The 2020 NHL Draft was a memorable one. This one happened during the COVID pandemic, and it was the first time in my memory that all of the GMs were not in the same room making their picks. Of course, leave it up to Jarmo Kekalainen to stun the audience, despite not picking until #21 overall.
This was a time of transition for the Blue Jackets. They were coming out of the best run of success in franchise history. But, with much of the star talent packing up and leaving town; the team was set to begin a much-needed rebuild, despite having made the playoffs after winning their bubble series against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
With bare cupboards as far as prospects, and not many picks in hand, Jarmo had his work cut out for him. He swung for the fences with his first round pick, but was also able to find some value deeper in the draft. Lets take a look at how these picks have turned out.
First round (#21 overall), F Egor Chinakhov
Everyone was shocked when the Blue Jackets announced their pick at #21 in the first round. In fact, the TV broadcast was so stunned, that they took a moment to compose themselves and respond. The only person on the broadcast who could respond was Craig Button, who noted that Egor Chinakhov was a talented goal scorer.
In this case, Craig knew his stuff. Chinakhov was an overager, eligible for the draft the year prior; but going unselected. The COVID year allowed him the exposure to land on scouts' radar-and apparently pretty highly. After being picked by the Blue Jackets, he stayed in Russia for one more season, scoring 10 goals and 17 points in 32 games for Avangard Omsk of the KHL.
He came over to North America for the 2021-22 season, and quickly found himself on the Blue Jackets roster. Unfortunately, the only real consistency in Yegor's time with the organization, was inconsistency.
For every stretch of promise, it seemed like there was another setback. Be it injury, or just the general disfunction of the organization; the match was just never made between the organization and this player.
Yegor got into 204 games in the Union Blue, scoring 37 goals and 77 points before being dealt to the Pittsburgh Penguins this past season, in exchange for Danton Heinen and a couple of draft picks. As we would have expected, he exploded after the change of scenery, scoring 18 goals and 36 points in 43 games for the Penguins.
Verdict: NHL player. Grade: A
This turned out to be a strong pick by Jarmo, in my opinion. Chinakhov was exactly as advertised, but the Blue Jackets just did not have the organizational structure place to help him reach another level. And, once the relationship soured, it was just never going to work.
Still, he has found a way to develop into exactly what we thought he would become when he was selected: a speedy middle-six sniper. He looks to be on track to be that 30/30 complimentary piece. Good for him. I think he's a top-15 player from this class, so this was great value for the Jackets.
In hindsight, I wonder if they would have been better off trading down a few spots and picking up more selections for later in the draft. There were some solid players taken with the next 20 or so picks, and the Jackets did not have many bullets at this draft.
We'll never know. Lets move on to the rest of the draft, starting on the next slide.
Add us as a preferred source on Google