We learned earlier this month that the Columbus Blue Jackets will be selecting fourth overall in the 2024 NHL Entry Draft. They’ve beaten around that bush over the last several drafts, selecting third in 2023 (Adam Fantilli), sixth in 2022 (David Jiricek), and fifth in 2021 (Kent Johnson). Each of those players are on track to be NHL regulars and potential impact players and the next general manager could draft a player of a similar caliber on June 28.
When it comes to drafting fourth overall, the Blue Jackets have had mixed results. They’ve done it three times in team history, and while all three players appeared in a large number of NHL games, none made the impact you’d expect from a top-five pick. In this article, we’ll look at those players and then at other players who were passed over by Blue Jackets general managers in the past.
2000 – Rostislav Klesla
The first-ever draft selection by the Blue Jackets was fourth overall, so it’s almost fitting to have it be their position in the team’s 25th draft this June. With that pick, they selected a Czech defenseman from the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), Rostislav Klesla.
Klesla had a solid season with the Ontario Hockey League’s (OHL) Brampton Battalion, and he was everything NHL teams were looking for in a defender back then. He was big-bodied (6-foot-3), could contribute offensively (45 points in 67 games), and spent a lot of time in the penalty box (174 penalty minutes). He checked all the boxes, as was customary at the time.
He went on to have a solid NHL career as a defensive defender. The biggest issue was availability. He only appeared in 515 games for the Blue Jackets across ten seasons, accounting for around 62.8 percent of the possible total. When he was in the lineup, he was one of the team’s few consistent defenders, averaging 20:34 on the ice. Not a real top-pairing defender, but a solid top-four option.
It’s interesting to consider how different the Blue Jackets’ journey might have been if they had been given the second or third spot in 2000. They may have won either star winger Dany Heatley or future Blue Jacket Marian Gaborik. Looking at the players the team passed on, there was no one drafted nearby, which is disheartening to think about. Scott Hartnell (sixth overall) and Niklas Kronwall (29th overall) were likely the most influential in the first round. Klesla was not a “home run” for the Blue Jackets, but given the rest of the incredibly mediocre 2000 draft class, he was a reasonable pick.
2003 – Nikolai Zherdev
This one is a bit of an “oof” for the Blue Jackets. In 2003, which is widely regarded as the best draft class in NHL history, they selected Nikolai Zherdev. The Russian forward had all of the skill in the world, and was briefly able to translate that to the best league in the world. He was a flash in the pan for a lot of reasons, but mostly it was immaturity that led to off-ice issues which plagued him throughout his career.
As the fourth overall pick, Zherdev finished with the 54th most games played and 28th most points among the players picked that day. Clearly not the value that the team was hoping for. As for players selected after Zherdev who went on to have an impact in the NHL, let me know if any of these names strike a bell with you:
I can’t see the Blue Jackets wishing they could go back and choose one of those men over Zherdev (hope you get the sarcasm). Hindsight truly is 20/20.
Fedor Tyutin was the only long-term gain of this decision, as he was the return for Zherdev’s 2008 trade to the New York Rangers. Tyutin went on to play 8 seasons and 553 games as a consistent top-pairing defender for Columbus.
2010 – Ryan Johansen
The most recent fourth-overall pick for the Blue Jackets was Ryan Johansen, a super-skilled and big-bodied center from the Portland Winterhawks of the Western Hockey League (WHL). While he only spent 309 games in the Union Blue jersey, this pick was actually a big success if you take into account all the chain of events that it set into motion. It’s a chain that’s still benefitting the team to this day.
After a 33-goal season as a 21-year-old and a 71-point season as a 22-year-old, it finally looked like the Blue Jackets had found their first legitimate number-one center. However, some friction between Johansen and head coach John Tortorella eventually punched his ticket to the Nashville Predators in a rare one-for-one trade for another fourth overall pick, defenseman Seth Jones. Jones was a lynchpin to the defense corps during his six years in a Blue Jackets uniform – which happened to be the team’s most successful era.
Then Jones was traded at the 2021 NHL Entry Draft as the Blue Jackets hoped to kickstart their rebuild and got an absolute haul. For Jones, the Blue Jackets started with a pick swap trading up in the first round from 32nd to 12th overall (where they picked Cole Sillinger). On top of that, they got another first-round pick in 2022 (which became the sixth overall pick that they used to pick David Jiricek), a second-round pick (which they traded for defenseman Jake Bean), and Adam Boqvist (who was the eighth overall pick in 2018). While the verdict is still out on the success or failure of most of these assets, it’s hard to deny the Blue Jackets won the trade.
Bottom line: If the Blue Jackets didn’t pick Johansen in 2010, they wouldn’t have long-term pieces Sillinger, Jiricek, and Boqvist right now. It’s funny how things work over long periods of time in sports, eh?
This June, the Blue Jackets have a legitimate chance to pick a player who can make a difference as they strive for postseason contention. Their history of choosing fourth overall demonstrates that a top-five draft pick’s impact can be felt directly as a consistent long-term player, such as Klesla, or indirectly as a trade return, such as Johansen and Zherdev.
