkin. One thing to note about Foudy is that he typically has scored more goals than he has assists at the OHL level.
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In his OHL career Foudy has posted 33 goals and 22 assists in 123 games. He really started turning heads though after the London Knights traded away some top talent at the deadline. This gave Foudy an opportunity to play top line minutes for the traditionally deep team in London and he produced. In Foudy’s final 30 games he posted 33 points.
If Liam Foudy lives up to his full potential, the Columbus Blue Jackets will have a very solid center corps in the near future. Having the top three centers on the team be Pierre-Luc Dubois, Liam Foudy and Alexander Wennberg could be a Stanley Cup contending center corps.
The only question left on most fans mind is, how long will it take for Foudy to make it to the NHL? I expect him to spend at least two more years in the OHL before finally becoming an NHL regular. My timeline on Foudy making it to the NHL would likely be somewhere around 2020 or 2021.
Next: 2018 Draft Profile: Kirill Marchenko
While he’s still a few years away from being an NHL level player, Liam Foudy could be a big part of the Columbus Blue Jackets future. Welcome to Columbus Liam.