{"id":128705,"date":"2025-08-08T09:33:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T09:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/128705\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T09:33:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T09:33:08","slug":"top-prospects-for-columbus-blue-jackets-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/128705\/","title":{"rendered":"Top prospects for Columbus Blue Jackets"},"content":{"rendered":"

How acquired:<\/strong> Selected with No. 4 pick in 2024 NHL Draft<\/p>\n

2024-25 season:<\/strong> Medicine Hat (WHL): 0 GP, 0-0-0 in regular season; 4 GP, 2-2-4 in playoffs<\/p>\n

Lindstrom (6-foot-3, 209 pounds) had a microdiscectomy in November to fix a herniated disc, forcing him to miss the entire 2024-25 regular season with Medicine Hat. He returned with an assist in Game 1 of the Western Hockey League Final and scored in Game 2 before taking a hard hit the next game, missing Game 4 and returning in Game 5.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was my goal all season was to go back and play with [Medicine Hat] there,\u201d Lindstrom said on July 2. \u201cJust watched them all year on TV there. It was hard. I had to do what I had to do here to get back. Worked as hard as I could. … It helped me a lot, just coming into this summer, seeing what I had to work on. There\u2019s a lot I need to work on after missing a whole year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 19-year-old, moving to college hockey with Michigan State, has a chance to fully return as a top-end forward with a unique combination of size and skill.<\/p>\n

Projected NHL arrival:<\/strong> 2026-27<\/p>\n

How acquired:<\/strong> Selected with No. 14 pick in 2025 NHL Draft<\/p>\n

2024-25 season:<\/strong> Tri-City (WHL): 68 GP, 11-43-54<\/p>\n

Smith (6-3, 195) was projected as one of the top defensemen of the 2025 class, to the point Blue Jackets general manager Don Waddell said he didn\u2019t anticipate the 18-year-old still being available at No. 14.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had him really high on our list,\u201d Waddell said. \u201cSome of our scouts that watched him rated his skating at a 10. That happens very rarely.\u201d<\/p>\n

With that agility on a big frame, Smith could transition well to the NHL in the not-too-distant future. For now, he\u2019ll go from the WHL to Penn State, joining forward Gavin McKenna as another top prospect deciding to jump to the burgeoning program in Happy Valley.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting to play against a bit of better competition, I think it gets you a bit more ready for the NHL, which is ultimately every hockey player\u2019s dream,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

Projected NHL arrival:<\/strong> 2026-27<\/p>\n

How acquired:<\/strong> Selected with No. 20 pick in 2025 NHL Draft<\/p>\n

2024-25 season:<\/strong> Krasnaya Armiya (MHL): 37 GP, 23-6-6, 1.75 GAA, .942 SV%<\/p>\n

Andreyanov (6-0, 207) was the first goalie drafted in what was considered a deep class.<\/p>\n

The 18-year-old has been dominant in the junior system of CSKA Moscow of the Kontinental Hockey League. He was Columbus\u2019 top-rated goalie in the draft, Waddell said, and was second on its wish list behind Smith.<\/p>\n

But Andreyanov won\u2019t be an NHL option for some time, since he\u2019s signed to remain in Russia for the next five seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cDrafted him at 18 (years old) and if he\u2019s coming over at 22, 23, the hope is the development path brings him right to the National Hockey League,\u201d Waddell said.<\/p>\n

Projected NHL arrival:<\/strong> 2030-31<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How acquired: Selected with No. 4 pick in 2024 NHL Draft 2024-25 season: Medicine Hat (WHL): 0 GP,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":128287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[293,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-128705","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114992460878099104","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}