Like anything in life, it will be different, but the Blue Jackets -- who boast the No. 21 overall pick in the first round, plus their choices in rounds four through seven -- are taking the good with the bad as they prepare for the two-day event.
"We missed a good month of games that we would have normally gone to, a month and a half, and the World Championships for Under-18, a big event, playoffs in the CHL and so forth," Kekalainen said. "But we'll have done a lot of tape, and one of the biggest differences too is we could extend the scouting into the next season because the draft is next week and European teams have started playing a long time ago. We were able to view some players in August and September that we normally would have already drafted.
"There's a lot of different things that go into this, but we've done a lot of background work, interviews online and Zoom, talking to people that know these kids and so forth. So it's been a different process but an interesting one as well."
Perhaps the biggest difference to the Blue Jackets has been be the chance to evaluate European players through a longer window. Players first became draft eligible at age 18, and Kekalainen has spoken before about just how difficult it is to project what a player is going to become when the top prospects are taken at such a young age.
But with Russia's KHL and Finland's Liiga both under way after lengthy preseasons, the opportunity to have more time to evaluate players -- especially after a summer of development -- has already made an impact on the CBJ's draft board.
"I have been in Europe the whole time basically since mid-March, and I have been able to see a lot of games over there," said Siren, the former NHL defenseman who is based in his home country of Finland. "We have been following with video and also I have seen many live games already.
"It has been a great experience. I can tell some guys have really gotten better and their game has developed in the right direction, and they have moved up on our list. So it has been good."
That's an opportunity that North American prospects largely have been unable to take advantage of. While the QMJHL played a month of preseason games and will begin its regular season tonight, the OHL and WHL remain in a holding pattern and hope to return in December. College hockey in the United States remains on pause as well, while the USHL has targeted a November return to play.
In other words, a lot of variables are in play, but in many ways things aren't so different this time around. Much of the legwork for this year's draft class was in the books by March, and while the CBJ's evaluators would have liked to have seen postseason hockey for the prospects on the board, the summer has allowed for plenty of looks at players on video, Siren said.
Things will be a little different on draft night, too, but the Blue Jackets will make do. Kekalainen, Siren and manager of scouting operations and player evaluation Tom Bark will be at Nationwide Arena, while the rest of the team's scouts will be on a Zoom call.
Kekalainen also downplayed not being on the draft floor, as the virtual draft will mean communication with fellow GMs won't be face-to-face. The CBJ general manager said he'll miss seeing his colleagues but also doesn't anticipate any problems getting in touch with who he needs to talk to, whether it be on his own staff or GMs around the league.
"It will be interesting to see how it plays out," Kekalainen said. "I saw the setup yesterday. It looks great. I'm looking forward to a whole new experience -- which there's been many of this year."
