Blue Jackets get no lottery luck, will draft 4th overall next month. Who will they pick?
By Curtis Deem
The Jackets also have a lot of young defense prospects coming along.
Really, this team is in great shape all around, so this pick should just be the cherry on top of an already impressive looking build.
For that reason, I think the solution here is to draft the best player available. That definitely points to Demidov in this situation. It would let them build from a position of strength. Maybe it makes someone expendable for help elsewhere?
Or, let's see this from a different angle: I also think they need to find a certain type of player. Which may change their perception on who the best available player is.
The next step in the development of the Blue Jackets: getting bigger and meaner. For these reasons, if Anton Silayev were to fall to #4, I don't think he would get any further. A top-four of Silayev, Zach Werenski, David Jiricek, Denton Mateychuk, could be elite.
But, I have him going off the board with the pick ahead of ours, so I think that means we're looking at someone like Cayden Lindstrom.
Lindstrom has an NHL frame already, at 6'3" and 215 pounds. He can play center, but I think he's more likely to become a supporting winger on a scoring line.
He doesn't have the high end scoring potential or play driving ability of someone like Demidov or Berkly Catton (we'll have more on him at a later date), but he's the kind of player the Jackets really need to add to their system of small, skilled forwards.
Lindstrom is equally impressive on both sides of the puck, with all of the physicality you would expect from a young player his size. In time, I think this guy could develop into a two-way monster not unlike our own Dmitri Voronkov; but he's a better skater.
If it isn't Lindstrom, there are a variety of other options available here. Be it forwards like Demidov, Catton, Konsta Helenius, or Cole Eiserman. Or, defensemen like Sam Dickinson, Zayne Parekh, or Zeev Buium. All of them are solid options.
Or, could the Jackets go "off the board" here? I have a dark horse idea...