COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — After making an attempt to trade up, the Blue Jackets ultimately stayed put and drafted twice in the first round.
With the 14th pick they took Tri-City Americans defenseman Jackson Smith, and with the 20th selection they drafted Krasnaya Armiya Moskva goaltender Pyotr Andreyanov, who’s from Russia.
“He reminds me a lot of Bob, really technical goalie, reads the game, moves well, explosive,” said Blue Jackets Goaltending Coach Niklas Backstrom.
Don Waddell met with Andreyanov this offseason at a camp, and here’s what he said: “Every kid that we talked to down there, they had 25 kids we interviewed, we always ask this question. If you had one player and that you could take with you to your next team, and 90% of the players said Pyotr, interesting to hear.”
These are two picks that ideally will help the franchise down the road. Both players are 18 years old and you won’t see either in uniform this year.
Smith is set to play at Penn State. With Tri-City he set single-season career highs after registering 11 goals and 43 assists for 54 points with 48 penalty minutes in 68 games. Andre had a 23-6-6 record with a 1.75 goals-against average (GAA), .942 save percentage (SV%) and three shutouts in 37 games for Krasnaya in Russia’s Junior Hockey League (MHL) this past winter.
The NHL Draft continues Saturday afternoon, the Blue Jackets will start the day with five picks. They own picks in the fourth round (109th), fifth round (160th), sixth round (173rd) and two in the seventh round (205th, 218th).
