The key for a small market hockey team in a non-traditional market has always been drafting and developing talent. The Blue Jackets have drafted pretty well, though only Rick Nash and Zach Werenski can be considered true superstars. However, the Jackets are not good at developing players they draft.
It didn't take me long to get the evidence that the Jackets need to improve in developing talent. Two quick searches was all I needed and I offer the proof here.
A few "rules" and definitions. I focused solely on the draft years of 2007 through 2023. Not all the players Don Waddell has drafted have signed a contract. Actually, most of them remain unsigned. And since it's general knowledge that Doug MacLean couldn't build a team even if given the first three picks in the draft for ten years, why bother with his drafts? So, I focused my attention on the Scott Howson, Jarmo Kekailinen drafts. Each year's entry will consist of how many picks the Jackets had, the number of those picks who played at least one NHL game (whether or not with the Jackets) and those who had/have an NHL career. For my purpose, a career is defined as two full seasons or enough games played that add up to two seasons. And those careers may or may not be with the Jackets. And I will name those players. Here we go.
The Scott Howson Drafts:
2007-7 picks, 3 reached the NHL, one career, Jakub Voracek
2008-8 picks, 6 reached the NHL, 2 careers, Matt Calvert, Cam Atkinson
2009-6 picks, 3 reached the NHL, 2 careers, John Moore, David Savard
2010-7 picks, 2 reached the NHL, both had careers, Ryan Johanson, Dalton Prout
2011-6 picks, 5 reached the NHL, 4 careers Boone Jenner, Mike Reilly, Lukas Sedlak, Anton Forsberg
2012-6 picks, 4 reached the NHL, 3 careers, Ryan Murray, Joonas Korpisalo, Josh Anderson
The Jarmo Kekailinen Drafts:
2013-8 picks, 5 reached the NHL, 3 careers, Alexander Wennberg, Marko Dano, Josh Anderson
2014-7 picks, 2 reached the NHL, both had careers, Sonny Milano, Elvis Merzlikins
2015-9 picks, 6 reached the NHL, 5 have/had careers, Zach Werenski, Kevin Stenlund, Keegan Kolesar, Vladislav Gavrikov, Markus Nutivaara
2016-5 picks, 4 reached the NHL, 2 have careers, Pierre-Luc Dubios, Andrew Peeke
2017-7 picks, 5 reached the NHL, 3 have/had careers, Alexandre Texier, Daniil Tarasov, Emil Bemstrom
2018-6 picks, 5 reached the NHL, 2 have careers, Liam Foudy, Kirill Marchenko
2019-3 picks, 2 reached the NHL, 1 has a career, Dmitri Voronkov
2020-5 picks, 3 reached the NHL, 2 careers, Egor Chinkhov, Samuel Knazko (who recently signed a contract to play in the Czech league)
2021-9 picks, 4 reached the NHL, 2 have careers, Kent Johnson, Cole Sillinger
2022-7 picks, 3 reached the NHL, 1 has a career, Denton Mateychuk
2023-6 picks, none of whom has reached the NHL
And in the "The exception proves the rule" category, Adam Fantilli is the only player Don Waddell drafted to reach the NHL.
Now, when you look over this list, how confident are you that the Jackets can develop talent? Only Zach Werenski can be considered a superstar, though Kirill Marchenko is getting close and Adam Fantilli is working on it. But Fantilli went from college to the Jackets roster. Just about half of the players drafted starting in 2007 ever reached the NHL. And just about half of them played at least two seasons. But those who became stars mostly did so on other teams. Those who played multiple seasons in Columbus are mostly role players and blue collar types like Matt Calvert.
Since firing Dean Evason, Don Waddell has mostly talked about changing the culture in the Jackets locker room. After doing this bit of research, my assertion is that, if the Jackets truly want to be a regular Stanley Cup challenger, the must become better at drafting and developing talent.
(Any spelling errors are because I didn't catch spellcheck's errors. All factual errors are my own.)
