Will 2024 finally be the year for the Columbus Blue Jackets and success at the NHL Draft Lottery? On Tuesday, we will find out officially where the team will pick at the 2024 NHL Draft.
To say the Blue Jackets have had awful luck at the Draft Lottery would be a major understatement. Not once in their history have they won the right to pick first. The only time the Blue Jackets ever held the number-one pick was when they completed a trade in 2002 to acquire that pick. They selected Rick Nash.
In fact, the Blue Jackets have only ever gone up in the draft order as a result of a lottery draw once. That happened in 2016 when there were three separate draws. The Blue Jackets won the third draw which allowed them to pick third. They took Pierre-Luc Dubois.
We’ll get you ready for what to expect on Tuesday night. Despite the poor results from the past, those past draws do not have any bearing on what will happen now. For those that are relatively new here, let’s take a quick trip down memory lane with how the Draft Lottery panned out from a Blue Jackets’ perspective at different points.
A Quick History Lesson
2023: The Blue Jackets held the second best odds to win the first-overall selection. They didn’t win either of the two draws and dropped from second to third. They were able to draft Adam Fantilli.
2022: The Blue Jackets could not win the first pick due to being able to jump up 10 places max. They had the 12th best chance to make that jump. They didn’t. They were able to draft Denton Mateychuk at 12th. This was the same year they held the sixth pick from the Blackhawks. That pick became David Jiricek.
2021: The Blue Jackets held the fifth best odds. They didn’t win either draw. The Canadiens won the lottery and selected Juraj Slafkovsky. The Seattle Kraken won the second draw and took Matty Beniers. The Blue Jackets took Kent Johnson at fifth.
2016: As mentioned, the Blue Jackets did win the third drawing. They had the fourth-best odds for the first pick going in. This means the Blue Jackets have not only never won a first drawing, they’ve never won a second drawing either.
2015: The Edmonton Oilers went from third to first and drafted Connor McDavid. The Blue Jackets went on a run at the end of the previous season that saw them go up the standings. However, that decreased their lottery odds. They were able to draft Zach Werenski.
2012: The Blue Jackets held the best chance to win the lottery…
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