David Jiricek will finally get his chance to play, and it's up to him to prove he can do it for the Blue Jackets

According to head coach Dean Evason, tomorrow night will be David Jiricek's first opportunity to showcase himself during the NHL's regular season. The Blue Jackets are battling through injury troubles already, which has pushed open the door for the talented young defenseman. Now, it's up to him to prove to the hockey world that he can play at the highest level.

Originally the sixth overall pick at the 2022 NHL Draft, Jiricek has had wild ups and downs early on in his professional career. Since being picked up by the Blue Jackets, he spent most of the last two seasons playing for the AHL's Cleveland Monsters.

In that time, he's accrued 84 games, scoring 13 goals and 57 points. Clearly, his offensive game is pretty close to being ready. Unfortunately, at the NHL level, he's been exposed due to immaturity and inconsistency; two things he'll need to get over quickly, if he's going to stay in the lineup for any real length of time.

Coming into the season as the eighth defenseman for the Jackets, Jiricek certainly has his work cut out for him if he's going to become a lineup regular. The team added depth over the summer, which has at least partially contributed to him spending the first week of the season in the press box.

But, he's also dug himself into the hole a bit here. The Blue Jackets were reluctant to send Jiricek back to Cleveland to start this season, probably at least in part due to comments he made after being sent down last year. So, rather than playing 20 minutes per night in a starring role - and developing further - David has sat and waited his turn.

It's David's turn to shine. No debating the talent, but what about his mindset?

Now that his chance is here, the expectations are pretty darn high. The 20 year old defenseman has to prove that he's better than at least two or three guys who have been ahead of him on the depth chart to start the year. And, these are all guys he'll probably be taking the ice with tomorrow night.

At 6'4" and over 200 pounds, Jiricek oozes top pairing potential. He has the big shot, throws big hits, and shows flashes of being a transitional beast when he's on his game. The issue so far has been his sluggish foot speed, which gets exposed by quicker, shiftier NHL players, along with his inconsistency.

On one shift, he'll look like the best player on the ice, turning the play back the other way and making things look relatively easy. On the next, he's completely out of position, inevitably looking to the ceiling as the opposition celebrates a goal.

Ups and downs are to be expected of a young defenseman, no matter how talented. The key here is in the development. David needs to show that he can be coached through his mistakes and learn from them. Otherwise, he'll be right back in the press box.