The Columbus Blue Jackets were willing to trade down the draft board during the first round of the NHL Draft on Friday, but only on one condition. If a certain someone remained available at No. 4, president and general manager Don Waddell said, they weren’t budging.
For the second straight year, the picks ahead of the Blue Jackets cooperated in a way that allowed them to land the player they coveted.
Last year, it was Adam Fantilli at No. 3. On Friday, it was Cayden Lindstrom at No. 4, a towering center who plays with speed and skill and an underlying mean streak.
“We did have a lot of calls,” Waddell told the Blue Jackets’ radio network. “We had a backup deal if Cayden wasn’t available that we could have made. Cayden was the guy we wanted. We had him second on our list (after No. 1 overall selection Macklin Celebrini).
“When we saw (Lindstrom) was still there, that team called me and I said, ‘No, we’re not trading it.’ We’re very fortunate to draft Cayden.”
Lindstrom, flanked by his mother and grandmother, was all smiles as he rose to his feet after the pick was announced by Rick Nash, the club’s director of player development and a former first-round pick (No. 1 overall) by the Jackets in 2002.
“I’m going to bring a winning mindset,” Lindstrom said. “I’m going to bring a lot of speed and power and skill. A lot of good offensive touch and physicality as well.
“I’m excited to be a Columbus Blue Jacket.”
Lindstrom a singular talent — centers with his combination of skill and size don’t come around every year. He was a dominating player for Medicine Hat of the Western Hockey League, scoring 27-19-46 in only 32 games before injuries to a hand and his back wiped out most of the rest of his season.
The Blue Jackets, like many teams, did extensive testing and looked at all of Lindstrom’s available medical tests to make sure his back injury wouldn’t be a chronic issue, said director of amateur scouting Ville Siren. Waddell was told by team doctors that it could be managed with little risk.
“Centers are hard to come by,” Waddell said. “He’s a big kid. Plays the game hard. He can score. He puts up points. He’s got a lot to mature about, because he’s only 18 years old as a player.
“But he has tools that you can take to the next level. He does all the things you’d want a player to do. It’s just a matter of taking it all to a higher level now.”
But Lindstrom’s effect on the Blue Jackets’ draft chart is the stuff of daydreams for a Blue Jackets franchise that has been understaffed down the middle of the ice for virtually its entire 23-plus years in the NHL.
Look ahead two or three seasons, and the Blue Jackets could well have Fantilli, Lindstrom and Cole Sillinger as their top three centers. In a draft loaded with defensemen, that possibility was enough to convince Columbus to draft a center with their first pick for a second straight year.
“There’s no doubt, you build down the middle,” Waddell said. “We talk about it all the time. If you can stop the puck and you have good centermen, you can usually have good success. There were other great players there (on the board), but we really wanted a center there.”
The Blue Jackets, now with Lindstrom, have had seven first-round picks in the last four drafts, including six picks within the top 12 picks of those drafts. They have one of the best prospect pools in the NHL, and they have skilled veteran players.
But they haven’t been a difficult team to play against for a few seasons now.
“We have some really skilled players,” Waddell said. “When you can add a skilled player who brings some hardness to the equation, that can go a long way for a franchise.
“It’s gonna be a few years, of course. We don’t want to get too fast-forward with this. But when he’s ready to play, he’s going to make our whole team bigger.”
It wasn’t the only move the Blue Jackets made on Friday.
A few hours before the draft, they traded winger Alexandre Texier to the St. Louis Blues for a fourth-round pick in the 2025 draft. Texier, a second-round pick (No. 45 overall) in 2017, played 201 games for the Jackets over six seasons, but had been pushed lower in the lineup by the emergence of wingers Kirill Marchenko, Yegor Chinakhov, Kent Johnson and others.
The Blue Jackets plan to be active in free agency, Waddell said, looking for veteran depth wingers and defensemen. In order to add players, he noted, he’ll need to clear some bodies off the roster.
“We’re looking to add a body or two on July 1,” Waddell said. “If we could move on (Texier) and get an asset, that’s good. It was more about clearing space.”
(Photo of Cayden Lindstrom: Jeff Speer / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
