Columbus Blue Jackets prospect watch, Evan Gardner looks like a keeper

One of the most underrated jobs in all of sports is hockey's goaltender position. Often, your team can ride the wild ups and downs of a hot or cold goaltender to success or failure. Naturally, every team must use high draft picks on these guys, right? Wrong.

Fact of the matter is, it's pretty rare. This summer, the Columbus Blue Jackets drafted a goaltender with their third pick, taking Saskatoon Blades backstop Evan Gardner in the second round (#60 overall). This is the first time the team has taken a goaltender before the fifth round since they used a third round pick to select Daniil Tarasov in 2017.

Before that, the only other goaltenders drafted before the 4th round by the Blue Jackets are: Elvis Merzlikins (third round) in 2014, both Oscar Dansk (2nd) and Joonas Korpisalo (3rd) in 2012; Steve Mason (3rd) in 2006, Dan LaCosta (3rd) in 2004, and Pascal Leclaire (1st) in 2002. That's 8 guys in 25 drafts.

Worth noting, only two of those guys - LaCosta and Dansk - didn't go on to notable NHL careers. Traditionally, the Blue Jackets have a knack for finding goaltenders via the draft, even if they don't become All-Star caliber NHL players. With that in mind, bear with my reasoning when I say that Evan Gardner might just be the best of them all. Part of that has to do with the situation he's coming into.

Development is key with a young goaltender...

Looking back through this team's history of picking goalies, we can break down why some guys were successful, and others were not. For example, Pascal Leclaire and Steve Mason were probably the two most highly touted guys on that list. Both were rushed to the NHL, and had flashes of huge success - Mason even winning the Calder Trophy - but ultimately, neither guy had massive staying power.

For this reason, I think the Blue Jackets have to be extremely patient with Evan Gardner. They have the luxury of doing so, at least for the time being. This team isn't going to be in their competition window for at least another year or two. Elvis Merzlikins is signed for this year and two additional. Daniil Tarasov is an RFA and may or may not be brought back. Either way, Jet Greaves looks primed to step into an NHL role, which should help buy some time for Gardner as he works on his game.

All of the tools are there...

The reason I'm so high on Gardner? He has everything you want in an eventual starting goaltender. At 6'1", he fills up a lot of the net with his size, and he also has the requisite athleticism you want in a young goalie. The biggest thing I like in his game is his calm demeanor.

He makes the game look easy when he's on, which is probably the best compliment you can give to a young goalie. That's a trait I once used to describe a young Carey Price. Now, I don't think Evan has that same potential, but he can similarly make a big save look easy.

Gardner is prone to the odd rebound mistake, which is probably the biggest thing he'll need to work out of his game. But, with time and experience, I think he'll be able to correct it. In the example below, he gives up the rebound - but is able to use that athleticism to recover and make the save on the second chance as well.

So far this season, he's well on pace to continue his rise as one of the top goaltending prospects in hockey. He's already won 7 games with the Blades, posting a .906% save percentage and 2.89 goals against average. Impressively, this is after he had a pretty slow start where he surrendered 13 goals in his first three starts in the WHL this year.

Look for Gardner to spend this year and next year back in the WHL. The Blue Jackets should take the slow path here for sure, and only give him looks in the NHL when he's absolutely ready. If they can let him take the time to learn all of his reads and weed out the occasional mistake, he could very well be the goaltender that takes this team to another level in a few years.