Columbus Blue Jackets top prospects, summer of 2024: primer and honorable mentions

The following five players fell off of our top-20 list and are now honorable mentions. As a reminder, the number in parenthesis was their previous ranking.

(T-20) LW Tyler Peddle 6’1″, 205 pounds. 7th round (#224 overall), 2023 NHL Draft. Projection: bottom six physical/scoring winger. Stats. 11g-7a-18pts, 28gp for St John (QMJHL). Will return to St John next season.

(T-20) D Nikolai Makarov 6’1″, 195 pounds. 5th round (#132 overall), 2021 NHL Draft. Projection: physical bottom-three defenseman. Stats: 0g-2a-2pts, 28gp for CSKA Moscow (KHL). Will return to CSKA next season.

(19) G Melvin Strahl 6’3″, 170 pounds. 5th round (#156 overall), 2023 NHL Draft. Projection: backup goaltender. Stats: .903% save percentage, 2.91GAA, 13-15-0 record for MoDo J20 (Sweden). Will play for Youngstown (USHL) next season.

(17) LW Kirill Dolzhenkov 6’6″, 225 pounds. 4th round (#109 overall), 2022 NHL Draft. Projection: middle six scoring winger. Stats: 4g-5a-9pts, 39gp for CSKA Moscow (KHL). Will return to CSKA next season.

(16) D Guillaume Richard 6’2″, 185 pounds. 4th round (#101 overall), 2021 NHL Draft. Projection: bottom-three two-way defenseman. Stats: 3g-15a-18pts, 35gp for Providence College (NCAA). Will return to Providence next season.

This year, we ranked 34 prospects from the organization. That's the most I can ever recall seeing. With that in mind, there are some guys on this list of honorable mentions, that I do think could play in the NHL at some point. The Blue Jackets really do have a deep prospect pool.

Tomorrow, we'll begin diving into the top-20 prospect list in reverse order. Stay tuned!