Columbus Blue Jackets: 2017 NHL Draft Review, How Did They Do?
By Curtis Deem
The Jackets picked another overager in round six – this time, a productive winger out of Sweden. While he didn’t make it in Columbus, he became an important pick for this team in a different way.
Sixth round (#170 overall): RW Jonathan Davidsson
The Jackets used a pick acquired in the Brandon Saad/Artemi Panarin trade to pick a small, but productive winger playing in Sweden’s second tier league. Jonathan Davidsson never came to North America as a member of the Blue Jackets – instead spending two more seasons playing in the SHL – but, we can’t call this one a complete miss.
Davidsson was eventually part of the deal that brought Matt Duchene to Columbus at the 2019 trade deadline. Duchene was a key piece to the first round sweep over the Tampa Bay Lightning that spring, helping the team to their first ever playoff series win.
Davidsson came over and spent parts of two seasons in the Senators organization, playing in six NHL games during the 2019-20 season. Since then, he’s returned to Europe, where he’s played ever since. Any time you can turn a sixth round draft pick into an asset that brings back a player like Matt Duchene, it’s hard to be upset.
Sixth round (#179 overall): RW Carson Meyer
The Jackets took their third overage player in the draft just nine picks later, selecting Powell native and University of Miami (Ohio) forward Carson Meyer.
Meyer played three more years at the NCAA level, including two at the Ohio State University, before turning pro for the 2020-21 season. Since then, he’s been a bit of a ‘tweener, bouncing between the Jackets and the Cleveland Monsters (AHL). But, he has 27 NHL games under his belt, more than everyone taken after him in this draft.
He’s been an energetic workhorse ever since he was brought into the organization, earning everything he’s gotten along the way. It’s hard to be upset about the local team picking a local kid, when it turns out like this. The only concern I have now is, there’s not much room left for this guy on this team as the rebuild nears its completion.
Sixth round grade: B. Another high grade … they come away with two guys who made it to the NHL. To put it into perspective, only nine players from this round in 2017 played any NHL games, and four of them played fewer than 10.