Our final pick of the 2024 NHL Draft, Luke Ashton, speaks with media following his selection!

Our final pick of the 2024 NHL Draft, Luke Ashton, speaks with media following his selection!

as a I see the smile on your face as a six round pick I know you’re here the family’s here just how exciting has this process been and just to hear your name call it has to be really cool oh super stoked I’m so excited and my family lucky enough we kind of kept it pretty chill over the weekend so yeah just taking in the whole experience here has been absolutely amazing yeah how great is it to be able to share that experience with the family oh it means the world like growing up and they’ve kind of helped me through absolutely everything hockey you know parents are the biggest part so so yeah being able to celebrate this with them is just phenomenal how would you describe yourself as a player obviously a big guy uh what do you think you bring to the table um I yeah like you said with the size obviously physical like defenseman like to use a good stick positional but I like to be a a two-way defenseman you know turning transitioning pucks quick creating offense pushing the pace up the ice and you know being able to help out on the offensive side as well yeah seems like the theme here for the Blue Jackets has been western Canada guys see some be couple BC guys drafted before you I think you also know Kent uh what’s kind of your level of familiarity with some of the guys in the Blue Jackets organization yeah no in Vancouver where I’m from we have such a great group of you know guys who kind of grew up playing with and against each other that kind of you know train with together in the off season and yeah like you said there’s some amazing talent in Vancouver specifically with Columbus so I’m super super excited yeah you do you do know Kent I think a little bit yeah I I uh I actually skated with him like a month and a bit ago so kind of was able to meet him which was super sweet how do you how do you keep it chill in Vegas uh well I’ve been I got here like late Thursday so just been in meetings had breakfast uh dinners type of thing and yeah it’s been a bit of a whirlwind so far so you you come to both days or yes you’re here last night all that yeah yeah know super cool what you remember like how you remember all this is pretty special just to kind of be here and all of it in amazing it’s been so inspirational too like I’ve always found things like this are such a motivating factor just being able to see you know great players who play against each other meet new guys interact and yeah I have found always leaving things like this just kind of you feel super motivated and hungry for more you get to watch like everyone else and they’re putting hats on and jerseys and now you got yours on is it what’s that feeling like when you hear your name and and you get you get the jersey of the count it was it was real I didn’t really know mine was just racing it was kind of lost for words a bit like we were talking about you know super lucky enough to be able to celebrate that with my family uh you mentioned in the elevator but what’s your connection to uh Columbus uh well coming into the draft I never really uh I didn’t have much communication with Columbus but my uh my mom her kindergarten teacher was actually Marshall Davidson the Scout her her his wife so that was the only and they my mom’s from a like a super kind of remote place in Bri Columbia and verir I don’t know if you’re familiar um so yeah like that was just wild and I I remember uh one game he was there and I saw my mom talking to him and I was like who is that like turns out it’s know Scout for Columbus I was like it’s pretty crazy connection though that’s amazing are there any like NHL players that you kind of model your game after yeah I I mean obviously watching a lot of big you know offensive d man like hman of course been watching a lot of echome in the playoffs pranco has such an inspirational kind of Journey to me being a college player as well um but I I really enjoy watching players who you know don’t play a similar game to me like super skilled small defenseman or you know shut down D I think there’s so many different things that I could take away from them as well next St in your career as a college hockey admin what are you hoping to accomplish with the Mavericks oh super excited we got such a great group we we’re in a summer session right now so lucky enough to be able to meet the guys and we’re feeling really good about our team and we’re looking for a national championship of course

The Blue Jackets continued to add big dmen to their talent pool with their final pick in this year’s draft. Luke Ashton, the 165th pick overall, met with media to recap the experience and speak to what he brings to the organization.

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