Cole Sillinger watches the NHL Entry Draft with his family from The Rooftop restaurant in Regina on Friday. -- SUBMITTED PHOTO
rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken
Thirty-two hats sat waiting for Cole Sillinger’s name to be called on Friday evening in Regina.
Surrounded by friends and family at a local restaurant, Sillinger watched as 10 names were called. Knowing the Columbus Blue Jackets had just made a move to acquire the 12th overall pick – their second of the opening round – the 18-year-old Medicine Hat Tigers forward says he felt pretty confident as general manager Jarmo Kekalainen returned to the microphone and said the words he was waiting to hear.
Cole Sillinger.
“I threw on a Columbus hat right away,” Sillinger told the News. “My family had a little private room there where we were watching the draft. After the first couple of picks there, anything could have happened. Every pick we were kind of on our toes. We were pretty nervous, but after Ottawa made their selection and Columbus had their second selection, I kind of felt they might take me. When Jarmo announced my name there, my family and I all jumped up.”
Due to the virtual nature of this year’s draft, Sillinger says all prospects were supplied with a hat for every team in the league, but he’s still waiting for his jersey to arrive.
“The NHL supplied all prospects with 32 hats,” he said. “I think I’ll get a jersey probably right away, hopefully, just no jersey right now.”
Sillinger says he had a number of positive discussions with Blue Jackets staff, which left him feeling confident they held his future in the 12th overall pick after taking University of Michigan centre Kent Johnson with the fifth pick.
“Every time I had an interview with them, it kind of just seemed like they were one of the teams I jelled with and I spoke very well in front of,” Sillinger said of his meetings with the Jackets. “We had good communication, good connection overall through our Zooms, but you never really know leading up to the draft.”
The 6-foot, 197-pound centre earned his way onto the Columbus radar after producing 24 goals and 22 assists over 31 games with the United States Hockey League’s Sioux Falls Stampeders this season – opting to take his game south in order to maximize ice time. Sillinger also racked up 22 goals and 31 assists in 48 games as a rookie with Medicine Hat in 2019-20. He becomes the highest draft pick to come out of the Tigers’ system since Cam Barker was taken third overall by the Chicago Blackhawks in 2004.
While the official number will always be 12, Sillinger was actually the 11th player taken in the draft due to a forfeited pick from the Arizona Coyotes. Back in 1989, Sillinger’s father Mike was taken 11th overall by the Detroit Red Wings. He went on to play in 1,049 NHL games with 12 different teams – including the Columbus Blue Jackets. In fact, it was while his father was playing for the Jackets that Sillinger was born, in Columbus.
“It’s kind of weird how everything works out that way, but I wouldn’t want it any other way. I’m super excited,” said Sillinger. “We have a lot of good friends back there (in Columbus) that we still communicate with.”
As Sillinger waits to hear what the next step with Columbus will be, he’ll shift his focus to summer development camp with Canada’s national junior team in the hopes of cracking a spot on the country’s IIHF World Junior Championship roster.
I’m taking off (today) for the world junior camp. That’s a week, so after that I’m sure that there will be some communication between Columbus and I in regard to what the plan is, but for right now my focus is on the world junior camp,” he said. “It’s a real good opportunity and I’m real humbled to be on the list.
I’m not going to take that for granted. I’m going to go there to compete my hardest and put my best foot forward.”
Joining Sillinger at that camp will be Tabby goaltender Garin Bjorklund. The two haven’t seen much of each other since COVID prompted the end of the 2019-20 season, and Sillinger says he’s looking forward to catching up and shooting pucks with his Tabby teammate.
“I haven’t seen Bjorks in some time, so it’ll be nice to catch up and shoot the puck on him – maybe put it past him a couple times,” he said. “I’ve got some other Saskatchewan buddies and some buddies I played U17s with that will be there that I haven’t seen in a while. It’ll be nice to kind of reunite with everybody, especially Garin.”
