Last week, we ranked the 5 best draft picks in Blue Jackets franchise history. This week, we'll take a look at the other side of things and rank the 5 worst draft picks the Blue Jackets have ever made.
This list was more difficult to narrow down. There have been a LOT of draft busts with this franchise over the years, so we had to exclude quite a few names that I would have a hard time arguing against being on here.
But, we had to get it down to 5 somehow. So, the main deciding factor here was draft position (the higher the pick, the more value we expected). All five of our choices were first round picks. And, we also looked at the players who were taken after the Jackets made their selections. If there was an obvious miss - or obvious misses - that counts in a negative way as well. Let's take a look at what we came up with.
5. Gabriel Carlsson (1st round, #29 overall, 2015).
Gabriel Carlsson might not seem like an obvious choice, considering the number of failed picks the Blue Jackets have made with picks earlier in the draft. But, when you really take a step back and look at things: he belongs on this list.
The 2015 Draft has stacked up as one of the best in league history. Out of 30 players picked in the first round, only 7 have not gone on to play at least 200 games in the NHL. Many of those 30 have gone on to become elite talents, including Columbus' 8th overall selection Zach Werenski.
After landing a future franchise cornerstone inside the top-10, then-GM Jarmo Kekalainen swung a deal to land a second first round pick. He traded picks #34 and #68 for pick #29, selecting Carlsson; then touted as a rangy defenseman who could skate really well. The hope was that he would become a shutdown defenseman at some point down the road. He did not.
Carlsson would play two seasons in the SHL (Sweden) before coming to North America. Once he did, he just never looked comfortable. As advertised, he could skate, but that's really about it. He wasn't physical, couldn't read plays, and quickly became a "cardio guy". He wound up playing a total of 73 games for the Blue Jackets, scoring 3 goals and 12 points. He played one season in the Washington Capitals system, before heading back to Europe last year.
What makes this pick look really bad is looking at some of the guys who went in the second round. The #34 pick they traded was used to select Travis Dermott, who got into 348 NHL games. Sebastian Aho (the good one) was taken with pick #35. Brandon Carlo went at pick #37, and he actually became a premier shutdown defender.
The Jackets also whiffed on pick #38 (Paul Bittner, who just misses being on this list), which is a real bummer because guys like Erik Cernak, Roope Hintz, Jordan Greenway, Rasmuss Anderson and Vince Dunn all went further down the line.
In all, the Jackets had a really good draft; finding five players who played full-time in the league. But, we really could have used some of that Jarmo drafting magic with that second first rounder in 2015. They could have been set up for a decade or more. Oh well. Let's move on to the next player on a list. He was also picked out of a generational draft class.