At some point, Jarmo Kekalainen’s run as general manager of the Columbus Blue Jackets will probably be viewed a little differently. The scouting was strong.
The talent evaluation brought real players into the organization. The frustration, at least from this angle, was always that the development side never quite matched the drafting, and the contract negotiations could be a grind too.
That’s where the comparison gets uncomfortable for Don Waddell. After three years of drafting, the current amateur scouting group has not produced anyone who looks close to the NHL. In fact, most of the picks don’t appear likely to hit even in the long run.
That makes the 2024 draft feel like a missed chance the franchise could not afford to waste.
Waddell arrived in Columbus with an underachieving roster, a strong group of young talent already in place, and a premium pick in hand. His first major swing at the Blue Jackets’ future came with the fourth overall selection in the 2024 NHL Draft, and the expectation was simple: take the best player available.
The Jackets believed they had done exactly that when they chose Cayden Lindstrom, the 6-foot-4 center from the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers. The pick drew immediate debate because Lindstrom had missed much of his draft season with a back injury.
At the time, the pick could be defended. The team said his back was fully healed and that he would be ready for the upcoming season.
And if that was true, Lindstrom had the kind of ceiling that made him stand out. Healthy, he looked like the kind of player who would not have slipped past second overall.
The problem is what came next.
Lindstrom did not play another hockey game until nearly a year later, when the Tigers were in the CHL’s Memorial Cup tournament. Then came another injury-filled season at Michigan State, where he managed only 3 goals and 10 points in 37 games.
The player taken right after him had a very different year, putting up 19 goals and 62 points in 82 games and finishing second in Calder Trophy voting for NHL rookie of the year.
There is at least some reason for optimism with Lindstrom now. He has started this season well for the Spartans and has already topped last year’s goal total in just 9 games.
Still, it is difficult to look at the pick today and see the top-two center the Blue Jackets thought they were getting. The best-case hope here feels more modest: a bottom-six NHL player down the line.
And the Lindstrom decision gets even harder to swallow when you factor in what was on the table from Chicago. The Blackhawks were reportedly aggressive in trying to move up, offering their unprotected 2025 first-round pick and a second-rounder to land the spot, likely with Ivan Demidov in mind. That raises the obvious question: how different would things look if Anton Frondell were the player in the pipeline right now?
That’s the reality of top-five picks. You cannot miss.
And when a miss like that happens, it lingers. It would hurt less if the rest of the draft class were helping to soften the blow, but that has not happened either.
In Other News...
Blue Jackets Are Testing A Fan Base That Looks Near Its Limit
The mood around the Blue Jackets has shifted in a hurry, and not in a way that gives the building much room for patience. After three straight losses, the offense has gone quiet enough to drag down an already uneasy fan base, and the frustration has been visible in recent games as supporters have started to sound less like skeptics and more like people running out of reasons to stay engaged.
What makes the stretch ahead so important is that Columbus now gets a chance to steady itself against lower-ranked opponents, the kind of schedule spot that can either calm things down or deepen the unease if the same problems keep showing up. The bigger concern hanging over all of it is what happens if the losing keeps piling up and the roster starts to change, because any sense that key names might be moving out would only make an already restless crowd even harder to win back. [Read more 🡒]
Blue Jackets Look Stuck In An NHL Model Fans Hate
The Blue Jackets rebuild has not just been about adding talent, it has also been about how the organization tries to find it. Under GM Don Waddell, Columbus has leaned on familiar front-office methods and experienced executives, but the broader picture still looks a lot like an old-school NHL operation in a league that has increasingly embraced data, deeper scouting and more inventive roster-building. For a team that has spent too much time in the middle of the standings, that matters.
Around the Metro, clubs such as Carolina and New Jersey have built reputations for using every edge available, and the contrast is hard to ignore. Columbus has tried to modernize in spots, but the staff structure still suggests a thinner operation than the teams it is chasing, which raises the same frustrating question for fans: is this a roster problem, or is it an organizational one? [Read more 🡒]
Blue Jackets Keep Running Into The Same Brutal Problem
The Blue Jackets came out of another game with the same familiar frustration, a night that featured chances, power-play looks and still only one goal to show for it in a 3-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Matthew Knies provided Columbus lone tally, but the broader issue has been hard to miss lately: the offense can create enough to keep leaning on opponents, yet it is not finishing nearly enough of those opportunities.
There was also a rough turn in net, as Jet Greaves gave up a pair of goals he would probably want back, adding to the sting of a loss that already felt expensive. The bigger concern may be the lineup itself, though, because Sean Monahan left the game with an upper-body injury and did not return, leaving Columbus to wonder both how long the scoring drought will linger and what the roster will look like the next time it tries to break through. [Read more 🡒]