Smith's athleticism allows him to live on the edges

Jackson Smith’s favorite number is 7, but for the Blue Jackets, what stood out is that he’s a perfect 10.

As Columbus’ scouts watched the 6-4 blueliner over the past few seasons with the Tri-City Americans of the WHL, his skating is caught their eye the most. Simply put, big guys rarely move as well as Smith, and the Blue Jackets took notice.

“Some of our scouts that watched him rated his skating as a 10 – and that happens very rarely,” Blue Jackets general manager Don Waddell said.

Add in burgeoning offensive skills and the ability to process the game, and Smith was firmly in the Blue Jackets' crosshairs when they chose 14th in last week’s NHL draft. When Smith was still on the board, Columbus jumped at adding the big, athletic blueliner to the organization.

The funniest thing is Smith’s greatest attribute is one that comes naturally. While some kids these days specialize in specific sports from a young age, dedicating themselves to hockey and only hockey, Smith did it all as a kid at the Glencoe Club in his hometown of Calgary, Alberta.

He’s a nearly scratch golfer and grew up competing in high-level swim meets, but Smith’s first love is hockey. Like many Canadian kids, he was on the ice from 3 years old, and his natural athleticism helped make skating come easy.

“I’ve had it since I was young,” Smith said of his skating ability. “I never really did much power skating growing up, and I still don’t. I just love skating, so I started when I was about 3 years old. I picked it up pretty quick, and I’d say I’m a decent athlete, too, so it just came along with playing hockey.

“I think it’s just lots of time on the ice, and I got lucky with just having good technique I guess.”

DEVELOPMENT CAMP PRES. BY BREAD FINANCIAL: Schedule | Roster

Of course, if you’re a first-round draft pick, that’s likely not all you bring to the table. Smith had a breakout season on the blue line with the Americans this past season, posting 11 goals and 54 points in 68 games to be the top-scoring draft-eligible blueliner in the WHL and place 10th overall.

The left-shot blueliner also showed his offensive bona fides this spring playing with Team Canada at the IIHF World Under-18 Championship, tallying four goals in seven games as his home country won gold.

Add it all up and the Penn State-bound Smith is an intriguing package, a potential franchise defenseman who can excel in all areas of the game.

"I'm a big guy, 6-foot-4, and I skate really well,” Smith said in assessing his game. “I play a 200-foot game. I think I have a lot of offensive upside to my game, and I move on the blue line really well. I can find lanes, get pucks through and score goals. But I can also defend the rush incredibly well, (have) a really good stick, knocking pucks off of the player sticks, and also defending on the rush, defending in my own zone well as well. So I kind of feel like I'm a full package kind of guy.”

Smith has been showcasing those skills the past few days at the Blue Jackets development camp, presented by Bread Financial. Blue Jackets director of hockey operations Rick Nash watched Smith quite a bit this past season as he was defensive partners in Tri-City with 2024 CBJ draft pick Charlie Elick, but seeing his skating and skills in person has been a treat.

“He’s a good example of a bigger guy with great edge work that brought his skating to the next level,” Nash said. “I got to see Jackson live a few times, which was fun, and obviously watched him a lot on video tracking Elick’s games. It’s fun to see these guys live. Jackson was bigger than I thought once I met him in person. But when you’ve watched these guys all year and seen them in the rinks and seen them on video and then you draft them and the next step is you get them into town and you get to watch them on your ice, it’s exciting to see that.”

Growing up nearly 2,000 miles away, Smith acknowledged on draft night that he knew very little about Columbus, but he has enjoyed his time in the capital city since arriving for camp. He's quickly bonded with 2024 first-round pick Cayden Lindstrom as well as prospects Luca Pinelli and Luca Marrelli, joking he thought the latter two were brothers at first because of their personalities.

“It’s awesome, actually,” Smith said of Columbus. “I knew nothing coming into it, so it was kind of a blank sheet. Having Cayden here, he’s been here for a while. He kind of showed me around, showed me the good food places. We went to the mall there at Easton. I’ve been around, so first impressions are really good. Also, the people here are incredibly nice. They’re very talkative, they love talking. It’s awesome coming to this environment. It’s been a blast.”

In the end, it seems like a good match between player and team, and it might be fitting that Smith was taken with the 14th overall pick – seven times two. Seven is his lucky number, to the point he has 777 tattooed on his left arm, and he wore No. 7 in Tri-City and snagged 37 at the CBJ camp.

“My grandpa when I was about 7 years old bought me a Chris Chelios jersey when he was captain of the Blackhawks, and he was No. 7,” Smith said. “Since then, I’ve always been No. 7 my whole life. I’ve kind of had number for a long time. It’s also just lucky 7s. Just feels a bit lucky for me.”