It’s been an entire year since our last draft posts. This year will be much different than last. Don’t look for the CBJ to have a banner day like in ‘08. They’re picking at 16 so about the only thing that will be changing is the table position on the floor. Howson might try to drop back a little in the first to pick up a second rounder. It all depends on how the cards fall between picks 1 and 15.

I would imagine that Howson will pick up either a defenseman or a center. I would like to grab a defenseman, but I won’t be surprised if Howson goes after the best guy they can get at one of those two positions.

I will be interested to see what kind of trades go on this weekend especially during the first 11 picks. I don’t think Columbus will be very active on the trade front during the draft, but we might see some minor activity over the summer.

It should be a good time to check out the locker room and see some of the players again. I’m pretty amazed at how fast the off-season is going so far.

Couple free agency bits… It seems as though Mister Malhotra may not be back with us next year. And there is nothing new on the Nash front. If Malhotra falls through I look for us to make a push to retain Williams. I would be fine with either guy, but Williams can finish better. Novotny is gone so that frees up a little bit of cap space, but not much. If anything it opens up a spot for someone to come up and fill. Personally I would like to see Picard make the team if he is resigned. I’d love to see a line of Dorsett, Murray, Picard. I think this line could create alot of energy for us with some toughness as well. I won’t take a way too much from this upcoming draft, but I’ll have some more as things come up this weekend.

Hopefully we can get a new Blue Jackets BuzzCast Podcast up soon enough. The first one went really well, and we’ll some more cool stuff to talk about for the next one.

Let’s see what happens in Montreal…

 

Posted in Bluejackets buzz Tagged: 2009 NHL draft, Columbus Blue Jackets, hockey