The Columbus Blue Jackets stuck to their script.
While it was widely expected that general manager Jarmo Kekalainen would call the name of Finnish forward Jesse Puljujarvi when announcing the third overall selection at the NHL draft on Friday, the Blue Jackets instead decided to pick Pierre-Luc Dubois, the top-ranked North American skater.
Apparently, though, that was the plan all along.
"(Dubois) is the guy we had our eye on all year," Kekalainen said of the selection, according to Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Post-Dispatch. "He was No. 3 on our list. He's everything that we're looking for: smart, skilled, big, a player with a lot of character and leadership qualities.
"Very seldom do you get a player where everything checks, where you're excited about him on the ice, but you go through the testing, through the psychological testing, through the interviews, and everything just screams that, yes, this is our guy."
Dubois, who began last season on the wing before switching to center in late December, recorded 42 goals and 57 assists in 62 games with Cape Breton of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.
In time, the hope is Dubois can fill the void left at center upon this past season's trade of Ryan Johansen.
"I think I can play center in the NHL," Dubois said. "It was a new position, but I learned fast.
"I want to be the guy you can count on, whether it's power play, penalty kill, whether you're winning 1-0 and losing 1-0, and I think in a couple of years I can be that guy."
