As we approach the draft tonight and dream a little dream of what could be, just keep in mind that we were not supposed to be here.
This team is not the worst team in the league, not even the second worse team, where we placed. Injuries and (I would say bad coaching) got us here, to the second best odds to land 1st overall. If Werenski doesn’t go down, Laine, Boqvist, Chinakov, even Bean… We are talking about a Team selecting much higher (I would argue 8th to 13th) in this draft.
It goes without saying that Bedard or even Fantilli would be game changing for this franchise…
Just keep in mind tonight that we still have the 3rd best prospect pool according to Scott Wheeler at The Athletic…
## 3. Columbus Blue Jackets
The Blue Jackets have two of the sport’s very best right-shot D prospects, two of the sport’s better left-shot D prospects, and a legitimate prospect at all three forward positions. That core group of seven prospects is probably the strongest top seven in the league at the moment. A thinner 8-15 group (and fewer honourable mentions) than other teams in this range lands them third on the whole.
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Source(Paywall):
[https://theathletic.com/4154371/2023/02/07/blue-jackets-nhl-prospect-pool-rankings-2023/](https://theathletic.com/4154371/2023/02/07/blue-jackets-nhl-prospect-pool-rankings-2023/)
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So however the ping pong balls fall tonight, know that we won’t be back here next year…
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GO JACKETS!
by Hugo_Stiglitz95
