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 been hit and miss. They’ve done it three times in franchise history and while all three players wound up dressing in a significant amount of NHL games, none had the impact you might hope from a top-five selection. In this piece, we’ll have a look at those players and finish by looking at other players Blue Jackets general managers of yore passed up to pick those guys.
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 decent season with the Ontario Hockey League’s (OHL) Brampton Battalion and was everything NHL teams of that era looked for in a defender. He was big-bodied (6-foot-3), could contribute offensively (45 points in 67 games), and was in the penalty box a lot (174 penalty minutes in those 67 games). As per conventional thinking at the time, he checked every box.
He went on to have a decent NHL career as a defensive defender. The main problem was availability. He only played in 515 games for the Blue Jackets over ten seasons, which is only about 62.8 percent of the possible total. When he was in the lineup, he was one of the team’s few reliable defenders and averaged 20:34 on ice. Not a true top-pairing defender, but a legitimate top-four option.
It’s interesting to think about how different the trajectory of the Blue Jackets would have been had they been gifted the second or third slot in 2000. They would have won either star winger Dany Heatley or future Blue Jacket, Marian Gaborik. Looking at players the team passed on, there really wasn’t anyone drafted nearby that it really hurts to look back at. Scott Hartnell (sixth overall) and Niklas Kronwall (29th overall) were probably the most impactful in the first round. Klesla was not a “home run” for the Blue Jackets but, when you look at the rest of the incredibly weak 2000 draft class, he was a decent pickup.
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.
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As the fourth overall pick, Zherdev wound up with the 54th most games played and the 28th most points out of the players drafted that day. Definitely not the value that the team was looking for. As for players picked after Zherdev who went on to have an impact in the NHL, tell me if any of these players ring a bell for you:
- Thomas Vanek (5th)
- Ryan Suter (7th)
- Jeff Carter (11th)
- Dustin Brown (13th)
- Brent Seabrook (14th)
- Zach Parise (17th)
- Ryan Getzlaf (19th)
- Brent Burns (20th)
- Ryan Kesler (24th)
- Corey Perry (28th)
- Patrice Bergeron (45th)
- Shea Weber (49th)
- Joe Pavelski (205th)
I can’t imagine the Blue Jackets wishing they had a do-over to go back and pick one of those guys over Zherdev (Hoping you sense the sarcasm). Hindsight truly is 20-20.
Fedor Tyutin was the one longer-term benefit that came from this pick, as he was the return garnered in Zherdev’s exodus to the New York Rangers in 2008. Tyutin went on to play eight seasons and 553 games as a reliable top-pairing defender with 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 real shot at drafting a player who can make a difference as they continue to aspire for playoff contention. Their history of selecting fourth overall shows that a top-five draft pick’s impact can be felt directly as a steady long-term piece, like Klesla, or indirectly through the return garnered in a trade, like Johansen and Zherdev.
