The biggest irony of the whole situation? Jardine actually hails from what many Ohio State fans call The State Up North. He’s a native of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., but has bona fide Buckeye State ties after the past few years as his hockey career has taken off.
Jardine has spent the past two-plus seasons with the Youngstown Phantoms of the USHL, totaling 54 goals and 116 points in 127 games. He was particularly effective this season, posting a a 27-34-61 line in 53 games to tie for 10th in the league in scoring.
He also made his commitment to Ohio State in September, and he doesn’t have to go far to see his future NHL squad now that he’s drafted by the Blue Jackets.
"It's a little bit controversial,” he said of his Michigan roots but Ohio ties. “But yeah, I got drafted to Youngstown, and I couldn't be more thankful for my two and a half years there. I just went on a visit to Ohio State. I actually visited twice, and I knew it was the place for me the second I stepped foot there. Everything they do there is great, and you just see like the people they put into like the National Hockey League and just the pros, and it's like, ‘Why would you not want to go there?’”
Jardine's proximity to Nationwide Arena also may have played a role in the Blue Jackets being comfortable taking him with a fourth-round pick. He has already reported to Columbus as he prepares for the upcoming season with the Buckeyes, and Blue Jackets assistant director of amateur scouting Trevor Timmins and assistant strength and conditioning coach Ryan Gadbois were able to check in with him Monday before the draft.
"We met him there with the assistant coach and interviewed him there in person, and then he gave us a personal tour of the facilities, the strength and conditioning area for the hockey team, and then we were also lucky enough to go over and see the football facilities, which were amazing,” Timmins said.
"It was a great, great day for me to experience all that and get to meet him, and for our strength coach to also meet him and talk to the strength coaches there as well. He's really well put together. He's a beast in the in the weight room – high, high effort and compete in everything he does. As I said, he's 6-0, 193 (pounds), so he's really well put together, especially for an offensive skill player with strong hockey sense.”
That hockey sense is one of the reasons the Blue Jackets were interested in Jardine, and Timmins noted much of his offensive production comes from playing a gritty game and not being afraid to go to the hard areas. He said he patterns his game after Jake Guentzel, another USHL product who played college hockey before becoming an NHL All-Star, Stanley Cup winner and Olympic gold medalist.
"I think I'm a high offensive player,” Jardine said. “I think I can see things that no one else can, really high IQ, but I could also play in the defensive zone down a goal or I could play on the offensive zone trying to score a goal. I think I like to hone in the details of both those zones, and yeah, just like scoring goals and setting up goals.”
Jardine also comes from a hockey family – his father, Brian, played at Brown – and plans to study business at Ohio State. He’s one of four Buckeyes-to-be to be drafted this weekend, joining forward Ben Wilmott (Vegas, third round), forward William Tomko (seventh-round, Seattle) and 2027-28 goalie Tobias Tvrznik (fourth round, Colorado). He’ll also play at OSU with Youngstown teammate Ryan Rucinski, a 2025 seventh-round selection of Buffalo.
His CBJ career will begin this week at the team’s development camp presented by G&J Pepsi, and he hopes after his OSU career ends, he’ll just move down High Street to the Blue Jackets. And if he never leaves Ohio from here on out, he’ll be just fine with that.
“If I don’t have to, no,” he said at the draft when asked if he was ever going to play anywhere else. “I love the state. I've been there for the last three years, and I hope I never have to leave it after this.”
