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Blue Jackets draft pick Abramov survived meteor strike

Jeff Vinnick / National Hockey League / Getty

Vitaly Abramov, selected 65th overall by the Columbus Blue Jackets, has one of the more unique backstories of the 2016 NHL draft class.

On Feb. 15, 2013, Abramov was attending school in his hometown of Chelyabinsk, Russia when a meteor exploded above the city. The estimated energy released by the explosion was between 300-500 kilotons, roughly 20 times the amount released by the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945, according to Adam Kimelman of NHL.com.

"I was in school and all the windows in my class crashed," Abramov said. "All windows in the city was gone. ... It was like big panic because it was something none of us had ever seen. But after that it was fine when everyone said it was a meteorite and we're still alive.

"Normal school day and a meteor came down."

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