Blue Jackets opt to send 2017 pick to Canucks for Tortorella

The staff compensation rule was one of the single worst nuances introduced to the National Hockey League over the past few years unless you were the benefactor. The Vancouver Canucks certainly were when the Columbus Blue Jackets hired John Tortorella to be their head coach in October 2015. While they had long fired the polarizing bench boss, they were still entitled to a draft pick in return.

Today, it was confirmed that the pick that Vancouver will receive is Columbus’ second-round pick this season, which lands at 55th overall. The Blue Jackets had the choice of sending the pick last year, this year, or next; they proved wise to skip last year’s, which was 21 spots higher, and given how they closed off this season, it would be foolish to bet on themselves to go deep enough into next year’s postseason to get significantly closer to a worst-case 62nd overall pick.

Recent 55th overall picks include Filip Gustavsson (Pittsburgh), Yakov Trenin (Nashville), Brandon Montour (Anaheim), Artturi Lehkonen (Montreal), and Chris Tierney (San Jose). It’s been a particularly lucky spot to select from over the past few years; Canucks management will surely hope that spills over into their moment on the draft floor next month.

For reference, here are the players we have ranked in the 55-60 spots in our 2017 Prospect Profiles: