A lot of eyes were on the Blue Jackets' two first round picks: David Jiricek (6th) and Denton Mateychuk (12th). The consensus is that the organization did very well with their first two picks in this years draft, but what about their picks that fell outside of the first round? Our own Ed Francis did an analysis on the club’s second round pick - Luca Del Bel Belluz. So, without any further ado, lets take a look at the CBJ's third round selection.
With the 96th overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, Columbus selected Jordan Dumais, a 5-foot-8 winger out of Quebec.
#CBJ select RW Jordan Dumais (Halifax/QMJHL) in the 3rd round, 96th overall, and F Kirill Dolzhenkov (Krasnaya Armiya Moskva/MHL) in the 4th round, 109th overall, at 2022 NHL Draft.
— CBJ Public Relations (@BlueJacketsPR) July 8, 2022
With Dumais coming off the board at the tail-end of the third round, most analysts would consider him quite the bargain. His best pre-draft prospect ranking was all the way up at number 33 and his worst ranking was 94 - two spots before he was taken. To be ranked as high as three times better than the spot where he was taken is pretty incredible. Add in the fact that not a single scouting service had him ranked lower than he was taken (as there are almost always outliers), and you definitely have the recipe for a steal.
Dumais played the last two seasons in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, which had an impressive 19 players selected in this year's NHL draft. Dumais is a bit undersized at 5-8, but that didnt't stop him from putting up incredible numbers on his way to becoming the third leading scorer in the QMJHL, for the 2021-22 season. He played both years for the Halifax Mooseheads, starting out with a respectable 29 points in 40 games in 2020-21. Then, this past season, he took a giant leap forward, posting a stat line of 39-70-109 in 68 regular season games. That comes out to a whopping 1.603 points per game. He added six points in five playoff games, as well.
Interestingly, Dumais (3rd) was younger than everyone but the 48th ranked player on the QMJHL's top 50 scores list for the 2021-22 season. He played the entire season as a 17-year-old, and, having just turned 18, he has a ways to go. However it has to help his confidence now that he has already had so much success at a high level.
Dumais is not just a prolific overall scorer; he is also quite effective on the power-play, where he scored 15 of his 39 goals. He also knows how to step up when it counts the most as he potted five game-winners in his most recent campaign. He uses his cerebral play to come up big in all kinds of different situations.
This is what EliteProspects had to say about the right-winger from Quebec.
The Mooseheads winger anticipates the rotations of the puck and the opening of space in the offensive zone like it’s second- nature to him. He moves ahead of them and knows his next play before the puck has arrived on his stick. You’ll even see the odd flash of manipulative ability to open up gaps in their coverage and passing or shooting lanes. -EliteProspects 2022 NHL Draft Guide
When the club picked up Dumais with the 96th pick, Some members of the fifth line speculated on whether the Blue Jackets had drafted the next Cam Atkinson. The similarities are there: picked later in the draft, same small stature, and same scoring prowess. However, Dumais has a long way to go in order to have anywhere near the success Atkinson has been able to achieve in the NHL.
The raw tools look to be there for the 18-year-old, now we will wait to see how the organization is able to develop this young skater.
