What Defenseman Prospects Are Projected To Be Available With Each Of The Blue Jackets Two First-Round Picks?

In our 'Names To Know' series, we sought to profile first-round prospects that could be selected by the Blue Jackets with the 6th and 12th picks. Then, over the last week, Will Chase compiled these prospects into lists of both forwards and defensemen.

We have looked at who might interest Columbus and what kind of fit each player may be, but this begs the question of which prospects are projected to even be available when the Blue Jackets are on the clock? In a draft that looks to be as wide open as any in recent memory, this may be a difficult task. However, we have looked at several of the most recent mock drafts to get the latest projections of where each player will likely be selected. With this, we have tried to narrow down who might realistically be available when the Jackets select their two first-round picks (assuming they don't end up trading either one or both of them).

Below is a list of each of the mock drafts that we have looked at, as well as who they have Columbus taking with the 6th and 12th picks.

This gives us an idea of some of the names rumored to be taken by the club, but without any further ado, let's look at which of our profiled prospects will and will not likely be available at 6 and 12.

First off, the Blue Jackets' struggles on the blue line, this past year have been quite evident, so it is likely that they may look to add a defenseman or two in the first round of this draft. While a few intriguing defensive prospects have top-twelve grades, not all of them are projected to still be there when the Blue Jackets are up. So which defenders are likely to be targeted by the organization, based on availability?

An interesting thing to note is, that of the nine mock drafts that we looked at, only two of them have Columbus taking a defender with their first selection. If you examine each of the mocks, this looks to portray more of a lack of availability than a lack of desire on the part of the team.

Simon Nemec and David Jiricek are widely considered the top two blue line prospects by a decent margin. The Blue Jackets would likely jump at the chance to get either one of them, but most analysts predict both players being gone before the club would have a chance to select them. Other than The Athletic's mock draft, which has Nemec going at 6th, no other mock has him available at that point in the draft. And other than The Hockey Writers' mock draft, which has David Jiricek being taken by the CBJ, only two other mocks have him still on the board at that point.

While more mocks had Columbus selecting a D-man with the 12th pick, it was still only three out of nine that predicted that happening. Oddly enough, this may also be due, at least in part, to availability as well. The three mock drafts that had the Jackets taking a defender at 12, all had them selecting Pavel Mintyukov. He and Kevin Korchinski are considered by most to be the next tier of blue liners. Of the six mocks that didn't have the team grabbing a defenseman with the 12th pick, only two of them had Korchinski and or Mintyukov still available.

There were other defenders, such as Lian Bichsel and Denton Mateychuk, available in most mock drafts. Though, they are considered to be wildcards by many, and not necessarily deserving of a top-twelve pick.

If the Blue Jackets are serious about adding a defenseman in the first round, they may have some tough decisions to make: trading up, reaching for a second-tier defender with the 6th pick, etc. Also, there is always the hope that their guy will fall to them at either 6 or 12.